University of Kansas - Week 5

July 7th

It's crazy to think this internship is just a little more than half over! Tonya and I have been making great progress with all of our projects and seem to be in the final stretch now.

We started off the week with another tour, this time of the Sysco location in Kansas City. Adam Kamerer, the director of marketing, showed Mary, Tonya and I around the HUGE warehouse where all the food and supplies are stored. Everything is kept in very specific temperature ranges to ensure the quality and lifespan of the products. We went through the different levels of temperatures, down to -5 degrees but not to the -20 storeroom; even in the 95 degree weather that day, I don't think that would have been very comfortable! Employees working in the coldest storage have access to a warming room where they go every hour to make sure they don't freeze during their shifts.
Workers in the warehouse were zooming around in forklifts, beeping at every intersection (safety first!) and putting pallets of product away. Since this location serves such a wide geographical range, there is a lot of turnover of goods which means there are tons of people "picking" orders from the thousands of shelves in the warehouse. Adam told us of two employees they recognized for making a million picks without a single mistake. This is really amazing if you think about it. If I take about 5,000 steps a day, I'd have to go 200 days, about half a year, without tripping to be able to say I did something a million times without messing up. Since I trip about 10 times a day, I'd say I have a ways to go.
Lorenzo Hammond, KU's personal Sysco rep, brought us to Gates BBQ for lunch. I've heard so much about Kansas and their barbecue, so it was exciting to be able to finally try some. It was definitely different from any of the barbecue I've had back east, but it was still very delicious. Thanks Lorenzo!

We jetted over to Johnson County Community College (JCCC, pronounced Joocoh for reasons I have yet to completely define) where we took a tour of their culinary and horticulture departments. Marc McCann, coincidentally Janna's husband and also executive chef of JCCC, escorted us around the campus. We happened to stumble in on some of the culinary students who were practicing their plating of a four course meal to prepare for an international competition. Luckily, they had made plenty of practice dishes for us to taste!

Everything was absolutely amazing! Since I'm such a sweets fiend, I couldn't stop gushing about the dessert, but come on, it was chocolate and fruitiness, my two favorites! The instructor for the culinary students, Felix Sturmer, took some time to show us around the newly built facility before we headed across campus to see the gardens.

JCCC has a really nice horticultural studies program and beautiful gardens to show off as well. We were able to tour their greenhouses and see their beautiful outdoor growing operation.

At 6 am the next day I started my first production shift at Mrs. E's in the bakery! Michelle showed me around a little and explained her role as one of the bakers. I noticed that everything is pretty organized in the kitchen- the recipes we had spelled out everything we needed to make a certain amount of product according to the forecasted number of people eating that day. I also had my first experience recording pieces of the serving line worksheets that keep track of how much product was made, how much was leftover and how much had to be discarded. These are just another way that dining services can keep track of where their food is going as well as more accurately predict how much to make for a certain customer mix. Since the summer is a fairly slow time, we weren't rushed to get everything done super quickly, which was great since I was just learning some of the stuff! Here are some of the results of our day:

Here is what 2 1/2 pounds of sugar looks like

Dill bread!

My first successful frosting flower

44 frosting flowers in total!

Since we had just finished up our first month, we had a "midterm review" luncheon with the directors of KUDS at Impromptu. It was good to be able to talk about our experiences thus far and let everyone know where we are in terms of our project work. I was also surprised with a birthday cake!

Thanks KUDS!

Tonya and I were also able to attend a trust building workshop for mid level managers. Some of the information was pretty eye opening and we got some good reference material from it as well.

For my last day of the week, I was back in Mrs E's for chill foods production! Shirley showed me the ways of the salad bar including setup, food safety practices and other general duties. I was able to man the temping chart and took temperatures of various items every half hour to ensure they were being kept cold or hot enough.

The salad bar in all it's glory from the inside

Midwest Adventures
While we were in Kansas City for Sysco and JCCC Tonya and I decided to check out "The Plaza" shopping center. I found this sign outside one of the shops and had to share in case there were any other Frozen fans out there:

As you all know Friday was the Fourth of July! I was able to get out on my bike which was nice, but really hot. That night I went with a friend to go see the fireworks by the river- we got a great spot and were practically right under them!

Sunday night Tonya and I again headed out to Kansas City, this time to Starlight Theater to see Willie Nelson and Alison Krauss. Shout out to Kamay for getting us the tickets!

We had a blast and were definitely ready to rest up for another fun filled week.