By Menachem Wecker
It turns out graduates aren’t GW’s only export to the federal government.
Several former White House staffers say they made weekly pilgrimages to the Marvin Center to eat at the GW food court.
So what was it about J Street that so eclipsed all the downtown gastronomic competition?
“Chick-fil-A, man, it’s a beautiful thing. GW has one of the very few in the area and the only one in D.C.,” says Justin Hunt, who was a deputy associate director in the Office of Presidential Correspondence’s mail analysis division from June 2007 until January 2009.
Mr. Hunt started going to Chick-fil-A six months into his White House tenure along with a group that ranged from two to 10 White House staffers.
“Most of us were from Southern states, where Chick-fil-A is a staple,” he says. “There were even a couple of us – myself included – who worked there in high school or college.”
Not only did Mr. Hunt manage a Chick-fil-A in South Carolina, but he was at work when he received his first call from the White House requesting that he forward his resume for an open position.
Shaun Lara, a former presidential writer, says he used to come to J Street at least once a week, “as soon as we discovered y’all had a Chick-fil-A.”
Over summer and winter breaks, Mr. Lara and his peers “definitely went into Chick-fil-A withdrawals” when the food court closed, he says.
Kyle Cotner, who was a senior staff assistant at the White House from 2007 to 2009, says the group, which called itself the Caucus, would go to lunch together every workday.
While there were no high-level senior staff members in the Caucus, Mr. Hunt says his office’s special assistant to the president came occasionally, and Mr. Lara remembers his boss, the director of writers, came along a few times.
Chick-fil-A might have become one of GW’s most important exports to the White House. According to Mr. Hunt, the group often picked up takeout for colleagues or brought extra sandwiches for themselves back to the office.
All three cited the food court’s proximity to the White House as a major pilgrimage incentive. “We were working in a building at 18th and G streets due to the never-ending construction at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building,” says Mr. Lara. “We walked it in rain, snow or sleet.”
Mr. Hunt adds that group often used University Yard as a shortcut. But despite the group’s time on campus, the Caucus rarely talked with GW students.
“We never really interacted with anyone else, probably because it was painfully obvious that we didn’t belong there,” says Mr. Hunt. “You stick out when you’re wearing a suit and tie on a college campus.”
Mr. Lara says most of the group members were only a few years out of college, “so we probably just looked like M.B.A. students, since we were all in suits.”
Part of the reason Caucus members enjoyed coming to the Marvin Center was that it brought the recent graduates back to “fun times we had in college when things were a bit more carefree,” he says.
“I remember one time a guy set up in the dining hall to give a stump speech for his candidacy for student government,” Mr. Lara says. “I remember doing the same thing myself in college, and it was kind of a nice break from work to be back in that setting again.”
Caucus members were asked to reflect on the reputation of the university and its students and alumni at the White House.
“I can’t speak for the whole White House, but in my office it had a good reputation since a few coworkers went to GW,” Mr. Cotner says.
Mr. Hunt says he was impressed by GW students’ “enthusiasm and commitment to the political process.”
Mr. Lara says his impression of GW is that it is “not an easy ride by any means,” and the campus environment and opportunities are “unique.”
“Coming from a university in the middle of Florida, our campus didn’t revolve around politics or government,” he says. “Seeing flyers and events all over campus with amazing speakers made us political junkies kind of jealous. Y’all have a great institution. Never forget the opportunities that are in your own backyard.”
Several of the current White House employees who were members of the Caucus and continue to lunch at Chick-fil-A couldn’t be reached for comment by deadline time.