Post on 08-Apr-2016
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Tor Echo Newspaper of the Pioneers
Alfred State is among 20
State University of New
York (SUNY) campuses
that have recently been
named to the 2014 Presi-
dent’s Higher Education
Community Service Honor
Roll. The list recognizes
colleges and universities
that achieve meaningful,
measurable outcomes in
the communities they
serve and show a clear commitment to communi-
ty service and service
learning.
“Participating in com-
munity service is an im-
portant part of any college
experience, and a hallmark
of our strategic plan. Each
of our SUNY campuses
has an astounding array of
options for students as
well as faculty and staff to
give back to their local communities, and to have a
greater impact on communities across the country
and abroad. Congratulations and thank you to each
of the campuses recognized by the President’s Hon-
or Roll this year” said SUNY Chancellor Nancy L.
Zimpher.
Last year, Alfred State students contributed near-
ly 60,000 hours of service,
civic leadership, and work-
force ready knowledge to
communities in need. In ad-
dition to participating annu-
ally in civic engagement op-
portunities such as Cele-
brate Service Celebrate Al-
legany and the Martin Lu-
ther King Jr. Day of Service,
the college’s students have
also assisted communities
devastated by Superstorm Sandy and Haitian communi-
ties recovering from the
2010 earthquake.
Jonathan Hilsher, direc-
tor of the Center for Civic
Engagement at Alfred State,
said “The College being
named to the President’s
Honor Roll recognizes the
exemplary community ser-
vice undertaken by its stu-
dents, faculty, and staff and
highlights how this represents best practices in com-
munity impact and service”. Alfred State’s culture of
civic engagement results in community challenges
being addressed in a meaningful way Even as student
learning is enhanced through applied curricular and
co-curricular experiences.”
Alfred State Honored for Making a
Difference Through Community Service
Tor Echo
Report, Encourage, Engage
Issue 5, Spring 2015
Editor-in-Chief: Lynnette Lockwood / Associate Editor: Jordyn Riethmiller / Sports Editor: Morgan Franchina
Treasurer / Student Senate Representative: Daniel David
Reporters: Karla Chun, Christy Dodd, Katie Dussing, Grace Franklin, Brianna Freeman, Anthony Grande, Ashley Kennedy,
Nichole Meehan, Don Schrader, Breanna Smith, Madison Szpaicher, Angel Torres
© Tor Echo, 2015
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Welcome back from break, everyone. Have fun, study, and enjoy the rest of your semester. Coverage of
the recent Election will be coming out soon. Unfortunately, ASC’s candidates did not prevail, but we have
brought greater participation to elections in Alfred. Hope you all voted.
- Lynnette Lockwood, Editor-in-Chief
Welcome Back
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/ R
eport
, Enco
ura
ge, Enga
ge!
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I’ve been an employee with ACES since September 2012, I’ve worked at the Terrace and Evergreen Café, a new food facility at Alfred State College opened in the beginning of the fall semester in 2013. When it originally opened, the meal swipe options at Evergreen were salads, sandwiches, or wraps as the main en-trees; yogurts, fruit snacks, granola bars, or chips as the sides; and a bottle of water, a fountain drink, a coffee, or a hot tea were the drink options. Items that could only be bought with dinning dollars, CSA, cash, or credit were lattés, cappuccinos, chai, hot chocolate, soup, juice, milk, fruit cups, and baked goods. Since then there have been many additions to the menu and meal deals: special meal deals, soup meals, morning meals, yogurt parfaits, Paninis, ice coffees, ice lattes, and Frappuccinos. In my opinion all of these changes have made Evergreen very successful but has also put a strain on the employees. The way the facility was designed reflected what was going to be sold in the café but the addition of some of the new items meant also getting new equipment and new products. I have an associates in Baking & Production management and also have some out-side experience in food service and hospitality. When designing and building a food facility there are some main points that must be considered and upheld: what food products are needed, what type equipment will be used, and how many people will be working with these items, for example. A very important consid-eration is, are health code requirements being met? That being said ACES hit all of these key points right on the head: a dish-washing station, hand washing station, a refrigeration unit, and a small stock area in the back of the facility, a standard station sink, three lowboys, an espresso machine, two coffee machines, two coffee bean grinders, two display coolers, and one soda dispenser in the front of the facility.
This worked well in the beginning but with the later addi-tions of two blenders, a potable well, a Panini grill, and the con-
vection oven it’s been difficult to maintain. The soup must be kept at a certain temp and must not be held for more than eight hours to be considered safe for consumption. And any special needed heated meat such as ground beef, chicken, turkey, etc. are held in a slow cooker from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. on a low temp. The equipment itself is fine but backups are kept in a “Hot box”, this is a problem because this allows the food to drop into the danger zone for long periods of time, then when the product is put into the well or slow cooker it jumps from the danger zone to the proper temp in a short time. This is a very real health risk and could be avoided if each back was made closer to the time that it may be needed, rather than to over-produce earlier in the day, and keep heated as reserves.
Another issue is cross contamination; between food aller-gies, food pathogens, and religious beliefs food products that differ in base ingredients and preparation need to be kept sepa-rate. Yet in Evergreen there is only one sanitation bucket in the front of the house usually containing three or more rags that used to sanitize the counter space, the blenders, the Panini grill, the prep station, and the espresso machine. There should be a separate sanitation bucket for each, since once a rag is used even though it is going into sanitized water, the bucket and rags still contain remnants of anything it came in contact with. Color coded wash cloths would also help alleviate this problem. On top of that, because the solution becomes less potent after a certain amount of time, each bucket should be changed at least every 2 to 4 hours to refresh the water.
Everything here is an easy fix. It will just take time, patience, and care to apply and maintain a safe and clean workplace. Editor’s Note: This article is printed anonymously because the writer wishes to remain working at Evergreen, always striving to improve this well-loved eatery on campus.
Evergreen Café: Some Improvements Would
be a Boon to All