Earlier this summer, Charles Lark, a temporary employee for University Dining, was attacked after visiting a soup kitchen downtown.
Every summer, with far fewer students on campus, Dining must let go some of its workers due to lack of demand. So, like many employees at Fountain Dining Hall, Lark was out of work once the semester ended, and with no income he turned to a soup kitchen.
Why couldn’t he have come to campus for a meal instead?
Lark would have avoided his life-changing attack if he had had the option of a hot, free meal from the institution he serves during the semester. Without a proper home, and with his ability to return to work uncertain, a few bites of food out of the sizable waste any dining hall inevitably generates wouldn’t be an overgenerous perk for people in Lark’s position, would it? Could this be an opportunity for the University to go above and beyond the bare essentials and do something to ensure that one of its own people doesn’t go hungry?
If Lark has any complaints about University Dining, we’ve never heard them. In our several interviews with him, he only had good things to say about his job and coworkers at Fountain.
Lark has spent his entire working life in kitchens serving people who have, in the vast majority of cases, never been truly hungry a day in their lives-from our state legislators at the General Assembly, to the wealthy at country clubs in Raleigh, and now the fortunate few able to pursue an education at N.C. State.
Yet he still goes hungry.
Lark must not be alone. For the numerous employees in Dining, Housing and Facilities who are discharged from the University every summer, finding summer employment must be difficult for most-and no doubt impossible for far too many, especially in this economic climate.
We hope some good may come of a story that is so tragic on so many levels. We hope the University takes Lark’s misfortune as an opportunity to secure its reputation as an institution of service, generosity and dignity. How hard could it be to give our temporary employees-especially those who feed us-a ration of meals over the summer to help them get by?
With no benefits, insurance or real job security, a hot meal is the least we could offer our temporary employees. If such a proposal were presented to our students, we feel our students would be more than happy to support such an initiative.
N.C. State is a place for students to receive a top-notch education, explore their nascent adulthood and prepare to enter the workforce. It should also be a place where students learn the significance a hot meal-especially for those who toil daily in our dining halls.
