Housing and Dining Services Employee Recognition

Dining Employees: An Essential Piece to our Puzzle

Jan. 29, 2020 — On Friday, Jan. 10, nearly 150 people came together to celebrate the success of K-State Dining Services and their employees. As stated during the ceremony “From the recruitment of students to the university to their crossing the stage at graduation and everything in-between, Dining Services plays a role in student growth and development. You are an essential piece to a much larger puzzle… that of Kansas State University. The success of K-State comes from the collaboration of teams. When we work together, we learn from one another, support one another and accomplish more. You bring value to our team that no one else could, and for that we’re thankful.”

K-State Housing and Dining Services is one of the largest employers on campus, and on this day they celebrated their accomplishments. Dining team members are essential employees who work year round, preparing nearly 1.5 million meals each year for students, faculty, camps, conferences and guests. These employees also host a variety of campus events and are part of multiple academic programs. Their time is spent providing a variety of tasty, comforting and healthy foods to our students in a welcoming atmosphere that our students call “home.”

During the event, many current and former employees received special honors. 10 current employees were honored for their years of service: Joe Duntz, 5 years; Scott Smith, 10 years; Vickie Smith, 15 years; Kyong Friedmann, Sunny Patch and Rony Smith, 20 years; Brad Higgs, 25 years; Liz Whetstone, 30 years; Debbie Lehmkuhl and Barb Leonard, 40 years.

Housing and Dining Services also celebrated three retirements: Greg Gaskins (1997-2019); Richard Wege (1973-2019); and Duane Hale (1972-2019).

In addition, nine employees were recognized for their attendance. Spencer Gatlin, Rony Smith, Victoria Smith and Loretta Stanislow received honors for perfect attendance. Sharon Gardner, Sherry Bonawitz, Joyce Mattson, Rosalind Prockish and Prabath Dombagaha Pathiranage received an honorable mention for attendance for missing less than eight hours.