Staff Stories: Marisa Ciotoli
At Cornell Catering, the end of an event doesn’t necessarily mean the end of a meal.
As the evening stretches toward 8 p.m. and the last guests begin to depart from Ithaca’s Stewart Park, tables are cleared and the bustle of that night’s event starts to fade. Behind the scenes, however, catering staff are taking a closer look at what remains — and considering where it might go next.
Sorting through leftover food and checking temperatures, Marisa Ciotoli, banquet manager at Cornell Catering, and her team carefully package the food that can be salvaged, preparing it for volunteers from a local food organization who will arrive later that night to help deliver it to community organizations.
For the catering team, it’s one final task before the night is over. For Ciotoli, that extra step has become one of the most rewarding parts of the job — a way to make sure good food doesn’t go to waste.