When Naomi Sims began working at the dining hall at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College in 1976, she had no idea that in 2022, her career would be in its 46th year. That says something about her dedication to her job.

“I enjoy people,” Sims said. “I enjoy seeing the students from all over the world. I tell them they are like my children. They come and go."

Sims started work as an ABAC dishwasher. Since that time, she has done it all, from salad bar server to her current post as line server supervisor. On one recent Fried Chicken Thursday, an ABAC tradition, she was doling out tasty looking drumsticks.

“These children have more choices than they have ever had,” Sims said. “They can get pizza every day. They can get a patty melt, whatever they want.”

As Sims was talking, ABAC students meandered about the spacious facility, named for former ABAC President George P. Donaldson. Some chose a daily dose of a hamburger or cheeseburger and fries. Others went directly to the pizza or the well-stocked salad bar.

A few headed for the dessert area which on this day featured fresh-baked cookies and apple cobbler with vanilla ice cream. It’s all-you-can-eat so not a single student went back to their ABAC Place or ABAC Lakeside room hungry.

ABAC administrators, faculty members, and staff members also dotted the facility, sometimes glancing up at the numerous big screen televisions spread across the well-appointed dining area.

“ABAC Dining just would not be the same without Naomi Sims,” Dining Services Director Dan Miller, a former ABAC student himself, said. “She raised me right here in this dining hall. She treats these students just like her family.”
Sims makes the trip to the dining hall every day from her home in nearby Norman Park. She graduated from Norman Park High School. Again, consistency is a motto for her life.

“I’ve always been in food service,” Sims said. “It started in high school when I took Home Economics classes.”

In 1976, the Donaldson Dining Hall featured eight-foot tables where the students leaned back in metal chairs for their meals. Now, the seating area is diverse, on different levels, and spotlights cozy spaces where students can gather with their friends or find their own corner and spread-out textbooks while they eat.

For years, ABAC operated the dining facility with its own employees until switching to a contracted food service, utilizing Aramark and then Sodexo. As the world turns, ABAC has now returned to running its own dining services again.

Sims maintained a constant presence through all the changes. Over 46 years, memories abound.

“When we serve chicken and waffles during finals, the students love it,” Sims said. “Of course, they always enjoy the chicken on Thursdays.”

Like other dining hall employees, Sims played a huge role in ABAC’s big events through the years, which in the past, all happened in the food service area. One of those, Dollars for Scholars, took place in the dining hall every year with such featured performers as Debbie Reynolds and Ray Stevens.

When Sims began her career, the dining hall was under the direction of George Graul. He and his staff filled long buffet tables at Dollars for Scholars with everything from fried quail to salmon from Alaska.

“Oh, yeah, I enjoyed Dollars for Scholars,” Sims said. “It was a lot of food.”

With the reconfiguration of the dining hall interior, the building is no longer suited for the banquets which filled the facility years ago. For Sims, it’s an easy adjustment since she realizes her bread-and-butter rests on the shoulders of ABAC’s nearly 4,000 students.

“It’s got to be all about the students,” Sims said. “They pay the bills for me.”