Virgil Craven knows full well the sage advice “one bad apple will spoil the whole barrel,” and he applies the rule daily to his career.

Craven is responsible for supplying the six Food Service locations on campus with fresh produce daily. He has racked up 35 years of experience at his job with Food Stores, a storehouse located on the East Side of Friley Hall across from Lake LaVerne. And he has a penchant for dealing with salesmen.

“I’ve been doing this for 35 years because I like meeting people. I like the communications skills. You get to talk to a lot of salesman,” Craven said.

Food is channeled first through Food Stores and then to Food Service. After deliveries from food suppliers are made, employees unload the trucks. Toting pallet jacks, they truck the goods around the storehouses and put each item in its respective niche.

Craven said employees transport commodities to the six residence hall dining centers twice daily. He said food comes in daily and goes out to the halls fresh.

“A typical day for me starts at 7:30 a.m. I take the produce, buy it, divide it up and send it out,” he said.

“Iowa State has been very good at letting me make my own specifications, like buying my own product,” he said. “Produce is something you buy by appearance rather than name brand.”

Shortly after 7:30 a.m. each weekday morning, other employees at Iowa State’s Food Stores are loading delivery trucks with carts of food items. They then drive food to the six Food Service locations in order to satiate students’ appetites.

Job responsibilities include more than just filling orders for Food Service, however. Employees there transport food to caterings and to the skyboxes during the ISU football season, deliver baked goods from the Central Bakery located in Knapp-Storms to Food Service and transfer supplies.

The doors of Food Stores are open weekdays from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., but sometimes employees are required to put in some extra hours on the weekends.

Brian Corley, junior in industrial technology, drives Food Stores’ distinguishable white delivery trucks, which he had to obtain a chauffeur’s license to drive. He delivers baked goods to Food Service locations on weekday and Saturday afternoons.

Corley said he had to get accustomed to using his rearview mirrors to back the trucks up ramps.

“It was really stressful at first. I was nervous that I would back into something,” he said. “Recently, I thought the snow would be a problem. I thought it would be slippery, but it’s not a problem driving.”