After extensive engagement with students and families, Syracuse University will adjust its meal plan offerings for the 2022-23 school year and beyond. Meal plan eligibility will continue to vary by the student’s year and their on-campus housing selection. Housing, Meal Plan, and I.D. Card (HMPID) Services has compiled a chart, which is available on its website, to help students and their families make the appropriate meal plan selection.
Read the full story at Syracuse University News.
After the dining centers close, as most students are scattering back to their residence halls, to the library to study or toward other late-night activities, volunteers with the Food Recovery Network (FRN), a student organization comprising members from SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF) and Syracuse, spring into action.
The premise of their work is simple: to recover as much leftover, untouched food as possible from on-campus dining centers and deliver it to its eight partner agencies located throughout the greater Syracuse community. In 2021, FRN volunteers recovered 21,985 pounds (almost 11 tons!) of food, contributing around 18,320 meals to neighbors in need.
Read the full story at Syracuse University News.
Recognizing student employees and supervisors who have consistently exhibited hard work and dedication in their roles, on April 18, Student Employment (’Cuse Works) presented students and staff with the Graduate Student Employee of the Year Award, Undergraduate Student Employee of the Year Award, Student Employee Supervisor of the Year Award and Department of the Year Award. The awards are part of the celebration of 2021-22 National Student Employment Week.
’Cuse Works encouraged campus community members to nominate undergraduate and graduate student employees who have made an impact on campus through their work, as well as the student employee supervisors and departments who have made a difference in the student employee experience. Winners were decided by the Student Employment Recognition Committee.
In many ways, Sue Bracy’s career growth at Syracuse University Food Services parallels the growth of the department. When she began her career at Syracuse University in August 1987, the department’s retail footprint was miniscule: only three cafes. She was hired to supervise the three cafes, never envisioning how large the department would grow. Over the next three decades, her career would take her from those cafes, to vending, then to Kimmel Food Court, the Goldstein Alumni and Faculty Center Restaurant, Catering Services, Goldstein Student Center, and finally, to leading the opening of the sparkling new food court at the renovated Schine Student Center.
“You can’t spell Syracuse without S-U-E,” said Jon Webster, executive director of hospitality. “Her fingerprints are all over our department and the University in an extremely positive, selfless way.”
Sue’s Syracuse University roots run deep. Her mom worked at the Carrier Dome for 25 years as the administrative assistant for then-director Pat Campbell. Her sister worked at Hendrick’s Chapel. Her family has had season tickets for over 35 years and she’s a proud alumna herself. Sue graduated from the University in May 1986 with a major in child development and a minor in psychology. While she acknowledges that a degree in child development doesn’t typically lead to a career in food service, Sue had worked at McDonald’s throughout her time in college and had actually earned 12 college credits through Hamburger University, the company’s Chicago-based training program.
Once she started her career at Syracuse, her hard work and obvious leadership skills meant that she steadily gained more responsibility. Sue was promoted several times, and eventually took on the role of co-director of Food Services in 2016.
“I’m often awestruck as to how Sue managed balancing a genuine concern for employees while maintaining the many policies and guidelines of the University and adhering to the rules of our union contract,” said Michelle Schieder, the campus’s SEIU co-chief steward of the food service division, who worked alongside Sue for most of her career. “She wore many hats and wore them well. She managed a piece in catering, the Dome, retail sales, dining centers, and negotiations.”
There were ups and downs over her 35 years. The fun came in catering special events and designing themed events and special parties for alumni. Stress was there too, especially managing the Food Services department through a global pandemic. She and her team worked nearly non-stop when Schine Dining reopened in spring 2021, in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Her co-director at the time, Mark Tewksbury, will always remember the care she showed for Food Services staff members at the uncertain outset of the pandemic. Her employees were all designated essential workers who needed to be on campus every day.
“I’ll never forget the long hours as we navigated the start of the pandemic,” Tewksbury said. “Sue’s concern for the safety of our team while maintaining service to students who remained on campus was immeasurable.”
“We had no written procedures for how to do that,” Bracy said. “It was just a lot of creative maneuvering. COVID was a constant learning experience, one where people stepped way out of their job descriptions just to get the job done.”
It is those memories that will stay with her, she says. How hard the members of the Food Services department work. How much they care about the University and the people here.
“There are some long-time employees here that are just great,” she said. “These are the people who are the backbone of Food Services.”
Among her employees, Sue’s guidance and her willingness to lead are what they will treasure about her time at Syracuse.
“Under Sue’s direction, I was able to maximize my skills, because she constantly encouraged me to try new things,” said Keone Weigl, Food Services’ marketing manager. “Her management style gave me the confidence to become the best version of myself and a better employee for Syracuse University. I feel extremely fortunate to have had the chance to work with Sue.”
