4000万份餐食

当艾米·穆尼奥斯采访克兰西·莫里森时 for the position of assistant director of food services in the fall of 1984, Munoz was upfront about her intentions: She expected to work at Oxy for three to five years and then open a restaurant with her husband, 罗伯特。.

但这并没有发生，因为发生了其他事情,穆尼奥斯说, who 37 years and approximately 40 million meals later retired in January as associate vice president for hospitality services. “这是一份很棒的工作. 我总觉得我能在这里有所作为.”

在这四十年里, Munoz became an Oxy institution—just like her old boss and mentor, 谁在1989年退休(第二次?, 但那是另一个故事了)，他在奥施康定工作了45年. “追随传奇的脚步并不容易,Amos Himmelstein说, Oxy’s chief operating officer and Munoz’s boss since 2012. “But Amy really made this job her own, has developed a department we are really proud of."

While serving under eight Oxy presidents (from Gilman to Elam), 穆尼奥斯改变了奥施康定的餐饮服务，从什么, how and where food is served to where that food comes from. 想想下面这些成就:

• 穆尼奥斯将Oxy的餐饮服务带入了现代时代, 从单一价格, cafeteria-style operation to what is known as the debit model, where patrons can visit different food stations and have food prepared for them individually.
• The food served during her tenure has developed a national reputation, ranked among the country’s best college cuisine by such outlets as 每日一餐, 贪吃的人, 素食成绩单. (Her own favorite: charbroiled sustainable salmon, steamed white rice, stir-fry veggies.)
• Munoz has been a fierce—and successful—advocate for Oxy to maintain its self-operated food service, 而不是外包给大型外部公司.
• Munoz was intimately involved in two major renovations of dining services facilities, the 1994 transformation of the Art Barn into Samuelson Pavilion—aka the Cooler—and the 1997-99 renovation and expansion of Johnson Student Center. The JSC project required Munoz and her staff to relocate and feed students in temporary buildings known as Tiger Town (located where Mullin Entrance is today) for almost two years.
• 感谢穆尼奥斯, Dining 服务 has been a leader in sustainability on campus, with a popular student internship program and an 8-year-old commitment to the national Real Food Challenge that, 在大流行驱动的供应链问题之前, came within a lettuce wrap of its goal of purchasing 30 percent sustainable food.

“我在这里从不感到无聊,穆尼奥斯说, who has fed the Oxy community not only through construction chaos but in the aftermath of earthquakes, 停电, 现在是全球大流行的两年. “我从不感到无聊.”

他是密歇根人， Amy Andrews majored in hospitality business at Michigan State and originally planned to become a hotel general manager. 当, 毕业后, she was recruited for Sheraton’s management training program and was placed at the flagship Boston Sheraton, 前途一片光明. But then she was moved to what is now the Langham Pasadena, 发现在她23岁的时候，她已经不知所措了. 我完全不知所措. 我坚持了五个月，”她说. But it was in Pasadena that she met a handsome maître d’, 罗伯特。 Munoz, whom she married.

Jobs in fine dining and catering sales in Santa Monica and Pasadena followed, 所有这些都提供了宝贵的经验. 但事实证明，这些都不是她想要的职业. 就在那时她在报纸上发现了莫里森的广告 帕萨迪纳星报.

Munoz cites a number of factors behind her longevity at Oxy, 其中最重要的是管理变化的机会. “With change and challenges there are always wonderful opportunities. As I moved on, I saw how much there was to do here, that I had the ability to do it.”

Another was the opportunity to have a better work-life balance than many of her 的同事们 in the hotel and restaurant industries. “So many of my peers dropped out of the hospitality industry because they couldn’t have a good balance,她说。. “They left for different careers or developed substance abuse or relationship problems.”

她自己的家庭全是奥施康定:女儿切尔西10岁, assistant director of Oxy’s Vantuna Research Group (VRG), 嫁给了乔纳森·威廉姆斯, VRG研究科学家和NTT教员, 苏菲14岁, Ph值.D. student at the USC Chan Division of Occupational Therapy, is married to classmate Alex Ringold. “My husband, 罗伯特。 [a UNLV alumnus], is pretty outnumbered,” she jokes.

Among the other challenges she took on at Oxy were management of a wide range of what are known to the College business office as auxiliaries: the 书店, 邮政中心, 主日历, 会议服务及拍摄. (Card 服务 was moved to Institutional Technology in 2017.)

Regardless of the enterprise, her management style remains the same. Munoz is a consummate professional and an effective communicator with a real eye for talent, 罗伯特·斯塔里克说, associate director of campus dining and a 29-year Oxy veteran. “她不仅认识到人们的长处和才能, she finds a way for you to use those to better the department and to use as opportunities for advancement,Starec说. 即使你在自己身上没有发现它们, 她会说, “我觉得你会做得很好, 我想帮你发展这个.’”

多年来, Munoz has received almost every accolade the College offers to staff members, 包括行政成就奖. In 2019, then-President Jonathan Veitch awarded her the Presidential Medal in recognition of her longevity, 奉献, 以及对学院的奉献.

当 the official announcement was made about Munoz’s retirement, 校友们纷纷在社交媒体上表达敬意, 的同事们, 还有以前的同事. “You always approached random students’ questions and quandaries with openness, 温暖, “让我们看看我们能做什么。,充满了可能性,96岁的Janet McIntyre在Facebook上写道.

The idea that Munoz—the only boss most Hospitality 服务 staff have ever known—is finally retiring hasn’t quite set in yet, Starec说. “这里有一点焦虑. 这会很奇怪. 我们一定会深深怀念她的.”

经历这一切, Munoz never lost sight of a fundamental truth: “It’s not just about food, 我们与食物的关系是不理性的,她笑着说. “食物不仅是食物，也是安慰.”