Morrisville State College students bake holiday cheer

MORRISVILLE, NY—Thirty years. Three thousand eggs. More than 4,000 pies. Those are some of the top tallies from the International Food Service Executives Association’s (IFSEA) pie sale throughout the years at Morrisville State College. 



The annual tradition, timed around the holidays, is led by Morrisville State College professor Joan Johnson, who started the labor of love as a fundraiser for IFSEA and has guided its success through three decades.



“This fundraiser is very important for IFSEA,” Johnson explained. “It allows us to attend international seminars and conferences, which also provide students with valuable networking opportunities in the hospitality industry.”



This year’s massive baking endeavor involved more than 20 students from the Hospitality Technology Department, travel and tourism, culinary arts and resort and recreation service management programs, who gathered at 4 a.m. in the kitchen of Seneca Dining Hall to bake 64 pumpkin and 75 apple crumb pies.



The pies are destined for faculty, staff and students and members of the community who purchased them earlier this year. 



Some are also headed to goodwill. “We bake extra pies every year for local charities and people in the community who are down on their luck,” Johnson said. 



Students had different roles in the sale. Resort and recreation management student Jessica Jones, from Phoenix, served as chair.



It was Nyeenya Brownlee’s first time making a pie. The travel and tourism student from Brooklyn expressed excitement at the chance to learn a new skill and to bond with fellow IFSEA members.



“The hardest part? The crumb topping,” she admitted. The mixture of butter, oats, sugars and flour formed a golden heap atop the apple pies, which were baked this year with Granny Smiths. 



The project serves up more than pies. “It’s just a great experience overall for students,” said Johnson, whose graduates are often sought by industry for jobs based on their vast skillsets. 



“It’s like running a business,” she said noting the process that involved students devising and printing order forms, selling pies, completing a spreadsheet of costs, collecting money and paying bills.



“It is a lot of work, but students put their all into this project every year,” Johnson said. 



Morrisville State College’s curricula are enriched with applied learning and pave the way for opportunity at both the Morrisville and Norwich campuses. An action-oriented, interactive learning lab, the college is a national leader in technology and has been lauded for its exemplary, innovative and effective community service programs. 



The college was ranked among the Best Regional Colleges in the North by U.S. News and World Report Best Colleges 2018 issue and was also recognized in the Top Public Schools, Regional Colleges North in the 2018 Best Colleges rankings.