“Sue has always been tireless in her pursuit of making everyone around her know that she is in it right along with us,” said Catherine Brozaitis, Supervisor of Schine Dining. “Sue has been such a strong and positive influence on so many, and most consider her their mentor. Sue has garnered respect by the example she has set for all of us.”
Though her official last day at the University was at the end of February, she hasn’t left campus forever: she’s agreed to stay on as a temp to help the under-staffed department recruit, hire, and train new employees.
Stepping away from the hectic day-to-day operations of the department has meant that she’s able to spend more time with her family, especially her elderly father. Her influence will live on in the Food Services department, including with its new leader, Webster.
“I wanted to be a part of charting the future course of Syracuse University Food Services with her,” said Webster. “I cannot imagine being successful in this position without her guidance and counsel, and I wish her well as she moves to the next chapter of her life.”
The Housing, Meal Plan, and I.D. Card Services Office will move from 206 Steele Hall to 111 Waverly Avenue, Suite 111. The office, which attracts thousands of walk-in visitors annually, will print and distribute I.D. cards from 206 Steele through Thursday, March 17, before operations begin at its new location on Monday, March 21 at 8:30 a.m.
The move will be completed in conjunction with the relocation of several Auxiliary Services’ business units. Trademark Licensing, Auxiliary Services Data Systems, and some elements of Food Services’ administrative staff will move from Steele to 111 Waverly at the same time, along with the office of the senior associate vice president for Auxiliary Services.
Signage will be in place at Steele Hall to direct campus community members to the new location. Auxiliary Services joins New Student and Family Programs in the recently renovated first floor of 111 Waverly, with other University offices set to follow throughout the spring and summer.
Executive Director of Hospitality Jon Webster today announced the hiring of Bryan Hammond as Food Services’ new Executive Chef for Catering Services. Bryan will begin work at the University on March 16, 2022.
“Bryan has great energy, is incredibly smart, and will be fun to work with,” said Eamon Lee, Food Services Executive Chef. “I’m excited to begin collaborating with him.”
Bryan joins the Food Services team from Turning Stone Resort and Casino, where he spent over nine years as banquet chef and culinary project manager and helped grow and develop the property’s restaurant operations.
As Catering Executive Chef, Bryan will develop new recipes and menu items. He will also implement a training program to continually improve the culinary skills of the catering team. Bryan will work out of the campus commissary on Ainsley Drive, though he will make regular appearances at catered events all over campus.
“Bryan’s positive attitude and skill will be a tremendous asset to our team,” said Paula Elerick, Associate Director of Catering.
Bryan graduated from Paul Smith’s College with a BAS in Culinary Arts and Service Management. He is a native Central New Yorker with University connections – his father is a professor at Falk College. One of Bryan’s goals upon taking this position is to cater events that his dad attends.
When he’s not in the kitchen creating delicious food, Bryan enjoys hiking, biking, or playing video games. He and his wife are looking forward to raising their son and two chihuahuas in Syracuse.
A food industry veteran with over three decades of experience cooking and working in restaurants, Eamon Lee, executive chef in Food Services who began his tenure with the University earlier this year, knows a few things about holiday cooking. We sat down with Chef Lee to pick his brain on how to please a crowd, characteristics to bring out in holiday meals and the supply chain woes plaguing the food industry.
Read the full story at Syracuse University News.
When Shirley Trendowski ’05, ’07 (C.A.S.) G’08 was raising her family, everyday life took very careful planning.
Trendowski and her husband, Ray, are the parents of six children. In 1995, after being a stay-at-home mom for 15 years, Shirley came to work for Food Services with one purpose—to take advantage of the University’s dependent tuition benefit. Her youngest child was 2 years old at the time. After a year, she decided to start taking classes herself using the remitted tuition benefit. She began by taking courses that interested her, two classes per semester, with the goal of earning an associate’s degree.
Read the full story at Syracuse University News.
Just off New York State Route 370 in Baldwinsville, a 20-minute drive from Syracuse University, Emmi Farms sits on 300 acres of land. During harvest season, its staff grows fruits and vegetables such as blueberries, peppers, apples, tomatoes, strawberries and sweet corn.
“We try to do all the local stuff we can,” said Tony Emmi, the farm’s general manager whose grandfather, Carmen, founded the farm in North Syracuse in 1946.
After Emmi returned from Army service in the Gulf War in 1992, Emmi Farms moved its operations to Baldwinsville, where it has a packing facility, a farm stand, a maintenance shop, greenhouses and employee housing. Since that time, Emmi Farms has been one of several local growers to provide Syracuse University dining halls with fresh produce.
Read the full story at dailyorange.com.
