OK, now we’re talking.  I have had guesses coming in fast and furious on how much we spent on gloves this last year.  Remember, the winner will get a free Quiznos sandwich every week for a full semester.  Here is a sample of what I’ve received:

Hey, my guess is that OU Food Services spent $10,000 on plastic gloves last year.

$6250.00 spent on gloves.

I am guessing that OU Food Services spent $1,218.77 on rubber gloves last year. MMM, I can't wait to eat all those free sammiches! I await your prize.

Hmmm...I like Quiznos, So to your glove problem I would guess probably less, but approx. 108,000 Dollars a year? Just seems like a good number.

So I love how i was the only one to respond to the glove cost contest. 

I dont know how long you have had chicken fingers at crossroads, but they are amazing, so much better then cate.  They may be the same thing, but they are nice and warm when you get them and just are so much better to eat.  You should also look into getting curly fries in hot bar like what is in crossroads as a side. again i am guess $1,700.00 i look forward to my sandwiches =)

think that we spent, $12,000 all last year.  Couch, Union, Catering, Cate, Athletic department, and other place included :):)  mmmmm sandwhich!

My guess is $1758

Dave, I'm going to say ... $16,000.

I think spend around $6,000.00 on gloves!

Dave, My guess is that Food Services spent $1500 on gloves last year.

Okay, so I attempted to be at least mildly scientific about this:

1,917 person-hours worked per week, 69,012 person-hours worked per year (counting the summer as 1/4) 690,012 gloves used if the average person uses about 5 pairs an hour. $20.80 per 4/100ct of Sysco 100-SG14-CPSYS gloves (you probably get a better deal in bulk on these but this is all to be found) = $35,880 :)

$15,069.71

$2929 in glove purchases

$35,500.00

my guess is $10,000

My guess for the how much is spent, is $1200.  Thanks

I'm going to guess you spend about $40 thousand annually on gloves...

Dear Mr. Annis, This was a tough one but I would like to guess $29,999.01 (in the true "price is right" style of guessing).

Hi Dave! My guess is that Food Services spends about $28,000 per year on gloves.

Hi Dave: I love your Kitchen Comments.  I read the one sent to Matt Hamilton each week.  My student employee eats something from Quiznos just about every day so I have encouraged her to submit an answer to your trivia question.  We did some brainstorming about this today and did some research via the web and decided to each submit a guess.  We’ll see if we get close.  Considering the gloves cost approximately $5.00 per box of 100 and we counted approximately 20 eating establishments on campus, and we searched for the number of employees; however, we didn’t have enough time to figure out how many employees would be in food services and we figure not every Food Services employee would be using the gloves but you could easily use a box of 100 per day at each establishment so, I would like to make a wild guess of $13,560.00 was spent on plastic gloves last year in all of the campus operations combined.

I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that you spent $5600 on plastic gloves last year.

Dave, Thanks for everything food services does, it's the best. My guess for the contest is $3,001.

$18,900!

I love the thought process that many of you went through to come up with the answers.  A few folks said they looked up the cost of a box of gloves on the web.  I’m not sure where the person who guessed the number of hours worked etc, etc, came up with those numbers …..  They were very close, but not quite close enough.  OK, now for the winner……  The amount we spent on gloves this past school year was …..

$32,112.98

We did not run this actual number until 5 pm Thursday afternoon, well after the contest was closed so even I had only a guesstamation up to that time.

Calculating all of the answers, the closest is the guess of $29,999.01 (in the true Price is Right style of guessing).  So the winner is:  Charlotte Griffin

Congratulations to Charlotte and I hope all of you had fun with this.  I think it truly is amazing on how much is spent on something as simple (but important) as gloves. 

Your Comments:

Dear Dave, I eat at Block&Barrel all the time and I have noticed a trended that causes me great concern. The sandwich makers making a Philly cheese steak and grab a piece of what looks like raw meat and throws it on the grill then finish the sandwiches and go make more without changing their gloves. That is gross if they touch raw meat then they should at least change their gloves before touching any other food. I am sure that, that is against the health code.  There is only one person that I ever see making an effort not to touch the raw meat or changing her gloves. I am sure there is a simply solution to such a problem such as using tongs to grab the raw meat instead of their hands that way they will not contaminated their gloves in the process.

Don’t you just love the irony of it all?  It looks like we should have spent another nickel on a few more gloves.  I agree with you, if the meat is raw then this is a clear violation of correct sanitation practices and it needs to stop immediately.  I appreciate you bringing this to my attention.  Please e-mail me with your name and address and I’ll send you a couple of coupons for a free Quiznos sandwich too.

I'm a little upset at the way my comment was treated, I wasn't complaining about the fact that Wal-Mart charges less for the cookies, my problem was that they charge less than half of Xcetra! (2.00 vs 4.50) even with the volume they buy at, I don't see how it could be half of what you charge. (if i am wrong i apologize for the trouble but I would like an explanation)

I’m sorry that I didn’t answer your question as you would have liked.  I really didn’t get into specifics, thinking the “generic” answer would do. I will check on the pricing and I will get this information to you next week.  We have priced items incorrectly in the past, I should have followed through better.

Next time, instead of keeping Burger King, you should put in a Crossroads Jr.! You could have mini sandwiches, such as mini burgers and little grilled cheeses, and students could mix and match!  And you could have a restaurant logo of a schooner with big googly eyes.  It'd be perfect!

