By COLE REIF
Great Bend Post
Coming off the Christmas break, Barton Community College Board of
Trustees members asked administration how the college handles students staying
on campus during the breaks, specifically with the cafeteria closed.
Barton Athletic Director Trevor Rolfs was quoted earlier this month about the
challenges of feeding student athletes healthy options over the break.
RELATED STORY: Cafeteria is closed, but mouths to feed on Barton's campus
Barton Vice President of Administration Mark Dean told the trustees at Tuesday’s
study session that the college contracts a certain number of “meal days” with
their food service provider. During the 2022-2023 school year, Barton is paying
for 226 “meal days”. Each meal day is based off however many students are in
housing, or the dorms. Barton reported 398 students living on campus this fall
semester. If the college leaves the cafeteria open over the breaks for a couple
dozen students on campus, Barton is still charged for the 398 on-campus number.
"We took some of those days away that we were feeding," said Dean. "We took some of those dollars away. We put those dollars in various accounts. For those students required to come back early, for example a team, Trevor (Rolfs) has the funds to provide meals for them for that period of time."
Dean referred to the athletic department receiving “extra money” to cover the
meals for student athletes required to be on campus during the break.
Rolfs
mentioned churches, civic organizations, businesses and staff members help feed
the students as well. Barton President Dr. Carl Heilman echoed that statement saying
somehow it all comes together.
"The Barton culture just identifies and comes to presence to people, employees and community members that there is a need and they address it," said Heilman. "So it's hard to determine how many people are going to be here and for how many meals during a break at a time. Efforts do come together, such as at a Thanksgiving dinner, where 80 students who remained here locally received a meal. It was all done by donations and good will."
Of those 398 living on campus, 83% were reported to be involved with athletics.
Dean said it is not just the international students that remain on campus. He
spoke with a student from Wichita in November that needed to remain on campus for
a portion of the break because he had a part-time job.