Monday
Today I met with Rachel for a little bit to go
over CBORDbuzz and how other on campus dining facilities uses it. I also
took advantage of CBORD to help me with my business plan and to
get an estimate of how much some of the muffin samples would be. After
that I worked on my evaluation presentation of all the places I
visited. That took up the majority of the day up until a little after
lunch. However, after lunch I had the pleasure in sitting on a managers
meeting with Dot where we went over a job description review for food service 3 and 4 workers, the 2014-2015 employee guidelines and the discipline form.
Tuesday
Today we attended a food allergy training session taught by Dot. Every food service employee has to attend one of these training sessions per year where they will be tested on following the class. We also had a meeting today with Aaron Lindley in marketing to discuss his job responsibilities and was able to answer our remaining questions for our business plan. Grace and I also finished our business plan today which is very exciting because it is our last project :)
Wednesday
Today we just finished up with the last minute touches with our projects. We finished a Food Service Allergy Assessment Form and our evaluation of the Food Service Department that we are suppose to present to Dot on Thursday.
Thursday
Today we had the pleasure of having lunch with Dave Annis at the University Club. They just went under renovation and reopened in April. It is gorgeous and their food is delicious! I am so happy that Dave took us here for lunch, I've been wanting to try it ever since Frank showed us around. They were serving a buffet style and I tried everything including there green chili stew and salmon along with there goat milk ice cream. I was stuffed!! Dave is really personable and I can tell he really loves his job. From my experience in the Food Service department at OU, I can tell everybody is passionate about the contributions they make to the university and work really well together, they're like a family that is determined to give the students a worthwhile experience. Afterwards we presented our evaluation of all the facilities we visited to Dot. We have officially turned in and finished all our projects. I can't believe it, time flew by!
Friday
It's our last day!! I can't believe it, time really flew by fast.
Showing posts with label The University of Oklahoma. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The University of Oklahoma. Show all posts
Friday, July 25, 2014
Tuesday, July 22, 2014
University of Oklahoma - Week 7
Monday
Today, I got to shadow OU's sports dietitian. I never knew how much work and the long hours that sports dietitians go through! I got a whole new perspective on becoming a sports dietitian. I gained insight on some of the job responsibilities Tiffany Byrd has. My day started with her at 4:30 am making Pb&J's for the football players. All day, I worked with the other interns in running the fuel station for the players. By getting waters, making smoothies, restocking the fridge and shelves, making sure the players take their vitamins, etc. I also got to follow Tiffany around and see how she interacts with the athletes and coaches. She really connects with all of them and knows them personally. I think she really benefits the athletics department and does amazing work at her job. She really cares about the athletes and puts in long hours and hard work to prove it. She meets with the strength and conditioning coaches everyday to ensure all the athletes are not cramping up and are receiving the nutrients they need. She also really bonds with the athletes by sitting with them when they eat and makes them feel comfortable, she isn't just their coach. I was exhausted after the long 15 hour work day but I can see myself becoming a sports dietitian. I was inspired by Tiffany and how much she loves her job. I am very into sports, athletics and health and would love to combine my passion for nutrition and sports into becoming a sports dietitian possibly. Even though this job has a lot of responsibilities, I am really interested in it.
Tuesday
Today Grace and I spent half of the day over at Wagner Dining in Headington Hall. Heading Hall is a dormitory for freshman where a majority of them are athletes. Wagner dining has only been open for a year. Curtis is the manager of Wagner and discusses what is to be served in the dining facility with the Athletic Department and the Director of Sports Dietitian, Tiffany Byrd. They have developed a lot of healthier options for the students and ways in which it makes it easier for the students to make healthier choices. Tiffany developed the idea of green, yellow, and red to label each food item in Wagner. Green means eat as much as you want, yellow means limit your intake, and red means try to avoid. Curtis is also gathering the nutrition information for Wagner's cycle menu to display to the students. From a nutrition standpoint, I love this dining facility and what they are doing with it! They only serve fried foods twice a week, supply fresh fruit, serve a different type of salad a day, have frozen yogurt and freshly made smoothies. It is nice to see that school dining facilities are starting to become more health conscious rather than only serving comfort foods. The other half of the day we met with our internship coordinator, Dot Flowers, who helped Grace and I with some of our remaining questions on finishing our projects. Today we handed in our Recipe Development Project, Management Review project, Manager Scavenger Hunt Project and our Sanitation, Safety and Quality Inspection of Couch Restaurant project. :) Now all we have left to turn in is our Business Plan and our evaluations.
