Lately, all I hear about University Dining is how bad of a job they do. Seriously? Give me a break.

This organization has the gargantuan task of cooking and serving thousands of meals per day for students, faculty, staff and visitors.

Maybe I just have a soft spot for University Dining because of my love for the unlimited meal plan. Putting this aside, I do think they deserve more credit than they’re being given.

I’m not saying they’re perfect. In fact, I’ve shared countless suggestions with the University Dining staff. I feel like I comment so much, sometimes I wonder if they have my picture on a dart board.

What really irks me, though, is that students always complain about the dining halls.

The dining halls are all part of the college experience. Mommy and daddy are no longer cooking your meals and wiping your noses every time you have a sniffle. The purpose of college dining halls is not to bow down to your every desire and serve you lobster and champagne at your bedside; it’s to target a large population of students by offering diverse food choices.

I don’t think the dining halls do that bad of a job. I have worked in food service before on a much smaller scale of about 200 meals per day, and I can honestly say, what the dining halls are doing is not easy. It is downright impressive they do what they do while minimizing loss of quality.

It makes little sense to complain about one-time issues having fallen through the cracks simply because of the massive amounts of food cooked and served each day. Obviously, on this scale, quality is sometimes compromised.

If your lettuce in Fountain is a little limp one day, just ask for some new lettuce to be put out. I have found the employees are generally willing to help you out if the food you want is past its prime. All you have to do is ask. Problem solved, not only for you, but for the people who follow you.

Sometimes, there are recurring issues. This is the opportunity to bring the issue to the attention of a higher power. If your lettuce is limp every day one week, then it’s a much bigger quality issue and needs to be addressed by a dining hall manager. All of these people are approachable and friendly in person, and they are quick to respond to email or phone calls.

Don’t complain just to complain. If the dining halls are truly unbearable, don’t eat there. There is no reason to criticize the hard work and dedication of the University Dining staff just because they aren’t making meals that taste like the ones your parents cook.

If you do have a larger issue needing to be resolved, just remember behind every complaint or suggestion is a hard working individual getting to the root of the issue. I know this from my own experiences because I have seen improvements being made in wake of my suggestions.

Through my interactions with the University Dining team, I realized at the end of the day, they are all humans. And yes, because of this, they do sometimes make mistakes. These mistakes are perfectly understandable when running a large-scale operation like University Dining.

What sets them apart, though, is their ability to respond and correct their mistakes and their relentless drive to make a good thing even better.