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Molly Safford brews community at the Café

September 25, 2025

Isa Cruz
RECIPE FOR SUCCESS: For the past 12 years, Molly Safford has worked in the Café located in Smith Union, but her relationships and impact on campus are not simply confined within the Café's walls.

Every day, workers at Bowdoin labor tirelessly to make our campus a great place to learn and live. Often, this labor goes unrecognized by students and faculty or is invisible to us altogether. This article is the first in a new column, “The Campus Workplace,” which will highlight, celebrate and interrogate the contributions of workers to this campus by bringing their perspectives to the forefront. If you are a worker on campus, I would love to hear from you at campusworkplace@proton.me if you have any leads, feedback or questions!

As the sun rises over Bowdoin, Molly Safford arrives on campus for her shift opening the Café in Smith Union. After arriving at 6:30 a.m., Safford starts the morning by brewing a batch of drip coffee. Picking out a couple of popular blends, alongside a daily single-origin special, Safford then grinds the locally-sourced coffee beans she has selected before pouring them into a filter to brew.

As she rolls out a cart of napkins, sugar and other condiments out of the backroom, Safford is excited to point out the ice machine. It’s a new addition to the Café. Before this summer, they’d have to walk downstairs to Jack Magee’s Pub with a bucket. But no longer.

“When your bestsellers are iced drinks, it’s kind of necessary,” Safford tells me.

As she runs through the rest of her opening checklist—restocking syrups, cleaning out the espresso machine and setting up the register—we receive a fresh delivery of pastries from the Bowdoin Bake Shop, including muffins, donuts and cinnamon rolls. Soon after, we’re greeted by a second delivery, this time, from the Pub—a piping hot tray of freshly prepared breakfast sandwiches. After putting the pastries and sandwiches on display and switching on the distinctive neon sign, Safford opens the café at 7:30 a.m. Her first customers?

“Usually somebody who’s pulling an all-nighter,” Safford says.

Around the Café, Safford’s impact is clear in ways big and small. Checklists of to do items for student employees and handwritten recipes adorn the walls. And amid the chaos of the morning rush, Safford is rarely fazed.

“The multitasking part … can be kind of difficult sometimes, but I guess my brain kind of operates that way,” she shared.

Her skills and effort don’t go unnoticed. Isaac Aldrich, the manager of Dining Retail Operations, describes Safford as “reliable, cheery [and] independent. Molly does an amazing job. She’s very good with the customers.” Throughout her shift, Safford engages customers in a familiar manner that can be credited to her many years at the College.

“Everybody knows Molly,” Aldrich observed.

Daniel Hennelly ’26 agrees.

“Not only does she keep every caffeine addict on campus satisfied, [but] her relentless happiness brings a smile to everyone’s face, even on their worst days,” he shares.

Safford’s time at Bowdoin began when she was 16, having studied culinary arts at Brunswick’s Region 10 Technical High School. On the advice of a teacher who reached out to Mary Lou Kennedy, then-director of Dining Services, Safford began working 35 hours a week in the salad department of the dining hall.

“It was called Wentworth [then]. And then in the year 2000, it became Thorne,” she recounts.

After four years at the dining hall, Trish Gibson, then a manager at the Pub, reached out to Safford to offer her a front-end position at the Pub. Four years later, Safford stepped away from Bowdoin to raise her daughters. Upon her return, the Durham native spent multiple years both on the housekeeping staff and as a casual employee. However, for the past 12 years, she has been a fixture at the Café and a crucial member of the Bowdoin community.

Throughout our interview, Safford’s love for the community was evident. She spoke highly of fellow baristas Josh O’Donnell and Ava Berry and fondly recounted how one of her closest friends in Smith Union dining, Mona Paschke, trained her when she started at the Café. Paschke still works in Smith Union, but now in the C-Store, where Safford is called in to provide support on days when operations are short-staffed.

“Because of the job title that we have, we’re supposed to be kind of flexible … and [try] to help all the operations out,” Safford explains. This cooperation has brought Safford closer to her coworkers in Smith Union dining operations.

“We’re like a big family,” she shares. “It’s kind of cool.”

Beyond work, Molly is a dedicated mom and gardener.

“I like spending time with my daughters. I like hanging out with friends. I love spending time with my mom. I’m a really family-oriented person,” she tells me.

Safford knows this community well.

“I’ve lived in Cumberland or Androscoggin County my entire life. So you could say I’m a Mainer,” she shared. “I like apple picking. I like going to the local fairs. I love baking. I grow a big vegetable garden.”

Safford’s impact has grown beyond the confines of the Café.

“I just would really hope that people would look a little bit further than just somebody who makes coffee,” Safford shares. “I’m in it for the staff, the students, the community…. There’s a whole list of things I do, other than just making a latte.”

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One comment:

  1. Polar Bear '24 says:

    Molly was absolutely one of my favorite people at Bowdoin while I was a student! She is a gifted people-person with a wonderful capacity for compassion, kindness, and generosity. I spent so many hours chatting with her while getting my iced London fogs over the years and I’ll always be thankful to her. I’m so glad to see this feature series focus on her and I can’t wait to see who is chosen next from the amazing cadre of Bowdoin staff who endlessly care for the students.


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