Centenary students and faculty dine in the cafeteria several times daily. While doing so, they interact with the contracted Sodexo staff, who cook and serve them food. Although these staff members are familiar faces, not much is known about them as people outside of their professions. For filling such integral roles on campus, the Sodexo staff should be highlighted and appreciated by those benefiting from their service and hospitality. Too often, students and faculty get caught up in the hurried pace of everyday life and miss the chance to form friendships with the cafeteria staff whom they see so often. Especially with the increased popularity of mobile apps through which people can order food and bypass human interaction altogether, fewer people still find value in face-to-face interactions. Although due to their busy schedules, college students often find it more convenient to order food through mobile apps like Doordash and Grubhub, there is actually more value in taking a moment to meet and greet food service staff in the cafeteria. 

I keep this notion in mind as I approach the vegan station. From the corner of my eye, I can see students start to trickle into the cafeteria. Luckily, most of them head towards the Homestyle station adjacent to the Vegan station, affording me a moment alone with Ms. Carbon A. Brown. She is the head chef of the Vegan station and Safety Coordinator of the cafeteria. It is 11:30 a.m. at the time I arrive. We talk as the room around me buzzes with activity. The dining staff never slows down, teasing each other and prepping their stations for the students who will soon flood in at exactly 12:00 p.m.

I ask Brown, who prefers to be called “Ms. Carbon” because that is what her brother named her, where she is from and what she was doing before she came to Centenary. She tells me she was living in Jacksonville, FL., until she came back home to Shreveport, LA., in 2014 to visit her family. That was when her brother fell ill, and she stayed in Shreveport to help her sister care for him. After that, she never left and began working in 2015 for Sodexo at Centenary.

Ms. Carbon has always had a passion for food that began long before she started working at Centenary. She even got her bachelor’s degree in Culinary Arts from Virginia College. Her love for cooking started when she was, as she describes, “growing up little” and watching her brother and mother bake in the kitchen. These days, she especially loves cooking international cuisines and adapting them for the vegan station. “As far as cooking international cuisine, I have learned to make Italian, Latin American, Caribbean, African, and Asian food,” she tells me. “I was stationed in Naples, Italy, with my husband for three and a half years. My real passion came from when we were stationed in Okinawa, Japan. There, I watched a mother and son cook. She taught me a lot of Japanese cuisines,” Ms. Carbon explains as she starts to heat up some meatless chicken in a skillet. Her nature, as she seasons the imposter chicken, is focused but comfortable like she has done this a million times.

I then ask her what she enjoys doing outside of work in the cafeteria. “I love plays and the beach, but in Shreveport, there isn’t much I can do that I like to do. I go down to the theater to listen to the symphony. If Centenary has an event, I like to go to it,” she replies. “My main thing is jazz,” she says as a huge smile spreads across her face. She breaks away from her stern and guarded disposition to say, “I am a huge jazz buff. I love going to the Highland Jazz and Blues Festival in the summer. I like to sit out on the lawn to listen to all different kinds of jazz.” One of her favorite events is the Catalina Island JazzTrax Festival in California.

Aside from cooking and jazz, her other loves are her dogs, Mr. M.J. and Ms. Francis. Over the years, Ms. Carbon has frequently gushed over them and shared what shenanigans they have gotten into. Mr. M.J. is a full-blooded shih tzu whose fourth birthday is in April. “I named him Mr. M.J. because he looks like Mighty Joe,” she clarifies. According to Ms. Carbon, Ms. Francis is Mr. M.J. 's little sister and a shih tzu-chihuahua mix, who she rescued from an abusive home. Although she could fit in a teacup at first, Ms. Francis is now “big and feisty.” 

Ms. Carbon says working at Centenary “has its ups and downs,” but she carefully emphasizes that she loves her job at the Vegan Station and the students that eat there. She credits her love for cooking and serving food to her strong faith, saying, “I do everything in the name of Jesus. He and God are my Provider, and that’s why I am successful in the things that I do.” She gains inspiration from her students and her General Manager, Shanta, who she says always pushes her to do her best. Perhaps this is why Ms. Carbon frequently goes the extra mile to provide new dishes to the vegan students. She occasionally purchases ingredients with her own money so that vegan students will always have a new dish to try. The vegan students are grateful for this because it lets them know someone actually cares about their diet and takes the time to create something special rather than being served an unfulfilling salad. Sophomore Tarif Islam, a pescatarian who frequents the vegan station, says he and Ms. Carbon grew closer because of their shared love for Japanese culture and their similar experiences of living there for a period of time. Islam notes, “anytime Ms. Carbon is not in the cafeteria, the only food available for me are French fries and maybe a salad…if I’m lucky.”

She even takes her job a step further by encouraging the students that frequent her station to stay positive during challenging times, both academically and personally. “I love to go the extra mile simply because God gives me strength and wisdom. His son, Jesus, walks beside me every day. I just love my students and interacting with them. I love making them laugh. That’s why when they come in feeling sad and looking down, I say, ‘nah, we are not gonna do that today.’ I just have to be myself, and I can’t pretend to be anything else,” says Ms. Carbon.

Taking a few minutes to talk with Ms. Carbon revealed many personal details about her life that most students may never have known about. It is important for those hoping to receive a liberal arts education to take the time to forge simple human connections with people from all backgrounds and professions by seeing people beyond the services they provide us. 

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