Week 1 in Madison!

So I'm a bit new at blogging, but I will do my best to address all of my wonderful and exciting experiences and encounters here at UW Madison with plenty of detail. I might even try to be funny and witty, but we will see how that goes :)

My name is Leah, a New Hampshire native, and a rising senior in the Nutrition and Dietetics program at the University of New Hampshire. When I found out that I was accepted to the NACUFS internship, I was a little bit of every kind of emotion. Proud, nervous about leaving home, and excited. Now that I am here though, I am happy that I did not let my fears of leaving get the best of me. It sure is an amazing opportunity to be out here in Madison for the summer! I have never lived in this kind of urban environment and it is really mind-blowing! The city is so alive!

Tommy and I stopping for a pose in front of lake Mendota after a long journey!

The Journey from New Hampshire to Wisconsin!

After a 3-day, 1200 mile road-trip from my hometown in Derry, NH through New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and finally Wisconsin, I spent my first few days on campus by exploring the city with my co-pilot and boyfriend. We got our exercise in on the rec trails that line beautiful lake Monona while exploring all of the unique food locations lining the campus shopping district on State Street. We shared a delicious meal at Diego's, and authentic Mexican joint and a morning coffee at Steep and Brew, a local coffee joint that serves up a great variety of locally sourced coffee beans. Madison is really a great city, and I am fortunate to call it home for the next 8 weeks!

Our internship coordinators Sue Olson and Mike Poehnelt have been very welcoming and gracious in getting us settled in the past few days. We met them on Sunday evening for a dinner at the lake-view Italian bistro, Paisans. They answered all of our questions, and we all got to know each other. They then made sure we had plenty of snacks to keep us well nourished for late nights and projects to come, with homemade goodie bags from Newell's deli, the dining location that Sue manages. We were also given our manuals that went over our project and what we would be doing each day. It was comforting to know that our coordinators had planned a comprehensive, challenging and fun program for us. We will be working to plan, organize, and execute a themed meal, create and present an employee training program on waste management, work with the unit chef to design a menu for an allergen friendly concept all while getting the chance to shadow all lines of production and management in the 6 dining establishments across campus.

Day 1: Monday

Kyle and I, model interns on our first day touring Carson's Gulley!

The first day of our NACUFS internship experience was exactly as to be expected, a bit crazy...a LOT smiles, handshakes and attentiveness. Kyle and I rose to the challenge! The day began with a parking maze trying to find a place to keep our cars for the summer. We learned that if we could conquer parking on the UW campus, we could conquer anything! We eventually made our way back to meet with our coordinators, Sue and Mike who guided us through campus to complete HR paperwork and get us set up for the busy 2 months ahead! For the rest of the morning and afternoon we spent the day touring the 6 dining establishments on campus that we will be working for each week.

The first was Carson's Gulley, the smaller of the dining halls on campus, but not the least! Carson's is directly across the street from our dorm on campus, Adams Hall, so we will be visiting there often. We did a walk through of the facility guided by Patrick Pawelski, Unit Manager of Carson's. He showed us around each food station explaining the model of each station and introducing us to the back of house. UW dining has been working non-stop the past few years remodeling and making changes which was evident in all of the facilities. Carson's, Four Lakes and Gordon (the largest facility on campus) have all been remodeled in the past few years, Rheta's is currently under construction and Elizabeth Waters Dining Hall is scheduled to receive renovations sometime in the next few years. Mike showed us some of the drawing plans for that project while Cathy Ness at Rheta's excitedly walked us through her remodeling and design projects in progress and design plans.

A welcome sign for groups!

Even just walking through the facilities, I learned quite a bit about what keeps the business running on a day to day basis. The big three I heard over and over were: traffic flow,space utilization/organization, and communication. All of the facilities were organized meticulously. Especially at Gordon and Four Lakes, the two largest dining halls on campus, there had to be  a designated space for everything: mops, employee uniforms, pots/pans, locks for each employee, a soda room, etc. There were even separate coolers/freezers for different types of production lines in the facility. For example, in Four Lakes there were two separate coolers with the same items that could not be intermixed (cold food central production vs. hot or daily service items).  In giving everything a space, it assured efficiency of delivery. I learned some about the way the facilities manage summertime vs. school year daily operations. They scale down many of their extra offerings, switching to a mostly all-you-can-eat (vs. a la carte) in order to cater to summer conference groups, athletics, and pre-college and international student groups.

The Great Green concept station at Four Lakes

Mark giving us the FL tour!

Layout design/traffic flow was another important lesson of the day. At Rheta's we discussed how many stations were being redesigned to make more sense. For example, moving lines away from work flow areas (i.e dishroom exits) and positioning food items in a sequential order (i.e burgers grilled before condiments). These were very important lessons, I realized that even small lapses in attention to detail could result in a stressful situation for workers as well as customers. I had to get used to the a-la carte/register design. At my university we have an all-you can eat meal system. I learned from Mark Gauthier, unit manager of Four Lakes, how this system is particularly useful for controlling food costs as each item can be assigned a value relative to market prices and easily altered as they fluctuate.

The gigantic dish room at Four Lakes! 

The UW Dining program is extensive, and we had the opportunity to meet and greet with everyone today as we made our way through the facility. It struck me to see the amount of teamwork and communication which must occur not only between managers but with every level of the ladder. We were introduced to student workers, supervisors, shipping/receiving/inventory people, administrative staff, chefs, custodial, maintenance and Denise Bolduc, the registered dietitian on campus. I am especially excited to work with her and learn more about how her expertise plays a role in dining.

The 1849 comfort station.

Did I mention the food was delicious? We stopped for lunch at Gordon after miles of trekking. I had a delicious salad from the Green concept station which offers "healthy, natural, wholesome" foods in a salad bar style and a fresh sandwich from the "DELIcious" concept. There were many stations to choose from including:  Qué Rico, a Mexican concept, Buona Cucina, Italian offerings, Deli-cious, a traditional deli with made-to order sandwiches, 1849, the "comfort-food" concept reflecting the establishment date of UW, and the coffee shop location known as the Bean and Creamery, a UW branded concept offering Starbucks coffee products and small food items. There were also plenty of Grab-n Go stations for students wishing to make a quick trip.


It was a long day and I may be on the verge of over-tiredness and introverted over-stimulation, but I eagerly await the lessons to be learned on this amazing opportunity, and the contributions that these experiences will have on my advancement towards professional life! August 1st seems years away, but I know it will fly by! I cannot wait to see where this journey will lead me. :)

Madison is SO beautiful! :)