When Gov. Andrew Cuomo hiked the minimum wage to $9 per hour in December, Auxiliary Services, did not budget for an extra $100,000 in payroll costs, according to Ruth Stevens, the director of Dining Services.

“As a business we’ve been blindsided, ” Stevens said. “It will impact this semester alone in our expenses.”

The statewide minimum wage was $8.75 prior to its increase on Dec. 31, 2015. The wage hike was an unforeseen expense in the 2015-2016 dining hall budget.

“The minimum wage has jumped dramatically over the last few years,” Stevens said. “That impacts us in a big way because we hire so many students.”

According to Stevens, the budget is prepared before the academic year.

Dining services, the premiere source for student employment, hires more than 700 students each year. They have implemented the pay raise for their workers.

Next year, however, incoming students will see the brunt of these costs added to their meal plans.

Meanwhile, current students who were promised the Oswego Guarantee, a steady rate of meal plans and board costs, will not be affected by this raise.

“The only way that we cover our expenses is with the meal plan, ” Stevens said. “We buy all of the food, all of the supplies and pay all of the employees and their benefits. Anything we make beyond our expenses stays here at Oswego State.”

During the past five years, the full-board meal plan has increased by approximately 13 percent. According to Stevens, 85 percent of Oswego State students have a full-board meal plan.

The wage increase will also affect the amount of new appliances, materials and vehicles that could be used for dining inventory and service.

Currently, Auxiliary Services funds the coinless washers and dryers. They also help offset the costs of the Oswego Centro Bus and quarterly textbooks.

“We listen to what our customers are saying,” Stevens said. “They were struggling to pay for books and it’s not that we make a lot of money on books…we wanted to find a way to help our students with expenses.”

Six days a week, C’s Farm Market at 7 Third Ave. in Oswego, is one of the many local producers that supply fresh fruits and vegetables to the dining hall.

“We run a higher food costs than some campuses because of the breadth of the things we offer,” Stevens said. “If you compare us to some of our counterparts, some people choose to offer one type of fruit per meal.”

According to Stevens, the Any 12, 9, 7 and 5 dining plans were created to accommodate different student lifestyles.

Stevens explained that many college cafeterias don’t allow students to leave with food. However, Oswego State permits students to take out one cup and one snack.

“I don’t want my managers being police people or chasing people down, ‘Oh you can’t take that with you,” Stevens said. “Everything that leaves is the cost of doing business, [but] we want it to be a friendly environment.

When students asked for a late night weekend service on west campus, Dining Services responded with the opening of weekend evening hours at Littlepage Dining Hall.

“It is an increased cost because we have to staff [and] bring the food,” Stevens said. “It was a choice of providing service. Everyone who is here reaps the benefit of that initiative.”

Littlepage Dining Hall employee, Tatyanna Morales said her job is labor intensive and she appreciates the pay raise.

“Students do work hard. Before having this job I thought it was an easy job,” Morales said. “We are in college and we do need money.”

This year, Morales sacrificed her full-board meal plan for a lower cost dining option. The benefits of her job include free meals after her evening shifts.

“Food is an essential to life,” Morales said. “I got this dining hall job because I can’t afford a [full] meal plan. I changed my meal plan to five days a week in order to be able to eat.”

For Stevens and other dining hall workers, the residents are the “heart” of their service. Together, they serve more than 10,000 meals a day across campus.

“We can’t stop serving,” Stevens said. “We are contracted to provide a service. We are going to have to look for ways to make [the budget] up.”