Wednesday
Today I spent over with Windeon at the Union Market. He told me a little about what it was like opening a new restaurant. Windeon has a lot of creative ideas for the Union Market! He discussed some of the challenges he faces as the manager of the Union Market. For example, he would like the Union Market to be bigger and to take away some of the seating area, but from a student perspective, I think the seating area is needed due to limited seating already in the Union. Also, the kitchen is small so he is still figuring out production of the hot bar and how he is going to produce certain recipes and how many employees he should have to run the operation. Currently, he has hired 5 full time employees. Windeon also showed me the menu for the hot bar and the grilled cheeses, we even got to sample some of the grilled cheeses :) I wish I would be here when they open and try it out because everything on the menu sounds delicious and I believe they are going to be a huge success!! The grilled cheeses that we sampled today were nutella, brie and apple which people really enjoyed, the other grilled cheese was blue cheese, bacon and apple. The second grilled cheese was a 50/50 because people who like blue cheese loved it but people who don't like blue cheese didn't care for the sandwich. Blue cheese has a distinct taste so it is a either you love the taste or hate it kind of thing. During my time at the Union Market with Windeon, I also got to experience a preliminary health inspection because the health inspector visited and I was able to follow her around and see what she looks for. The Union Market did well and she only took notes on things that are in the process of being fixed, so that was good news for Windeon!
Thursday & Friday
We worked at Starbucks in the Union. on these two days. It was so much fun and I am now even considering just working one or two days at the Starbucks at my school because I enjoyed it so much. All the employees were very helpful and nice to us. We were able to learn how Chris manages Starbucks with their policies while creating his own to create effective production. We even got to taste test coffee and see what they pair well with. I'm not a big coffee person but I discovered a few coffees I enjoyed. I now understand why people order scones or something of that sort and eat it with their coffee, it totally changes the taste! Chris even threw Grace and I in to making drinks and so we had the opportunity to learn how to be a barista! It was so much fun and made time fly by. On Thursday evening we helped out at Couch with Camp Crimson. It was taste of couch night where camp crimson tries all the restaurants in Couch. Grace and I worked Chic-fil-A and of course it was super busy!! Later that night we went and helped Starbucks with retro night and passed out A LOT of tea to camp crimson. It felt like a rave. On Friday, we went out with Starbucks after work to the library and tried their delicious pizza and pot roast nachos. We had a blast during our time at Starbucks:)
Today, I got to shadow OU's sports dietitian. I never knew how much work and the long hours that sports dietitians go through! I got a whole new perspective on becoming a sports dietitian. I gained insight on some of the job responsibilities Tiffany Byrd has. My day started with her at 4:30 am making Pb&J's for the football players. All day, I worked with the other interns in running the fuel station for the players. By getting waters, making smoothies, restocking the fridge and shelves, making sure the players take their vitamins, etc. I also got to follow Tiffany around and see how she interacts with the athletes and coaches. She really connects with all of them and knows them personally. I think she really benefits the athletics department and does amazing work at her job. She really cares about the athletes and puts in long hours and hard work to prove it. She meets with the strength and conditioning coaches everyday to ensure all the athletes are not cramping up and are receiving the nutrients they need. She also really bonds with the athletes by sitting with them when they eat and makes them feel comfortable, she isn't just their coach. I was exhausted after the long 15 hour work day but I can see myself becoming a sports dietitian. I was inspired by Tiffany and how much she loves her job. I am very into sports, athletics and health and would love to combine my passion for nutrition and sports into becoming a sports dietitian possibly. Even though this job has a lot of responsibilities, I am really interested in it.
