From the vault: How Ted Minah changed the C&U segment

College enrollment soared in the U.S. after World War II as returning servicemen took advantage of the generous tuition assistance provided under the G.I. Bill. University foodservice directors had to find a way of feeding a much larger student body before the supply process had fully rebounded to pre-war levels.  

To further complicate matters, the soldiers-turned-students wanted better fare than what they’d been fed by Uncle Sam. They were done with roughing it. In addition to delivering more volume, operations had to aim for higher quality.  

Among the directors facing those challenges was a dishwasher turned self-taught cook named Theodore W. Minah, or Ted to his friends. He had worked his way up to head of foodservices for Duke University by January 1946 and was determined to make his operations more than just a source of breakfast, lunch, and dinner. In his vision, dining halls would be the catalyst for bettering the students’ lives and society as a whole. It would be his quest for the 28 years he spent at Duke. 

Minah proved a master at the culinary, service and operations aspects of the business. But he aimed for more. He wanted the school’s dining halls to be places where students of different backgrounds could interact socially. After Duke started accepting Black students in the early 1960s, that desire extended to seeing persons of different races forging relationships, a radical idea at the time for a university in North Carolina. 

He also smudged the line between students and foodservice workers, about 90% of whom were Black. Minah is reputed to be the first college and university foodservice director to hire much of his staff from the student body—another outlandish idea for the times. 

So, too, was his take on service times. The break between the end of dinner and the start of breakfast was too much for many students. They would often stash and cook food in their dorms, attracting pests and creating unsanitary conditions. An underground market for food arose.  

In 1950, Duke sanctioned the creation of “chowmen,” or students who were permitted to hawk snacks, treats, and sandwiches like the food vendors at baseball stadiums. Like the hot dog and beer sellers at sport facilities, the chowmen received a commission on their sales, meaning the food was the only upfront cost for the university. 

The program ended after Duke installed vending machines in the early 1960s, another innovation logged during Minah’s long tenure. 

His head-turning work would earn Minah a Silver Plate in the College & Universities category in 1968.  

Minah’s influence on the business prompted the National Association of College and University Food Services (NACUFS) to change the name of its most prestigious award to the Theodore W. Minah Distinguished Service Award . The first recipient: Ted Minah. 

He left Duke in 1974. By then, the university was serving 15,000 meals per day out of 12 dining halls.  

Minah died in 1991 at age 82.