With growing concerns of international students who are clamoring for foods representing their countries, Sodexho is trying to address their requests.
“Just give me more time, I have ideas. Be patient,” said Julius Quimpo, 44-year old culinary arts graduate of Johnson and Wales University.

Executive Chef Julius Quimpo, one of three culinary representatives who arrived last fall from Toluene University in New Orleans, La., under the Sodexho corporation. Quimpo’s job in the dining hall is to head the cooks in Lee’s small but highly multicultural community, but he also seems to care about the needs of international students.
Recently, several international students have found the cafeteria unsatisfying.

“I feel like I am wasting my time and my money whenever I go to the dining hall. It has come to a stage where I have to know what they have first before I swipe my card,” said Gerard Bilibe, a sophomore pre-med (biology major) and an international student from Nigeria.

Freshman Adeeko Adebayo also said that besides academic reasons, he came to Lee because he assumed Nigerian cuisines were served occasionally. These kinds of comments, among others, are the common responses from international students who are asked what they do not like about Lee. Fortunately for the international student body, Quimpo asserted that by Saturday, Feb. 16, a paradigm shift will take place.

He says that he will convert Saturdays to international students’ cuisine day, serving dishes from countries like Nigeria, Nepal, Venezuela, Bohemia and other countries represented by Lee’s international students. He also said he will be starting this revolutionary change in earnest on Feb. 16 for Nigerians, Feb. 23 for Nepalese and Feb. 30 for Venezuelans and so on. When the list is exhausted, he will start again, as in a rotational technique.

Besides satisfying international students, which he considers an important task, he also expressed his concerns over food waste. Quimpo believes that food waste is a function of maturity.

“It depends on the maturity of the individual and their various mind frames, I think. There is food abundance, that’s why there’s huge waste,” he said.

He said he also believes that no matter what method is employed to curb food waste, it will always exist. He talked about the fall in employment rate of students by the corporation this spring as being due to the fact that they now have fewer mouths to feed.

“We employ more during the fall semester because new students enroll and sign up for meal plans,” Quimpo said.
Quimpo, who enjoys his work and finds it very interesting, thinks that chefs are a bunch of overworked and underpaid professionals. He hopes to visit Nairobi under the United Nations to cook for underfed people and riot victims.
Quimpo emphasized that he has budgets within which he must stay, but he has the international students’ population at heart and he has shown this by conducting surveys whose results he hopes to take into consideration for the satisfaction of all and sundry.