CAMPUS CLOSURES LEAVE WORKERS JOBLESS
Dining hall staff across Hampton Roads adjusting to new reality
WILLIAMSBURG — After working in William & Mary’s dining halls for 18 years, Melanie Edwards calls the students she served her babies.
“I know it’s food, but it’s not like a fast food restaurant,” Edwards said. “You get to interact with the students.”
Serving students who had dietary restrictions, she got to know many personally as they came by day after day.
“You see all walks of life, people from different places coming,” Edwards said. “Sometimes they’re really stressed out, and we’re making sure that they have a good meal and have somebody to talk to.”
She was looking forward to coming back to work when spring break ended March 15. But then students were asked not to come back to campus, and President Katherine Rowe announced March 19 that classes would be held online for the rest of the semester.
W&M, like many other colleges, contracts out its dining services to an outside company. Edwards was employed by French company Sodexo, which also runs the dining halls at Virginia Wesleyan University in Virginia Beach.
She and most of her coworkers were furloughed by Sodexo, told to use the rest of their paid time off and then file for unemployment insurance.
They’re used to working other jobs in May when the semester ends, but they weren’t prepared to lose work now.
“We thought that they were at least going to try and pay us at least half of what we’d get paid, at least up until May because we were supposed to get out in May anyway. But that didn’t happen,” Edwards said. “Everybody is struggling right now.”
Jason Aupied, Sodexo’s dining services manager at W&M, said the company has tried to find other assignments for workers who have been furloughed.
“Currently, the frontline staff from those operations are furloughed under Temporary Unit Closing,” he said in a statement. “Wherever possible, we are temporarily reassigning staff to other Sodexo sites as many of our partners shift operations. Also, we are promoting the use of Sodexo staff with various parts of the supply chain that may need extra
help.”
Similar situations are playing out at schools across the state.
Aramark abruptly laid off its contract dining hall employees at the University of Virginia last month as well, a move first reported by C-Ville Weekly. The Philadelphia-based company also runs dining halls at Old Dominion University.
Janet McLaughlin, resident district manager for Aramark at ODU, said in a statement that contract workers have taken on additional roles besides serving faculty and staff food, including providing face mask kits for faculty and staff and providing daily meals at a nearby fire station. They will also be delivering meals to Sentara Norfolk General staff for the next six to eight weeks.
In a March news release, Aramark estimated that the company would lose 15% to 20% of its operating income during the crisis.
CEO John Zillmer said in a later release that the company was cutting the pay of some managers and senior leaders, furloughing employees and trying to identify temporary opportunities for others.
“It is an extraordinary time, full of uncertainty, but we will get through it if we focus on moving forward together,” Zillmer said.
Virginia Wesleyan also contracts out facilities services to Aramark. A university spokeswoman said that those workers are still on the job, but Sodexo only has a “skeleton staff” on campus right now.
The news of the furloughs has attracted the attention of student organizers.
Zoe Le Menestrel, a senior French major at William & Mary, worked with other students to launch a GoFundMe fundraiser last week for dining staff. As of Monday afternoon, they had raised over $4,500, which Le Menestrel said will go directly to dining hall workers.
“I have been so lucky to form some relationships with some of them over the years and to experience their kindness and generosity,” Le Menestrel said. “To see the university not supporting them right now has been hard to watch.”
A similar fundraiser started
April 1 after furloughs at U.Va. were reported raised over $35,000 for workers.
Later, U.Va. President Jim Ryan announced that the university would create a $2-million emergency fund for contract workers and donated $1 million to the Charlottesville Community Foundation to help others in the region who need help.
Le Menestrel said that she’d like to see W&M do something similar.
“I really think that the university, regardless of its contract, has a duty to support those who make the university run,” Le Menestrel said.
Edwards was able to find work fairly quickly, in the kitchen at retirement community Williamsburg Landing.
However, that didn’t last long. Her sister is in the military and deployed overseas, leaving her to care for her 8-year-old nephew.
With schools and day cares closed, she needs to be home to watch him. She’s now focused on trying to get by with unemployment and any other funds she can find.
“The only thing I can think about is how to get my bills paid,” Edwards said.
U.Va. President Jim Ryan announced that the university would create a $2-million emergency fund for contract workers and donated $1 million to the Charlottesville Community Foundation to help others in the region who need help.