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By Aphra Hughes

Meet the cafeteria’s big
cheese, manager Terry
Wells. Terry is in charge of it
all: the main cafeteria, the
Wintergarden, Starbucks,
Tim Horton’s, and the cater-
ing operation. He has a total
of fifty-one employees, of
which all are unionized, and
sixteen to eighteen are full
time. Some get laid off in the
summers, but catering is
gradually getting busier dur-
ing the summertime, as
UNBC has been getting more
conferences. The catering
section also does weddings.

Terry is the longest-serving
food services worker and has
been here since 1994, but
always in the “back of the
house”, as he puts it. Before
becoming manager in
February, he was the chef for
four years, and before that he
was the first cook, under the
chef. Terry has been in the
food business for thirty years.
He started out at Humber
College, in Ontario, taking a
two-year course in Hotel and
Restaurant Administration.
The course didn’t have much
to do with cooking, though. It
was mainly about bookkeep-
ing and front desk proce-
dures, which Terry didn’t find

very interesting. He left after
a year and started working.

_Much of his work experience

has been in long-term care
homes, but his last job before
coming here was in a pizza
parlor in Tsawassen. He
came up to UNBC because
his son’s mother remarried
after divofcing Terry and
moved to Prince George in
1992. Terry

applied to ICL, who won the
food services contract when
UNBC opened up, and the
restis history. Terry is actual-
ly glad things worked out
here, because he finds the

Photo By Aphra Hughés

Food Services manager, Terry Wells, wants to hear what
students think of the cafeteria.

North much more pleasant.
He describes Vancouver as a
“rat race.”

When Terry started here,
ICL was paid a management
fee and cafeteria operation
was subsidized. The contract
has since been taken over by
Beaver Foods, then by
Chartwell, and the system
changed so that UNBC gets a
percentage of each sale,
(40%) and the operator
needs to make a profit.
Chartwell is owned by the
Compass Group, which is so
big Terry isn’t sure where
company headquarters are -
he thinks somewhere in the
United Kingdom. North

American headquarters are
in North Carolina, and
Canadian in Calgary, with
regional offices in Vancouver,
Toronto, and London,
Ontario. The company was
shaken by the World Trade
Center bombing, because
they had twenty-four units in
the towers. Most were small
kiosks, rather than units the
size of our cafeteria. None of
the employees died, but
Chartwell has had to find
them new job positions else-
where. The company has
been serving meals at
Ground Zero.

The Wintergarden is the
trickiest area in terms of
menu. It was setup to bea -
bistro/coffee garden/bar,
which is a complicated
identity. The Wintergarden
has a panini grill, pizza
ovens, and a microwave,
but real cooking, as
opposed to heating food, is
impossible because the
area lacks ventilation. The
Fire Department won't
allow more cooking, and
when the Wintergarden put
out trays of water glasses,
they were forced to remove
them as they constituted a
“tire hazard”.

Terry says there have
been no incidents of food
poisoning in the cafeteria
that he knows of, although
food poisoning is quite hard
to track. People eat food
from a variety of sources,
any of which could be the
culprit, and get sick from
stress, flu, or MSG as well.
The Health Department
checks the operation every
six months or so, and
Chartwell has its own inter-
nal program, known as
HACCUP, which is stricter
than government standards
and lays out procedures for
everything from the
moment the food comes in
the door. HACCUP is the
reason the cafeteria does-
n't serve alfalfa sprouts,
which are considered too
high risk for E. coli.

Terry claims that he can
tell when exams are on,
because students are
noticeably more irritable.

We have his sympathy,
though; when he separated
from his wife, he took a
course at Kwantlen College,
Criminology 101, and claims
that keeping up with the
course and work nearly killed
him. He ended up with a 2.0
GPA, and felt glad it wasn’t
worse.

Terry laughs when asked
about low-fat meals. He says
the students claim to be con-
cerned, but the best-sellers
are burgers, chicken fingers,
french fries and gravy. The
cafeteria does offer healthy

. options such as the stir-fries.

There is also a vegetarian
option every day. The vege-

Out of the Spotlight

tarian food used to be a hot
button, but has settled down,
as has the Pepsi sponsor-
ship. Terry says most univer-
sities are signed up with
either Pepsi or Coke, and
UBC has just signed a ten-
year deal for $4 million with
Coke. Terry points out that
Pepsi contributes to the uni-
versity financially. They pro-
vide bottled water, pop, juice,
the Ocean Spray line, the
SoBe soy beverages, and the
Starbucks Frappucinos.
Genetically modified food has
not yet become an issue.
Terry thinks this is because it
(continued on page 16)

BRITISH COLUMBIA
LEGISLATIVE INTERNSHIP PROGRAM

2003 Program

PURPO

SE

To provide British Columbia university graduates
an opportunity to supplement their academic training with
exposure to public policy-making and the legislative process
within the province’s parliamentary system.

WHO IS ELIGIBLE:
Individuals who have received a Bachelor’s Degree
from a B.C. university or a B.C. university-college
within two years of January 2003.

LOCATION

Parliament Buildings, Victoria, British Columbia

TERM
January 6, 2003 - June 30, 2003

APPLICATION DEADLINE
January 31, 2002 - 4 p.m.

STIPEND
$16,210 for 6 months

HOW TO APPLY
Program Applications are available from Political Science
Departments at all universities in British Columbia.
You can also request an application by contacting the
Public Education & Outreach Office in Room 144,
Parliament Buildings, Victoria B.C., V8V 1X4.
Telephone: (250) 387-8669 Email: BCLIP@leg.bc.ca.
Or print an application from the
website: www.legis.gov.bc.ca,

ACADEMIC ADVISORS
Dr. Paul Tennant, University of British Columbia
Dr. Patrick Smith, Simon Fraser University
Dr. Norman Ruff, University of Victoria
Dr. Tracy Summerville, University of Northern British Columbia

fs.

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