Dish Crew

 

Lunch Dish Crew:

The lunch dish crew inspectors (LDC1-Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday) have to organize a team of 14 or so kids and get them to work as one huge dishwashing machine.  They must make sure that the kids on the line are quick and can scrap as much utensils and dining equipment with the least amount of error.  These kids are most crucial to having a successful Suffield Academy lunch experience because if they mess up it could lead to back ups of the disposal and ultimately cafeteria-style lunch.  The inspectors must also give other kids the job of organizing the dining equipment after it goes through the machine.  These kids are just as important as those on the line because they prepare the dining equipment for dinner.  The inspectors job is to put back all of the utensils, plates and cups for dinner and make sure everything that was used during lunch is cleaned up.  The challenge that the LDC1 inspector faces is to get kids to like the job.  Dish crew is a mostly volunteer job and is the best job on campus.  When kids are not energized to do their job then everything goes slowly and it could lead to a total backup.  The other challenges include getting all of the trays in before lunch ends. This is a difficult task if you realize that 45 some odd trays need to get into the kitchen. The advantages include a better job than any other inspector on campus, first ones to eat at lunch, and less work than most of the kids on campus.

Dish crew is without question one of the more difficult work programs to be an inspector of at Suffield. The work conditions are loud, chaotic and require the inspector to take a hands on role. To be an effective leader, one must know when to be diplomatic with those working under you and when to “lay down the law”. A good inspector always strives to keep both morale and productivity as high as possible. The Wednesday/Saturday Dish crew has always been perceived as “a bunch of misfits working off demerits or Senior slackers who are taking a season off”, and the truth is that this description is not always that far off. As an inspector you frequently not only have to deal with individuals who are rather unhappy about working, but also who see the job as nothing more than the equivalent to a detention. It is not all doom and gloom, however, as (more so then in other work programs) the entire crew usually bonds pretty quickly and you find yourself befriending comrades who you normally never would have expected to see yourself conversing with. All in all, Dish crew can be a challenging program to run, often requiring you to make unpopular decisions. It does, however, provide you with a strong sense of satisfaction found in few other work programs.

Dinner Dish Crew