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TOWER
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Winter 2016
The college was primarily concerned with meeting
their students’ nutritional needs, but there was also an
initiative to provide exotic and cosmopolitan food, with
the hope of expanding both palates and minds. In 1937,
the kitchen was experimenting with international fare,
including Chinese chow mein, Italian spaghetti and chili
con carne. For those afraid to broaden their horizons,
pork and sauerkraut or beef and gravy was always a
mainstay. On special occasions, the cooks would provide
delicacies – such as a Waldorf salad, French peas and
asparagus, with angel cake or Neapolitan ice cream for
dessert – for their discerning diners. But sometimes even
the fanciest meal wasn’t enough. In one ‘Something Unusual
at Kutztown’ list, printed in the Keystonia yearbook, item
15 lists “a meal that satisfies.”Although their fare was
under fire, the kitchen staff made every effort to fill students’
bellies while balancing the budget. For three meals a day
(including dessert), students only paid $5 a week – a bargain!
Kutztown State Teacher’s College was growing, and its
facilities had to keep pace. In 1960, the teacher’s college
became Kutztown State College, and enrollment doubled
between 1959 – 1964, necessitating expansion on campus.
The Georgian Dining Hall would soon be replaced – by
popular on-campus snack bar Chez Nous (1960 – 1990)
and the South Dining Hall (1967).The future was
bright, but also messy.
In the summer of 1978,
National Lampoon’s Animal
House
was released in theatres, exhibiting the various
hijinks of the notorious Delta Tai Chi fraternity.That
fall, Kutztown students followed suit, with a massive
food fight in the dining hall.
“It was crazy,”Camille DeMarco ’81, M’01 recalled.
“People who knew it was going to happen brought
umbrellas! It started at the salad bar, and then food went
everywhere.They had to close down the dining hall for
the rest of the semester, to repaint and redo all the drap-
eries. And every student was charged $20 to help pay for
the renovations.”
In spite of the hectic period following the release of
“Animal House,”DeMarco fondly remembers meeting
up with friends for late night snacks and study breaks.
“We would go to Chez Nous and Tous Chez. I would
get a plate of pierogies or a CMP (chocolate, marshmallow
and peanut sundae). I loved them! I’d go with my friends
to the dining hall when I could, or with classmates.They
always had cottage cheese and apple butter at the salad
bar.That was the big thing. And in the winter, people
used the red trays as sleds!”
Even though apple butter and cottage cheese was a
popular item, others didn’t receive much acclaim. Boiled
celery and liver and onions were almost universally despised,
and sent students running to off-campus pizzerias. In a
letter to the Tower magazine editor, Millie Carra-Drain
’85 expressed shock that Kutztown received recognition
as the best food service facility in the Pennsylvania State
System of Higher Education.
“Can this possibly be the same institution that served
boiled celery as a side dish when I was a student?” she
questioned. “Who boils celery for Pete’s sake?…Thank
goodness for cottage cheese and apple butter, or I would
have surely starved!”
But soon, complaints about cafeteria food will be a
thing of the past. Revamped menus, building renovations
and 24/7 access are about to make South Dining Hall a
game-changer in fall 2016.
Top Left: The new
Starbucks located in the
McFarland Student Union.
Top Right: Students will
find new cuisine options
as the university converts
to a MyTime 24-hour
dining system.
Bottom: An artist’s rendering
of the new Cub Café set
to open in the spring
semester in the McFarland
Student Union.
Opposite Page: An artist’s
rendering of the Golden
Bear Food Court set to
open in fall 2016 in the
South Dining Hall.