Campus Culinary Chronicles

Virginia Tech continues its search for student workers to fill positions in dining services due to their ongoing staffing shortage.

Virginia Tech offers the community 47 different venues with various food choices, which explains

why they are constantly ranked in the top 10 for best college dining. This year, dining has been different for many students. Many students must wait 30 minutes to an hour on a good day via Grubhub to receive food. Virginia Tech dining services have experienced a shortage of employees, which has caused many of the restaurants on campus to close or have limited food options for students.

Chick-fil-A no longer makes the “made to order” items. DXpress, a dining venue known for being open until 2 a.m., has started to close during the weekdays due to a lack of staffing. These issues have caused students to become frustrated and the staff to become overwhelmed.

The understaffing issue is not only a problem at Virginia Tech. Across the United States, there has been a labor shortage. In 2022 alone, more than 50 million people have quit their jobs. This trend is known as the Great Resignation. The food service industry has experienced one of the most brutal hit. For the past couple of years, the food industry has experienced resignation rates of up to 7% and hiring rates are only at 8%.

To better understand how students can help with the understanding issue, we spoke with Declan Roberts, a junior majoring in Political Science, who has worked in Dining Services since his first year and is now the Student Manager at D2.