Cleaning and food services in houses?

[BSUPhiSig'92]

Some of the bigger fraternity chapters at Ball State still had cooks when I started in '87, but at some point the city closed down all the fraternity house kitchens for health code violations! Then pretty much everyone had to get a meal plan and eat in the dining halls or subsist on mac & cheese, carry-out and pizza.
No one had housekeepers.

[ISUKappa]

Originally posted by queequek
None of Iowa State fraternity houses have "maid" or "clean full time cleaner" whatever to clean the house. We do it by ourselves!

And you can tell!

[ISUKappa]

Originally posted by bruinaphi
. . . Back in the "days" a lot of these larger chapters had house boys who lived in and served as hashers in addition to housekeepers, cooks and house moms. . . .

We had "waiters" who were 5-6 fraternity men from various houses who came during lunch and supper. They helped the cook set up and tear down the meal, washed dishes and did general clean-up around the kitchen after meals. They were paid (like $100/semester or so) and got to eat the meals at the house. We loved our waiters!

[GeekyPenguin]

We never had this because I lived in a house like 33girl's, but it makes complete sense at a larger school. I know several of the fraternities had a chef, and if my chapter had more girls living in, we probably would have considered it.

I don't think there's anything wrong with it, it just didn't make sense for us.

[shadokat]

As a PA state schooler, we didn't have cleaning or food service, but it was a sorority house, nonetheless At one of the chapters I advise, they don't have a cook or cleaning service, but the University owns the house, and they provide cleaning once a week. You'd be hard pressed to find a ton of schools in the northeast that have all of this. Maybe Penn State....Rider sorority houses have cooks. Thse are the ones that stick out for me.

[TriDeltaGal]

Originally posted by bruinaphi

We had a breakfast cook during the week and a cook who came in and did lunch and dinner during the week. We had a housekeeper who cleaned the common areas 5 days a week and hashers who served and cleaned up on Monday nights before meeting.

Bruinaphi, it looks like the houses up and down Hilgard are very similar except we didn't get our kitchen opened for us on the weekends.

On a side note, was your Mom a Alpha Phi at UCLA too?

[bruinaphi]

Originally posted by TriDeltaGal
On a side note, was your Mom a Alpha Phi at UCLA too?

No, my mom and aunt were both AGDs at UCLA in the late 60s.

I know a lot of Alpha Phis who were there during that time though (they were my advisors and mentors).

[CASIGKAP]

I wish we had that luxury at my school. We do our own cooking and cleaning. We were recently informed that we were going to be honored and receive a housekeeper for the fall of 2004. This is only on a probationary basis to see how we like it.

It's pretty sad that some sororities & chapters take it completely for granted that they receive these services when some of us have to fend for ourselves.

[ISUKappa]

Originally posted by CASIGKAP
It's pretty sad that some sororities & chapters take it completely for granted that they receive these services when some of us have to fend for ourselves.

I don't think they take it for granted, we were very appreciative of our cook, housekeeper, waiters and house director and let them know constantly. Of course, I can't speak for everyone.

[GeekyPenguin]

Originally posted by CASIGKAP
It's pretty sad that some sororities & chapters take it completely for granted that they receive these services when some of us have to fend for ourselves.

I don't think anybody takes it for granted...did you not see all the comments that said "We were so appreciative..." "I sure miss those days..." "They were wonderful...".

Sure, I wish we would have had it too, but I'm not stinking bitter. We are grownups who SHOULD be able to fend for ourselves.

[CarolinaCutie]

Originally posted by CASIGKAP
It's pretty sad that some sororities & chapters take it completely for granted that they receive these services when some of us have to fend for ourselves.

I just thought I'd add that *NOT* having a housekeeper or cook at your sorority house is really giving you an unfair disadvantage to living on campus, even! On our dorm hall (which is the Phi Mu hall, but I know this occurs at ALL dorms here), we have a housekeeper who cleans the bathrooms and the hallway. We have chefs who prepare meals for us- it's called the CAFETERIA. Having a housekeeper and chef is not a luxury, it's just making Greek housing on par with campus housing!

[TriDeltaGal]

Originally posted by CarolinaCutie
I just thought I'd add that *NOT* having a housekeeper or cook at your sorority house is really giving you an unfair disadvantage to living on campus, even! On our dorm hall (which is the Phi Mu hall, but I know this occurs at ALL dorms here), we have a housekeeper who cleans the bathrooms and the hallway. We have chefs who prepare meals for us- it's called the CAFETERIA. Having a housekeeper and chef is not a luxury, it's just making Greek housing on par with campus housing!

CarolinaCutie,
I never thought of it this way... that is so true! I think of all those GDIs who portrayed Greeks as "spoiled" with our housekeepers and cooks...yet they had the same things in the dorms even better in some respect! Our cook made one entree a meal, we didn't have 20 choices like in the dorm cafeteria! And at UCLA, we are talking about GOOD dorm food (it is ranked I believe 2nd in nation), whereas in the house, if you didn't like the meal, it was toast and peanut butter!

Bruinaphi, the AGD house at UCLA is gorgeous...now it is student housing but if they ever came back they would have such an advantage with that house!

[Tom Earp]

Let me claify something. When I said food service, it was found that at least % of the time, when there was someone who cooked for the House, say evening meals, there could be a lot of waste becdause of what some would or would not eat.

Breakfast was Continental, (Rolls, Coffe, Milk and Juice.).

Lunch was cold cuts if anything, sandwiches.

Dinner was a meal 4 days a week. Mon.-Thur. Fri was a party night, Sat, everyone ate out, dates maybe?

Nothing on weekend as so many people did not show up for many reasons------!

So, why not find a caterer who will do the same thing, clean up and take with them.

If this doesnt work, you can sign up with The College's Food Service, Breakfast, lunch, and dinner. But here again it was for only so many days that they served, because of the above mentioned reasons.!

Remember, this dependes on the size of the School, etc.

Some schools, you sign up to go, it includes Dorms, and food service. Yo dont eat there and go out, you lose money!

In House Food Service can end up costing the Chapter Money! Just ask yourselves why?

[ISUKappa]

Caterers can be just as expensive, if not more so, than having a cook. And at some campuses, dorm meal contracts are only good for that particular dorm or at limited places on campus. Plus, it's convenience. Who wants to wake up and walk 10 minutes to go to breakfast? It's nice to have it downstairs.

Our cooks stick to a very strict food budget and that food budget is part of the house bill.

And what are you going to do when you need to have a special dinner for initation, founder's day, scholarship or parent's weekend? Can't kick everyone out of the cafeteria. Besides, I highly doubt the dorm cafeteria would have been able to make Kappa dessert or better than sex cake like our cook did!

[dakareng]

Logistics is another factor in having a cook if the house is large. Can you imagine 75 women trying to coordinate cooking separate dinners? Or store food? It's hard enough in an apartment with two roommates~ Trudging through the snow to the campus cafeteria when dorm students walk downstairs (and not all GLO houses are near the residential areas of a campus making that totally impractical). It may seem to be a luxury but having a cook can simply put you on par with the dorms. If you are lucky enough to have a talented cook, it can be so much more. Catering is, of couse, another solution but can be more expensive than a cook and provide less options.

Maybe sororities are more likely than fraternities to have a cleaning service (having been in a few houses in my time, I'd venture to guess that the women's groups House Corporations are more likely to include that in the rent... it's all a matter of priorities) but again, a lot will depend on how many residents you have. A house with 15 beds is unlikely to be able to afford (or need) the same kind of staff as one that houses 95 (and yes, there are Pi Phi houses that large).