Julie Brown

Schools/Universities/Camps: Feature Stories: Yale's Dining Hall Workers

“Food for Thought” is an exploration of the people who sustain Davenport College at Yale University – the dining hall workers. In the series of portraits, the employees were asked to bring in an object that was important to them. The photographs were displayed in the Davenport Art Gallery accompanied by a short quote under each photograph in the subject’s own words, describing why the object was important to them.  

  • {quote}This is my friend’s daughter. Me and her mom are good friends. I’ve known her mom for 6 years. Desire is my god daughter. She’s my only one and I don’t want any more! She’s one year old.”Kesha’s favorite dining hall food is Rice and Chicken
  • {quote}This is Dusty. I named him. It was just the first name I thought of when I went to name him. He keeps an eye on me at night and makes sure I get up in the morning to get to work. He sits on my bureau and watches over me. I bought him 2 years ago when I was out Christmas shopping. I saw him and figured, why not?”Mike’s favorite dining hall foods are hamburgers and penne pasta with artichokes.
  • {quote}I’ve been running for 15 years. I started running to keep up with my wife. She’s always been athletic and I didn’t do any exercise. I started to make an effort to get healthier in my life around the time my father was got ill. That’s when I had an epiphany. I thought maybe I could work my way into dying healthy!”Jim’s favorite dining hall food, he hates to admit, is grass fed burgers. “I usually stay away from that kind of food but every Wednesday when those burgers are on, I have to have at least one!”
  • “I read the New York Times every day. I think people should pay more attention to time and to what’s taking place in the world. I think it’s pretty good that the students get a free paper. The students should have some common sense too along with what they’re studying in their major. They should pay attention to what’s going on in the world. We all need to pay attention.”Manuel’s favorite dining hall food is clam strips.
  • “I really like banging stuff. I like making stuff that’s useful like chairs and tables. I made a chair. It wasn’t comfortable but you could sit on it! I took an intro to sculpture class and made large dice. I made two 2 1/2 by 2 1/2 cubes. When I was 8, my dad and I built a deck together in the backyard. He’d start the nail and then he’d let me bang the rest of the nail down. “Aurora’s favorite dining hall food is fried plantains.
  • My grandfather started calling me Top Cat when I was little. Everywhere I go they call me Top Cat. This is my son Robert. He’s 15 years old. He’s in school now, 9th grade. We used to call him Little Top but the name didn’t stick so we just call him Robert. {quote}Top Cat’s favorite dining hall food is cheeseburgers which he eats every day when he gets to work.
  • Both my parents were Penn Staters. I wasn’t even going to go to college but my friend filled out the application for me and I got accepted. I didn’t like football until I got to Penn State. I never played football. Actually when I was in 8th grade I played one day of football. I couldn’t take the helmet, so I played soccer.”Kerry’s favorite dining hall food is smoked clam pizza.
  • “I cook on the grill. I love to cook at home. I try to take home the ideas I get from working here at Yale. Like the other day we had Swedish meatballs with gravy. I tried to make that at home too.“Monique’s favorite dining hall foods are cheeseburgers and pizza.
  • “I got addicted to tattoos, ever since I got my first one when I was fifteen. My mom brought me in to get it done. She has a few tattoos herself. I’m 23 now. The picture here on my arm is my daughter when she was 6 months. She’s 2 now. Her name is Kiera Payne and she lives with her mom. It says ‘Flesh of my flesh, Blood of my blood.’ I’ll get more tattoos. I don’t know what I’ll get next. It’ll just come to me.”Arnold’s favorite dining hall food is chicken tempura.
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