The cafeteria won the excellence award!? With the award, the caf received $100,000, which will be spent on a giant cotton candy machine, a swimming pool in the caf and a trampoline the size of a football field. I know what you are thinking, “It’s about time,” and I agree.

It’s about time they get credit for their salisbury steak and honey mustard chicken, their Bruegger’s Bagels and tofu.

What organization granted this award? Well it’s similar to the cafeteria’s meat; a mystery.

During this past week I’ve been spreading the good news all around campus, but all the responses I’ve gotten were questions.

Junior Rachel Dede asked a question about the organization who gave our cafeteria the cash prize.

“Wow!” responded Dede. “How many other schools’ cafeterias did they eat at?”

After I shared the exciting news with junior Ryan Vary, I received a sequence of questions, which I tried to answer the best I could.

“Who gave the caf this award?”

“Not sure.”

“When did this happen?”

“No one knows.”

“What does the excellence award mean?”

“Couldn’t tell ya.”

Rumors suggest that a Public Safety officer won the lottery and made the award, but this myth was soundly dispelled. “This isn’t a Public Safety issue, it’s a community issue,” said Director of Public Safety Ron Stowe. “We’re all impacted by this.”

It may not seem like it, but there are a few things I do know. Although I don’t know squat about the award, I do know a lot about the ever-so-popular caf. In fact, I’m an expert.

The cafeteria and I have been through a lot, good meals and bad.

I’ve had their pasta and Italian beef sandwiches, plenty of their tacos and chicken, dozens of delicious cheeseburgers and a couple of veggie burgers, which were in the cheeseburger tray.

The mac-and-cheese makes my stomach rumble and thinking about their lasagna makes my mouth water.

The caf prepares a mean stir-fry and the international station always hits the spot.

With Guilford “going green,” it’s pretty cool that the caf saved 978 gallons of water last month by using different types of napkins. Now the tough part is just getting the napkins out of those little containers.

It’s good to see their mind in a greener place.

The caf does a great job of not wasting food, as I’ve seen Monday night’s pees hidden inside Tuesday’s chicken casserole.

Creative touches applied to their meals should be credited. Last weeks’ breakfast consisted of French toast bagels. I couldn’t decide if I wanted to pour on maple syrup or spread on creme cheese.

Although their “eggs” make my stomach turn, their new hash browns rock my world.

I applaud the addition of breadsticks and occasional seafood dinners.

I’ve had fun experimenting with their crazy ways of making a pizza, and all their wide varieties of soups.

I raise my glass of Pepsi, not Coke, in honor of the caf.

I’m looking forward to the sugar highs from the cotton candy, doing a back flip on the humongous trampoline and getting a huge stomachache from swimming after eating a plate of mac-and cheese.

Keep up the excellence and maybe we can get a jungle gym in Hege Library next year.