Food service became an integral part of Mark Sherman’s life when he was a teenager, and since then he has experienced a wide swath of the industry. Now, as Kuyper’s new Food Service Director and Chef, he feels his career has finally come full circle.
“It all started as a weekend thing when I was 14, at a restaurant my family and I were regulars at. One day, they were really busy, and my dad volunteered me to help as a joke,” he recalled, smiling.
The owner, however, accepted—and the rest was history.
Over the years, Sherman has held both staff and management roles, including nearly a decade as an area supervisor for Wendy’s. He also co-owned a restaurant in East Grand Rapids with his father for several years.
Most recently, he was Service Manager at Davenport University through Creative Dining Services, which partners with Kuyper for hospitality management.
Sherman described his love for the industry, saying, “I just fell in love with working with food. I like to make sure that people are taken care of, and what better way to do that than to make sure that their bellies are full?”
His extensive background has equipped him well for his new role at Kuyper, where he will coordinate many aspects of feeding the community, including menu planning and food sourcing, budgeting and preparation.
He succeeds longtime chef Jeff Bettig, who retired from Kuyper in July after more than 15 years of service.
A significant part of Sherman’s job will also involve training, mentoring and educating students—especially those in their first year—through KuyperWorks, which he said he is particularly looking forward to.
“It’s not just about serving food, it’s about learning how to react once you’re in the outside world. The things they learn here will apply in lots of other areas like schoolwork, budgeting, and just life skills in general,” he said.
So far, Sherman has loved his time at Kuyper, describing it as the ideal next step in his career.
“Everything here at Kuyper is just such a good fit, from the beliefs to the way the school is run. Faith is such a huge part of who I am, so it feels good to be at a place where I can bring that into my work,” he said.
