Jacob Johnson

Kelly Simmons

Johnson, a native of Albany, Ga., responds to a guest call at the hotel front desk.
Photographer Abby Benefield

When COVID hit in March 2020, it derailed Jacob Johnson’s internship in the UGA Hospitality and Food Industry Management (HFIM) program.

Instead of setting up banquets, tending bar and perfecting his barista technique at UGA Center for Continuing Education & Hotel—a hands-on lab for HFIM students— Johnson spent his summer and fall helping managers come up with creative ways to use the mostly empty conference center to benefit the campus and local communities.

“If we couldn’t keep people here, we had to figure out how to bring (service) to people,” says Johnson, from Albany, Georgia. “That was the idea of COVID meals.”

While face-to-face contact was not allowed, the Georgia Center staff was able to safely prepare food in the Georgia Center kitchens wearing PPE (personal protective equipment) and serve it though car windows to customers as they drove through the circle at the hotel entrance. The drive-through breakfasts and take-home dinners were welcomed by both UGA and non-UGA employees and allowed the Georgia Center to keep people on staff.

When the Georgia Center hotel began temporarily housing students who had been exposed to COVID or tested positive, the PPE-clothed staff left covered trays of food for them outside the doors of their rooms.

“The main takeaway was when those kinds of unique situations show up, you have to be able to stand the pressure,” Johnson says. “You have to be able to come up with a solution.”

After graduating from UGA in spring 2021 with his bachelor’s degree in HFIM, Johnson was hired to a full-time position as assistant catering manager for banquets. While he hadn’t done that job on a daily basis, he and the other employees who worked in person through the pandemic had cross-trained in other areas.

“The pandemic encouraged making sure everyone was as flexible as they could be,” he says.

Johnson was promoted to hotel front desk supervisor, a management role, in June 2023. He was recommended for the position by Food and Beverage Director Darrell Goodman.

“I never really gave that side of the industry consideration,” he admitted.

There’s a great value in being a problem solver, being able to think on your feet.