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By Dateline staff

Normally they feed hungry students. But this week, four chefs from ΢����Ƶ Dining Services are cooking for the men and women who are battling forest fires in southwest Oregon.

Chef Mike Baldocchi, reached this morning (Aug. 17) by cell phone, did not hesitate when asked who eats more, students or firefighters: “Firefighters! They get roughly a pound and a half per plate!”

The ΢����Ƶ cooks — Baldocchi and Darwin Gross of the Segundo Dining Commons, and Emily Cornejo and Mark Rivera of the Tercero Dining Commons — left for Oregon on three hours’ notice Aug. 13. The chefs are employees of Sodexo, the international company that runs Dining Services, and Sodexo has federal contracts for all kinds of food service — including fire camps.

The ΢����Ƶ chefs are working the dinner shift at the Fort Complex base camp; the name refers to three fires in close proximity to one another. According to today’s command report, 664 firefighters are fighting the Fort Complex, which had burned 4,140 acres of brush and timber. Officials reported 35 percent containment, and estimated the fires would not be fully contained until Aug. 30.

The ΢����Ƶ chefs are scheduled to be on duty at the Oregon fires through Tuesday of next week.