April 2004
Delphi
Question
Spring Fling menu
Delphi Question #514 (received March 19): While I appreciate the hard work that members of the Employee Activities Committee (EAC) put into staff parties and events, I have a few concerns. Recently, I have noticed that the food and drink selections provided by the EAC have been pretty limited. For instance, at one event last year only beer was served, while in the past, staff has been given a choice between beer and wine. I have heard recently that this year’s Spring Fling menu will again be composed entirely of vegetarian foods. This has been the case for the past three years. Since the EAC is intended to represent all employees, would it be possible for it to provide some variety in menu selections? Who decides what food and drink is served? I believe others share my concerns and although I cannot volunteer for the EAC at this time, I would still like this committee’s choices to reflect the staff in its entirety.
Answer (March 26): We understand your concern and you have a valid point. In the past, NCAR/UCAR events lacked vegetarian menu choices. It was suggested to the EAC that a vegetarian menu could easily be used for one of the yearly events while the other events remained non-vegetarian. The EAC agreed and we’ve continued to have a vegetarian menu at only the Spring Fling. This one event helps reflect the staff in its entirety by recognizing the needs of a group that was previously overlooked. The EAC will consider offering a choice of vegetarian and non-vegetarian selections at all events in the future.
Regarding the question of who decides the menu: We on the EAC describe the type of menu we would like and the budget. Food Services responds to this request. The budget usually limits the creativity and variety of food and drink choices. For example, we did not serve wine at the Up-the-Hill Races last August because there wasn’t enough money for it. The EAC apologizes to those who were expecting wine at that function.
Wishing you joy at the Spring Fling and other UCAR events.
—Daniel Ziskin,
Spring Fling coordinator
(with the other members of the EAC)
Also in this issue...
