50 signatures reached
To: Switching to Gill Grilling
Kappa Kappa Gamma Dining
Dear recipients,
We would like to express our sincere appreciation for all the hard work you put into providing meals for our chapter. We understand that cooking for thirty-five girls is no small task. However, there are some changes we would like to request moving forward. We believe these changes are reasonable, especially considering the significant fees we pay for dining services.
Each semester, we pay $6,250 separate from other costs like rent, utilities, and “routine upkeep”. This $6,250 covers the operating cost of the facility relating to dining services”and paying employees/ paying payroll taxes. Given that this past semester there were thirty five girls living in Kappa, this adds up to $218,750 exclusively for food and food related costs/payroll this semester. Additionally, we would like an itemized allocation of these funds to better understand how the money is being spent.
Here are some specific issues our daughters have noticed, or we have observed during our visits, that we would like to have addressed:
Vegetarian and Vegan Options: Many vegetarian and vegan members of the house often find they do not have enough to eat. For example, meals like "Quiche, Sausage, and Roasted Potatoes" offer only potatoes for these members.
Other meals such as "BLTs and Tortellini Soup" (which contains cheese) or "Mac and Cheese and Rotisserie Chicken" are similarly inadequate.
Dinner on Fridays: Dinner is often put out between 1-2 pm so employees can leave early for the weekend. This practice is unsafe, particularly when it involves perishable items like meat. For instance, in April, cooked shrimp was left out from before 2 pm until around 7 pm. According to food safety guidelines, cooked shrimp should not be unrefrigerated for more than two hours as it becomes a health hazard. Nuts are also often put in communal salads despite certain member’s allergies to nuts.
Lack of preferences: At the beginning of first semester of this academic year, the girls asked if they could write a list of foods they do and do not want on the menu. The meals are very repetitive and sometimes are not eaten, which is wasteful. Girls often make/deliver their own food despite our paying for their meal plan since many do not enjoy certain meals. They were told they cannot submit such a list because the chef will get offended. When a list was submitted last year, the chef apparently threatened to quit.
We would like to switch as soon as possible to Gill Grilling. This service lets girls choose from hundreds of options each month, and multiple options for each meal everyday. Both Tri Delta and Kappa Delta Sigma use the Gill Grilling service, which quoted us $45,000 a semester. This switch would be feasible and is supported by our members. It would cost around $90,000 annually, leaving around $347,500 in our budget for paying employees/snacks/ ingredients to stock the fridge (this may not be an exact figure but last semester we paid $218,750, which would be around $437,000 annually solely for food/food services).
We are also concerned about the recent hiring of two new employees this semester. We now are paying eight different individuals to cook and clean in one house for our daughters, which is more than any other house on campus. Comparatively, Kappa Delta Sigma employs one chef and one cleaner, and Tri Delta also has one chef and one cleaner. Both sororities have a similar number of girls. KDS does have dish boys, but they work in exchange for food and are not on their payroll. Delta has no dish boys; their cleaner and chef both do the dishes. We would like to have a better understanding of why we have quadruple the amount of people on our payroll as the other two sororities that offer dining (House mom Mary, Mary, Chef Jane, two dishboys, one dish girl, and the two new cleaners).
We hope these suggestions are taken into serious consideration to improve the dining experience.
Thank you for your attention to these matters.
Sincerely,
St Lawrence Kappa Kappa Gamma Chapter & Parents
We would like to express our sincere appreciation for all the hard work you put into providing meals for our chapter. We understand that cooking for thirty-five girls is no small task. However, there are some changes we would like to request moving forward. We believe these changes are reasonable, especially considering the significant fees we pay for dining services.
Each semester, we pay $6,250 separate from other costs like rent, utilities, and “routine upkeep”. This $6,250 covers the operating cost of the facility relating to dining services”and paying employees/ paying payroll taxes. Given that this past semester there were thirty five girls living in Kappa, this adds up to $218,750 exclusively for food and food related costs/payroll this semester. Additionally, we would like an itemized allocation of these funds to better understand how the money is being spent.
Here are some specific issues our daughters have noticed, or we have observed during our visits, that we would like to have addressed:
Vegetarian and Vegan Options: Many vegetarian and vegan members of the house often find they do not have enough to eat. For example, meals like "Quiche, Sausage, and Roasted Potatoes" offer only potatoes for these members.
Other meals such as "BLTs and Tortellini Soup" (which contains cheese) or "Mac and Cheese and Rotisserie Chicken" are similarly inadequate.
Dinner on Fridays: Dinner is often put out between 1-2 pm so employees can leave early for the weekend. This practice is unsafe, particularly when it involves perishable items like meat. For instance, in April, cooked shrimp was left out from before 2 pm until around 7 pm. According to food safety guidelines, cooked shrimp should not be unrefrigerated for more than two hours as it becomes a health hazard. Nuts are also often put in communal salads despite certain member’s allergies to nuts.
Lack of preferences: At the beginning of first semester of this academic year, the girls asked if they could write a list of foods they do and do not want on the menu. The meals are very repetitive and sometimes are not eaten, which is wasteful. Girls often make/deliver their own food despite our paying for their meal plan since many do not enjoy certain meals. They were told they cannot submit such a list because the chef will get offended. When a list was submitted last year, the chef apparently threatened to quit.
We would like to switch as soon as possible to Gill Grilling. This service lets girls choose from hundreds of options each month, and multiple options for each meal everyday. Both Tri Delta and Kappa Delta Sigma use the Gill Grilling service, which quoted us $45,000 a semester. This switch would be feasible and is supported by our members. It would cost around $90,000 annually, leaving around $347,500 in our budget for paying employees/snacks/ ingredients to stock the fridge (this may not be an exact figure but last semester we paid $218,750, which would be around $437,000 annually solely for food/food services).
We are also concerned about the recent hiring of two new employees this semester. We now are paying eight different individuals to cook and clean in one house for our daughters, which is more than any other house on campus. Comparatively, Kappa Delta Sigma employs one chef and one cleaner, and Tri Delta also has one chef and one cleaner. Both sororities have a similar number of girls. KDS does have dish boys, but they work in exchange for food and are not on their payroll. Delta has no dish boys; their cleaner and chef both do the dishes. We would like to have a better understanding of why we have quadruple the amount of people on our payroll as the other two sororities that offer dining (House mom Mary, Mary, Chef Jane, two dishboys, one dish girl, and the two new cleaners).
We hope these suggestions are taken into serious consideration to improve the dining experience.
Thank you for your attention to these matters.
Sincerely,
St Lawrence Kappa Kappa Gamma Chapter & Parents
Why is this important?
Kkg