A schooner with big googly eyes?  You had me up to that point.  I get the small sandwiches and the Crossroads Jr. idea but why big googly eyes? 

Hey Dave, Love the alternative of free/fair trade coffee at Crossroads and Roscoes!  Just wondering why I don’t get the Sooner Cents discount at Roscoes?

Right now we are only offering the 5% Sooner Sense discount at the Union where about 95% of the Sooner Sense spent on campus is spent.  We wanted to encourage folks to deposit money onto Sooner Sense and to then use it at the Union. 

Dave - I tried BK for breakfast today. The service was looooong, but I won't complain about that since the food was good and fresh. Dave, here's the problem: there were only two people working total, and today is the Big Event. Someone made a poor staffing call. Next year, I think it would be best to look ahead and make sure the service can accommodate the groups of students participating in Big Event. Side note: Even though he was literally jogging around the kitchen trying to help his cooking buddy out, and he had to leave the register unattended for ten minutes at a time, the guy working the register was fabulous (he was wearing a black dress shirt). He deserves some much needed recognition for working so hard - practically all by himself.

I failed to let BK know that the Big Event was taking place on Saturday.  Most of the FS managers understand the significance of this but I dropped the ball as far as BK is concerned.  I appreciate the comment and the side note about how hard the folks were working.

Appreciate the cage-free eggs!

We are now using all cage free eggs at Crossroads.  Initial reports are all positive.  We also have a cage free pasteurized egg product coming in for making things like French toast and omelets.  Just like with milk, the pasteurization process makes the eggs safer from micro-organisms.

I go eat at Block&Barrel all the time and for the most part I recieve excellent service and food. However, there are two older women, Onnie and Bessie that work during the day that are just rude. They are rude and yell at the customers and the other workers. I do not understand if these two women can not be polite maybe they should be put into postions that do not involve working with people.

First let me start by sharing with you the answer to your e-mail that I received back from the Cate manager Arty.  “Sometimes what a customer thinks is yelling is trying to talk louder because of the noise of the exhaust hoods.  I have trouble hearing customers especially when they are talking into the hot bar. “

He is 100% correct.  I find myself asking people to repeat themselves more and more.  Any kind of background noise is bothersome.  Our student employees don’t have a hard time hearing over the fan noise but us “older” people do.  My son thinks it’s cool to have a phone ringtone that his mom and I can’t hear.  At age 51 I test out with only about half the hearing I had at 30.  This really sucks for conversations in restaurants or any place with higher background noise.  Headphones don’t work as well either, not nearly the stereo separation they once had.  So while I understand why you think our employees are rude, I really think it’s the background noise combined with older ears that’s causing the problems.  I hope you can cut us “geezers” a little slack, someday 30 years from now you’ll say to yourselves “hey, now I know what Dave was talking about…..”

Dave... What happened to the snickerdoodle in cate? I remember towards the beginning of last semester there was every cookie imaginable in cate, but I haven't seen snickerdoodle! I heart snickerdoodle cookies, and sometimes I want it with my wrap. I know they're in couch express, but could you try and get some of the snickerdoodley love to cate?

I’m sure we can arrange that.

Dear Dave, I know that we buy a lot, if not all, our desserts for the Sooner Sweet Shoppe from La Baguette.  I'm not complaining at all - they are all very tasty!  I was wondering if we do or could make desserts in the kitchen.  If so, I would LOVE to have Mango Cheesecake!!  Also, I was curious as to whether or not the cooks would make a favorite meal of mine as long as it can be mass produced.  Thanks for your time and reply. - Jessie

Thanks for including the recipe.  We had one of our cooks make up the Mango Cheesecake and it was at the Sooner Sweet Shoppe on Friday.  I sent you an e-mail, I hope you got it.  If you missed it, don’t distress, we will serve it again this week.

I have kept my comments bottled up long enough! I was in cate the other day and very spontaneously decided to write all the comments I had on into the comment/ suggestion box next to the soda machine. After I had done so, a couple of people told me that you don't check them. This disappointed me. Say it isn't so Dave, say it isn't so!!!! It has to be a lie, right?!? Otherwise, why would it be there? I can't see it as being for decor, 'cause let's face it- it ain't that pretty. Also, I am a fan of the newly implemented sauciliciousness at B&B. What's next? Orange Fanta?

I won’t lie to you, I don’t stop by and pick up the comments everyday like I used to.  I get so many sent by e-mail now that I don’t have this burning need to get them every morning.  Oh, there was a time that I couldn’t start the day without the comments from the night before…..  I’ve tried to let go a little.  I’m glad you like the new sauce variety at B&B!

I do however still get your comments.  In fact I picked up this next comment in the Cate box just today.

Dave, Buddy!  I went to the weather center to check it out and I was so surprised to see that all I could check out were the bathrooms!  They were nice, but I really wanted to try out the café.  I was totally bummed when the receptionist / security told me “bathroom and back” was my access limit.  She then told me that she wasn’t too sure that students could eat there!  What is that about?  If we can’t eat there, who can?!?  Could you please look into that?  Cause it was not cool.

I am really sorry about you being turned away.  I have always been under the impression that students could go to the Café to eat.  I will forward this on to Dean Snow and see if he can help us here.

Block and Barrel should invest in some Hummus for their wraps.

I’ll bet we can do that too.  Give us a week OK?