Winding Down at UNI

Today (Monday July 21^st) is my last full day in my NACUFS internship here at UNI. My family is driving out to Cedar Falls tomorrow, and we will be road-tripping back to Wisconsin. I will be home sweet home near Milwaukee by Thursday evening. My time here has absolutely flown by, especially because I have made so many good friends and close connections with other Department of Residence and food service employees.

The few days following my special event were eventful in themselves. The morning of one of the days was spent in the campus garden which is called Panther Plot. A few of the workers were doing weekly harvesting of produce and herbs from the garden, so I had the opportunity to assist. We harvested onions, basil, peppers, lettuce, and tomatoes. In the afternoon of the same day, I worked a busy lunch shift at the Rialto dining center. The guest count for that day exceeded 600 (summer counts have been around 100-300 for most of the summer), and so the extra help was greatly appreciated. During the school year, counts in the 600s are normal and expected, but in the summer serving this many guests in only a 90 minute time span with limited employees is challenging. I served on the grill line for a bit and then spent a few hours in the dishroom helping get caught up on dishes. It was very hot and a bit messy, but I felt like I was really contributing to the group dynamic. The following day, I worked on my menu project in the morning and had a fun afternoon. I met with the assistant director of residential dining, Carol Fletcher. We discussed budgeting practices and human resource issues, as these are major parts of her position. In addition, we met with the NACUFS interns from UW-Madison and four of the food service leaders from the university. We spent close to two hours with the Wisconsin group (Yay Wisconsin!) and gave them a tour of UNI’s food service centers. Carol led the tour, but I jumped in with extra details, especially if I had a comment that I thought the interns (Kyle and Leah) would like to hear. It was awesome to meet some interns in the same program but at a different university because we got to compare and contrast our work. At the end of our tour, I exchanged contact information with Kyle and Leah so we can get in touch in the future. All three of us are starting our final years in dietetics at different schools in the fall, and will all be applying for dietetic internships.

Last week was my final full week, and it consisted of a lot of office work on my menu project. I cannot believe how many hours I have spent building the special diet cycle menu for the new dining venue. It was much trickier than I initially anticipated because of the need to cater to diverse tastes, while adhering to the specific dietary concerns while simultaneously considering how much extra labor or cost certain menu items would contribute to the overall menu. Aside from project work days, last week also included two tours on Iowa schools---the Faith Baptist Bible College and Theological Seminary and the University of Iowa. The Faith Baptist Bible College was included on the tour list because of its very small size which is about 250 students in the entire student body, with about 180 of these on a meal plan. It was shocking to me to visit a campus that could be walked end to end in about three minutes. The way the dining center was run was very different from UNI’s or UWSP’s. The main difference was obviously a huge decrease in scale of the dining services. The college has very few venues and has a somewhat limited menu. A benefit to feeding less than 200 students each day is that it is easy to see and hear feedback on the food. It was mentioned that the students are not very hesitant to speak their opinions on the food service, and also that it is fairly easy to see which items are taken and which are skipped during the menu cycles. University of Iowa was a complete contrast the college, as expected. With an enrollment of over 31,000 students, the dining services were much more extensive. It was a beautiful day for a walking tour of most of the main campus dining centers. We had several different tour guides that led different parts of the tour, and this structure allowed for us to get more detailed descriptions and information about the centers. It was fun to get out of Cedar Falls on those little road trips and to meet some people for other schools.

Me with a Hawkeye at U of IA

Susan, myself, and Lisa on our tour of U of IA

This weekend was my last weekend here, so I made an effort to make the most of it. I tried to spend as much time with my Cedar Falls friends as possible and to say a few goodbyes. I worked for four hours on Sunday at Rialto setting up and tearing down a reception for a football event taking place on campus. It’s going to be hard transitioning back to my normal life in Wisconsin after living in Iowa for two months and building so many strong relationships and such deep connection with the town and university. Tomorrow I am hoping to visit the offices and centers that I worked at during my time here to say goodbye to everyone before leaving town. UNI and the people of Cedar Falls have treated me so well, and I would not have wished to complete my internship anywhere else!