1 in 8700: Margaret Brande

Middlebury students enjoy a uniquely flexible and varied dining experience. Unhindered by a restrictive meal plan, students can come and go as the please during the morning, afternoon and evening and enjoy freshly prepared arranged foods from a variety of fresh local sources. Every day, students can choose from a colorful array of produce that includes local fruits, vegetables, dairy products and other items. Dining services use food from 47 fresh, local sources to put together a varied menu for the students. This cornucopia makes it easy for students to overlook the many hardworking dining services employees that go to great lengths to provide them with a top notch dining experience.

One of these tireless employees is Margaret Brande. A 5’2’’ woman with a gentle smile, she grew up in the southern part of Ireland before moving to London for better job opportunities. While living in London with friends she met her future husband, a native Vermonter, and the couple moved to Vermont in November 1974.
Brande was initially apprehensive about the move, but she quickly adapted to her new life in Vermont thanks to the strikingly similar natural features that she found in Middlebury.

“[There are] lots of greens, lots of trees,” said Brande. “They remind me of Ireland.”

Brande came to feel at home in the green pastures and mountains of Vermont, and was soon busy looking after her two children, who ended up unintentionally leading her into the catering industry. While her children attended Cornwall Elementary School, Brande got involved at the school and initiated a lunch program where she single-handedly managed lunch services for  120 people. She planned the menu with a limited budget from the government, cooked every day and distributed lunch boxes to each student. When her children graduated from high school, she decided to try something different.

“I was looking for change,” said Brande. “I [was] looking for adults — not kids. So I was looking for Middlebury College, and I landed a job!”

In no time, her Middlebury career took off. She started as a café barrista at the rehearsal café on the ground floor of the Kevin P. Mahaney Center for the Arts, and then worked at the Grille. She currently works in Proctor dining hall at the language tables in the Redfield Proctor Dining Room during weekdays. Despite the long days she spends in Proctor, Brande loves her work.

“I love working in the dining [halls],” said Brande. “It’s fast-paced, it’s always on the go. You see different students, which is fun. I have the best boss in the world and the best colleagues that you can ever ask for.”

She enjoys having conversations with different students over the course of her workday, and works hard to make sure that they are satisfied with their meals. In fact, Brande views students as more than just customers and strives to accommodate their particular situations and needs.

“These are students who are in a hurry, who try to eat between classes,” said Brande. “We help them to keep them full and stay in great shape for classes.”
Brande said she enjoys interacting with students and takes mental notes of all the small gestures through which students show their appreciation.

“Students are really appreciative of what we are doing,” said Brande. “When they ask for something, they say ‘please;’ when we help them to get something, they say ‘thank you very much.’ That is nice.”

Brande sees the dining hall as something of a cultural intersection — a place where students and faculty from diverse backgrounds can get together and exchange ideas and have meaningful conversations. Another benefit she described was having the opportunity to reach out to people from all regions, states and countries.

“That is what college life is about,” said Brande. “Sitting with different people and meet[ing] those kinds of people that you have never met before. … I consider myself international and people [here] are from all different states and countries. To me [it] is interesting [to] … try to get to know where [different people] are from and what their place is like, so you can know more about the world.”