Tuesday
Today Grace and I spent half of the day over at Wagner Dining in Headington Hall. Heading Hall is a dormitory for freshman where a majority of them are athletes. Wagner dining has only been open for a year. Curtis is the manager of Wagner and discusses what is to be served in the dining facility with the Athletic Department and the Director of Sports Dietitian, Tiffany Byrd. They have developed a lot of healthier options for the students and ways in which it makes it easier for the students to make healthier choices. Tiffany developed the idea of green, yellow, and red to label each food item in Wagner. Green means eat as much as you want, yellow means limit your intake, and red means try to avoid. Curtis is also gathering the nutrition information for Wagner's cycle menu to display to the students. From a nutrition standpoint, I love this dining facility and what they are doing with it! They only serve fried foods twice a week, supply fresh fruit, serve a different type of salad a day, have frozen yogurt and freshly made smoothies. It is nice to see that school dining facilities are starting to become more health conscious rather than only serving comfort foods. The other half of the day we met with our internship coordinator, Dot Flowers, who helped Grace and I with some of our remaining questions on finishing our projects. Today we handed in our Recipe Development Project, Management Review project, Manager Scavenger Hunt Project and our Sanitation, Safety and Quality Inspection of Couch Restaurant project. :) Now all we have left to turn in is our Business Plan and our evaluations.
Wednesday
Today I spent over with Windeon at the Union Market. He told me a little about what it was like opening a new restaurant. Windeon has a lot of creative ideas for the Union Market! He discussed some of the challenges he faces as the manager of the Union Market. For example, he would like the Union Market to be bigger and to take away some of the seating area, but from a student perspective, I think the seating area is needed due to limited seating already in the Union. Also, the kitchen is small so he is still figuring out production of the hot bar and how he is going to produce certain recipes and how many employees he should have to run the operation. Currently, he has hired 5 full time employees. Windeon also showed me the menu for the hot bar and the grilled cheeses, we even got to sample some of the grilled cheeses :) I wish I would be here when they open and try it out because everything on the menu sounds delicious and I believe they are going to be a huge success!! The grilled cheeses that we sampled today were nutella, brie and apple which people really enjoyed, the other grilled cheese was blue cheese, bacon and apple. The second grilled cheese was a 50/50 because people who like blue cheese loved it but people who don't like blue cheese didn't care for the sandwich. Blue cheese has a distinct taste so it is a either you love the taste or hate it kind of thing. During my time at the Union Market with Windeon, I also got to experience a preliminary health inspection because the health inspector visited and I was able to follow her around and see what she looks for. The Union Market did well and she only took notes on things that are in the process of being fixed, so that was good news for Windeon!
Thursday & Friday
We worked at Starbucks in the Union. on these two days. It was so much fun and I am now even considering just working one or two days at the Starbucks at my school because I enjoyed it so much. All the employees were very helpful and nice to us. We were able to learn how Chris manages Starbucks with their policies while creating his own to create effective production. We even got to taste test coffee and see what they pair well with. I'm not a big coffee person but I discovered a few coffees I enjoyed. I now understand why people order scones or something of that sort and eat it with their coffee, it totally changes the taste! Chris even threw Grace and I in to making drinks and so we had the opportunity to learn how to be a barista! It was so much fun and made time fly by. On Thursday evening we helped out at Couch with Camp Crimson. It was taste of couch night where camp crimson tries all the restaurants in Couch. Grace and I worked Chic-fil-A and of course it was super busy!! Later that night we went and helped Starbucks with retro night and passed out A LOT of tea to camp crimson. It felt like a rave. On Friday, we went out with Starbucks after work to the library and tried their delicious pizza and pot roast nachos. We had a blast during our time at Starbucks:)
The University of Oklahoma Week 8
The Weekend
This weekend I started getting ready for my journey home by packing a little and getting my car worked on. Lindsey and I made a birthday cake for our friend Jack, and we took advantage of national ice cream day and went to Coldstone on Sunday. :)
Monday
Today I arrived at work at 4:30 in the morning to meet with OU's sports dietitian, Tiffany Byrd. I worked all day with her other interns. We made smoothies for the football team after every practice and also prepared their water bottles for them after every practice. We helped with stocking their room, serving them breakfast, and constantly making sure everything looked perfect in case a recruit came through to see the area. We also monitor that they took their vitamins throughout the day. I can't imagine how they all work that long of hours everyday. I didn't leave until 7pm and Tiffany was still working. She is so passionate about what she does.
