Off the Dome: Campus Dining Edition

North Dining Hall is a busy place. On any given day, over 5,000 students will swipe in to enjoy their Southwest Salads and General Tso’s tofu. Between the snaking food lines and crowded tables, it’s easy to get lost in the shuffle.

DeRhon Pines

DeRhon Pines — better known as “Mr. NDH” — doesn’t let his regulars become just another face in the crowd. As the closing manager at North Dining Hall, you can often find him walking from table to table, greeting students by name and asking how their midterms went. “You wake up and you don't mind going to work, you know?” he explained.

Yet, if you had told Pines five years ago that he'd find fulfillment as a campus dining manager, he would have laughed. In college, he dreamed of being a lawyer — and his dream came true. He graduated from Purdue University, got into law school and landed an internship at a great law firm.

But during that internship, Pines realized something. “Everybody made great money, but they were just miserable,” he explained. “I just [couldn’t] see myself doing that.”

So Pines did the one thing a high-achiever is never supposed to do: He quit. “It was the best decision I’ve ever made,” he said. 

Now at Notre Dame, Mr. Pines’ job isn't about climbing the social ladder or maximizing profit. His work is keeping Notre Dame’s students fed — but it’s about more than that. From curating the music to asking his regulars about how they did on exams, Mr. Pines wants to make everyone who enters the dining hall feel like they belong.

“This is students’ home away from home,” he explained. “This is their kitchen. This is their living room. Just having those little interactions, and being the person who actually cares about how [their] day is ... it made me really solidify my love for what I do.” 

Matthew Bower

Meet another campus dining hero at Notre Dame: Matthew Bower.

Mr. Bower is the manager of Decio, a small cafe nestled into the first floor of Decio Faculty Hall. “Either we’re your favorite place on campus, or you’ve never heard of us,” he laughs. 

Despite flying under the radar, the cafe has developed a cult-like following over the years. When Decio is closed, many regulars opt to bring lunch from home rather than eat elsewhere on campus. Others are loyal because of the cafe’s vegan options: “We know that certain vegans like a certain vegan soup on a certain day. If we don't see them, we'll actually save a soup for them so they have leftovers,” Bower explains. 

This attentiveness leaves an impression on the people Decio serves. “One of our friendliest regulars actually chose to be a grad student at Notre Dame because she liked the cafe so much,” Bower said.

Bower goes the extra mile for his staff, too. He often lets his workers infuse Decio’s menu with their own personal touch — items like “Janet's Chicken Sub” are the result of a worker’s signature dish making it to the official menu. During finals week, he makes his senior student workers their favorite off-the-menu items as graduation gifts. And for Thanksgiving, Bower makes a “cheese pot” dish for the staff to enjoy together: “It’s one of our student worker’s favorites, but it’s never been on the menu because the brie is too expensive. So I actually pay for that and bring it from home,” he says.

This is why Bower loves what he does — the soup-saving, the staff celebrations, the small gestures that mean something bigger. “Food is just a conduit for service,” Bower explained.

For both Bower and Pines, filling empty stomachs is the job description. But making people feel seen — leaving a lasting impression on every person they serve — is the real work. And that’s a pursuit worth waking up for.