Kitchen Cabinet
January 10, 2023
Steve Kjellgren, Kevin Birr, Stephanie Marsh, Jen Donkin, Kari Wallin, Karen Yess, Alan Meier,
Mark Hansen, Cristina Tirbu, Molly Yunkers, Danielle Burger, Peter Maiers
Committee Business:
● Try It! date and organization for January and ongoing. (How frequent is sustainable?)
○ Consider waiting until January due to less students during J-Term, next year plan
for MLK affiliation
○ February – What should we highlight?
■ International student area?
■ Doug Thompson’s area – promote diversity ball?
■ International food tasting event from student group was canceled – Could
this be connected for future Try It
■ Next year plan on a January MLK affiliation
■ We aren’t getting as much feedback from students about the food – most
feedback is about the hours
■ How do we help students find the answers they are looking for vs feeling
they are being forwarded to multiple people.
● Suggestion – pull Jen Donkin into the email chain right away when
there is a concern
● Add a second suggestion was create dietitian@gustavus email to
help make it easier to find – add to the parent pages?
● Would a box for comments be helpful? In the past comments
were vague (“’the food sucks”) and not helpful – add a prompt for
more specific information or google form with QR code?
○ Cristina will reach out to other students to find best way to
communicate and gather information from students
○ Suggestion for Cristina to write an article for the Gustavus
weekly promoting how the Dining Service wants feedback
and will respond – though this only reaches the students
who are proactive and making changes
○ May need to look at multiple ways to get the info out –
article, QR code, website to reach more students
○ Have Dining Service feedback as a Taste It topic for a
month
■ What is your favorite and least favorite? Get
positive and negative feedback
○ Stephanie met with Anna Deike last week about social
media posts – what to post – how often
■ Instagram?
■ At the bottotm of each post add reach out to
Chef@gustavus for dining questions and
dietitian@gustavus for nutrition concerns
● Notes from the past:
○ We started Try It in the year 19/20 (unbelievable) and Steve sent out this form
(sending you the version that can be edited)
○ It generated these volunteers, some of whom got to participate before things
slammed shut. Here’s the schedule from that year; some of those groups that
didn’t get to go might be interested. Gosh, my (Steve’s) ambition and optimism
were cute….
From the director: Steve Kjellgren
From Lisa Heldke: There is a lot of information to learn from student eating when you look at
what comes back from the carousel.
Do students think it is helpful to shove everything in a glass – do they realize the
impact on the person in the dish room?
Can we help people learn about sorting and someone behind there is doing this
work and you could make this so much easier for them
Can we tie it to a Try It event? – Yes – March
St Mary’s has the same carousel system but has the recycling bins on the
student side and would make a huge impact on the back side
o Contamination would be a concern as well as keeping up on emptying
those trash bins
o Do we have enough staff to deal with this?
o Do we start small with bin for silverware that is attached to the carousel?
From the DS staff:
● Office manager: Jeri Miller
● Staffing: Kevin Birr
– Student suggestion – offer pick up bonus to encourage full timers to take on more
shifts – they do get overtime when they work extra.
Some reasons we aren’t getting student workers:
○ For some students the pay level is deemed below their worth so won’t consider
working on campus
○ The students have to work vs be able to study with other student work positions.
● Dietician: Jen Donkin
● Chef: Uh-Oh….. – Chef Tim has left Gustavus, search is on for a new Chef. There are
some good applicants coming in. In the meantime we are short in the kitchen
● Catering: Stephanie Marsh
From the corners of campus:
● Auxiliary services: Karen Yess, Danielle Burger
● Counseling Center: Aaron Geringer
● Student life: Mark Hanson
● Physical Plant: Tammy Gingles-Baum, Peter Maiers
○ Snow removal is biggest issue currently
○ Google map takes truck drivers up the main hill and they often get stuck in the
snow or go to the wrong building – can they work with google to make a truck
route? Peter is working with TK on this. Steve will talk to Shari J. about
informing her delivery trucks.
● CIE students/Int’l Ed: Christina Sirbu
● E/S students: Lukas Lennartson,
● Admission: Alan Meier – There has been a change in the amount of feedback they get
from students after admission events – in that they don’t provide much feedback like
they used to
● Marketing: Anna Deike
● Johnson Center and Sustainability coordinator: Kari Wallin, Chuck Niederriter
● Aspirational groups:
○ Student senate
○ Athletics
○ PAs
○ First year students
Next Meeting: Tuesday, February 7 th at 7:00 am