Tuesday
Today we attended on of the food allergy sessions run by Dot that all of the Food Service employees have to attend once a year. We then worked on our projects until we met with Aaron Lindley, who works for marketing, in the afternoon. He is in charge of graphic design and advertising for the Marketing Department. The entire department handles all of the marketing for the Housing and Food Service Department on campus, and they also handle the social media. There are 4 people, including Aaron, on the Marketing Team.
Wednesday
Today we worked on creating as Allergy Assessment Evaluation Form for the Food Service Establishments for Dot.
Thursday
Today we had the pleasure of going to lunch with the Director of Housing and Food Services, Dave Annis. We went to the University Club, which recently got a huge renovation and it looks absolutely amazing. It is currently getting a new menu, and we got to experience their lunch buffet, which is not your typical buffet. We had green chili stew, caprese salad, ceasar salad, steak, garlic mashed potatoes, glazed carrots, salmon, and a fruit tray. Not to mention we then got chocolate lave caked and ice cream for dessert. We also got to sample the new ice cream that they are making in house that is made from goat's milk. Dave is so kind and really wanted to hear about our experience. It was neat to see how much he loves his job, and is so passionate about the students and their experience. I wish that we could have spent more time with him, but he is an extremely busy man! He told us a lot of details about renovations going on and why things are the way that they are. I really appreciate our time with him! After lunch, we presented our final evaluations of the OU Food Service Department to Dot.
Friday
This morning we had our final evaluations with Dot. It is so bittersweet to leave the Food Service Department of OU! I am very thankful for this opportunity that I had with them, and I have grown a lot!
This weekend I started getting ready for my journey home by packing a little and getting my car worked on. Lindsey and I made a birthday cake for our friend Jack, and we took advantage of national ice cream day and went to Coldstone on Sunday. :)
Monday
Today I arrived at work at 4:30 in the morning to meet with OU's sports dietitian, Tiffany Byrd. I worked all day with her other interns. We made smoothies for the football team after every practice and also prepared their water bottles for them after every practice. We helped with stocking their room, serving them breakfast, and constantly making sure everything looked perfect in case a recruit came through to see the area. We also monitor that they took their vitamins throughout the day. I can't imagine how they all work that long of hours everyday. I didn't leave until 7pm and Tiffany was still working. She is so passionate about what she does.
.JPG) |
| The Fueling Station for the OU Football Players |
Tuesday
Today we attended on of the food allergy sessions run by Dot that all of the Food Service employees have to attend once a year. We then worked on our projects until we met with Aaron Lindley, who works for marketing, in the afternoon. He is in charge of graphic design and advertising for the Marketing Department. The entire department handles all of the marketing for the Housing and Food Service Department on campus, and they also handle the social media. There are 4 people, including Aaron, on the Marketing Team.
Wednesday
Today we worked on creating as Allergy Assessment Evaluation Form for the Food Service Establishments for Dot.
Thursday
Today we had the pleasure of going to lunch with the Director of Housing and Food Services, Dave Annis. We went to the University Club, which recently got a huge renovation and it looks absolutely amazing. It is currently getting a new menu, and we got to experience their lunch buffet, which is not your typical buffet. We had green chili stew, caprese salad, ceasar salad, steak, garlic mashed potatoes, glazed carrots, salmon, and a fruit tray. Not to mention we then got chocolate lave caked and ice cream for dessert. We also got to sample the new ice cream that they are making in house that is made from goat's milk. Dave is so kind and really wanted to hear about our experience. It was neat to see how much he loves his job, and is so passionate about the students and their experience. I wish that we could have spent more time with him, but he is an extremely busy man! He told us a lot of details about renovations going on and why things are the way that they are. I really appreciate our time with him! After lunch, we presented our final evaluations of the OU Food Service Department to Dot.
