Inside the Magic of Servo’s Themed Dinners

Posted By Ella Prieto on Dec 4, 2024 | 0 comments

A student balancing plates at the 2013 Fall Carnival event. (Photo provided by Dining Services)

This article originally appeared on page 2 and 3 of the No. 1 December 2024 edition of The Gettysburgian magazine.

By Ella Prieto, Managing Editor

Every few months, Gettysburg College’s Servo dining center replaces the mundaneness of everyday dinners by transforming the space and hosting special themed dinners. These past years have spanned the Wizarding World, Red Carpet Music Awards, Mardi Gras, BooFest, Servo Thanksgiving and more. What students may not realize, however, is that themed dinners have a rich and long history at the College.

“I’ve been here 36 years, and I always remember us doing theme dinners,” explained Director of Dining Services Deb Hydock. “And they were done even before that.”

These dinners have of course changed as years pass, most notably with the incorporation of social media. Now, the themes are often chosen through Instagram polls open to the entire campus community, with Servo staff then voting on the final choice.

Sous-chef Anna Fetter elaborated on how the dinners have evolved with social media, saying “[Social media] makes it easier. It’s fun to be creative and lean into the theme when you’re promoting it.”

Student dining coordinator Sladana Zigic also mentioned how Servo enjoys including students who come dressed up for the theme, highlighting that on social media as well. Still, much of the work for these dinners has stayed the same, such as the staff’s work in creating decorations.

Servo Thanksgiving 2024. (William Oehler/The Gettysburgian)

Planning begins several months before the dinner, with Fetter, Zigic and administrative assistant Lindsay Stevens setting the groundwork before going to Hydock and other managers with their ideas.

“We take inspiration from Pinterest, Google searches and try to use as much stuff in-house as possible,” began Fetter. “And then people donate things.”

Such donations include the CDs and albums used for last year’s Red Carpet Music Awards given and the sticks to make the brooms for this year’s Wizarding World dinner by Dining Services support staff.

After obtaining all the needed materials, Fetter stated that they “just craft all summer long.” Setting up a station in the back of Servo that is not used during the summer, the staff paint, glue and more. This semester, however, they also reached out to the Innovation and Creativity Lab for the Wizarding World dinner, which provided 3D printing for the three-headed dog and the Basilisk head.

Past partnerships have included local businesses, such as Battlefield Harley-Davidson, which loaned motorcycles to Servo for a Bike Night theme dinner. Additionally, the campus daycare has provided coloring pages for events such as the Night of Enchantment. The Office of Student Activities and Greek Life, the Majestic Theater and the College’s theater arts department have donated props to borrow as well. Certain events, such as the French Dinner, are made possible through collaboration with other College departments.

A poster from March 2006 advertising the Servo dinner event “into the Jungle.” (Photo provided by Dining Services)

Servo staff are immensely proud of their work for the theme dinners. Fetter commented, “We’re all so proud of what we accomplished that night, so everyone tries to bring their families in to see what the building transforms into.”

This work is even more impressive considering the team typically has only two hours to finish theme dinner setups due to time constraints related to serving and cleaning up lunch, which ends at 1:30 p.m. However, the staff say that the planning and setup of the theme dinners serves as an enjoyable team-building experience.

Commenting on why Servo does theme dinners, Hydock said “From my perspective, we’ve always looked at them as monotony breakers, and it’s something different from regular dining. And I’ve said for years, we do them as much for ourselves as we do for our students because we have a lot of fun.”

The work is also recognized by the National Association of College and University Food Services. Colleges and universities across the country compete based on four criteria: menu selection, marketing, merchandising and presentation and overall impression. Most recently, Servo won silver for its work on the Red Carpet Music Awards dinner.

More valuable than awards, dining staff say, is positive student feedback.