Friday
This morning we had our final evaluations with Dot. It is so bittersweet to leave the Food Service Department of OU! I am very thankful for this opportunity that I had with them, and I have grown a lot!
Tuesday, July 15, 2014
University of Oklahoma - Week 6
Hi!
Sorry haven't posted in awhile, I've been super busy lately. Last week I had the opportunity to spend more time at the Health Sciences Center with Healthy Hearth. I really enjoyed my time there and learned a lot. I enjoyed my time so much at Healthy Hearth that I am now considering OU's dietetic + masters program. I learned what goes into planning a meal for the patients to cater to their needs. Healthy Hearth is really there for the patients and I respect that. They take coffees and water to them every morning. Additionally, they make snacks and grab n' go lunches for them. Working at Healthy Hearth gave me a better insight in what goes into planning a healthy meal for the patients that cater to their needs so they won't endure further symptoms. Grace and I even got hands on experience by doing our recipe development project with Healthy Hearth. Our recipe was Fettuccine Florentine garnished with diced tomatoes. For this dish, we used evaporated milk instead of heavy cream to make it lighter and less fat. We also decided to garnish with diced tomatoes to add a little color. I would of liked to have added zucchini and squash to the dish but unfortunately this recipe was a last minute thing and we had to use what was there. The dish still had a great turnout though and sold out within an hour! During my time at Healthy Hearth, I also had the chance to actually experience first hand what it is like to be a cook in the kitchen. Chef Chris threw me on the line during lunch one day because he was too busy. I was nervous because I have never been a cook before in the kitchen and not to admit, I am not that great of cook. However, I impressed myself and was successful as a line cook! I caught on to the techniques used right away. This really stepped me out of my comfort zone and boosted my confidence especially when I didn't get any complaints on the food =P. I also learned a little about what it takes to be a manager, there is never a dull moment. Lara is a great manager and is willing to do anything to make sure her employees are happy and the restaurant is running smoothly. She even filled in for one of her employees so they were able to take a vacation. Healthy Hearth was short staffed during our time there, so it benefited them that we were there and able to help out. Thursday was our last day there and it was sad leaving them. Grace and I didn't want to leave because we were having such a good time there and started to get the hang of things. Also, Lara and Chef Chris were going to try and set us up to meet the RD, which would have been very valuable to me because I want to be an RD for pediatric oncology and talking with her would have given me more of an insight. I am hoping, however, to meet with her at some point if not during this internship then afterwards sent I'll be staying out here a week extra. On Friday, we met with Brandi Wright, who is in charge of payroll and were able to learn a little more about their job responsibilities. I was impressed with these two ladies and how much work they do, they handle up to 1,400 employees pay! It overwhelmed me to see how much paperwork these ladies do. They are very organized which allow them to stay on top of things that makes them to be good at their job. The rest of the day, I worked on our Business Plan and finished up small details in the remaining projects to turn in. Definitely a fulfilled and busy week!
Sorry haven't posted in awhile, I've been super busy lately. Last week I had the opportunity to spend more time at the Health Sciences Center with Healthy Hearth. I really enjoyed my time there and learned a lot. I enjoyed my time so much at Healthy Hearth that I am now considering OU's dietetic + masters program. I learned what goes into planning a meal for the patients to cater to their needs. Healthy Hearth is really there for the patients and I respect that. They take coffees and water to them every morning. Additionally, they make snacks and grab n' go lunches for them. Working at Healthy Hearth gave me a better insight in what goes into planning a healthy meal for the patients that cater to their needs so they won't endure further symptoms. Grace and I even got hands on experience by doing our recipe development project with Healthy Hearth. Our recipe was Fettuccine Florentine garnished with diced tomatoes. For this dish, we used evaporated milk instead of heavy cream to make it lighter and less fat. We also decided to garnish with diced tomatoes to add a little color. I would of liked to have added zucchini and squash to the dish but unfortunately this recipe was a last minute thing and we had to use what was there. The dish still had a great turnout though and sold out within an hour! During my time at Healthy Hearth, I also had the chance to actually experience first hand what it is like to be a cook in the kitchen. Chef Chris threw me on the line during lunch one day because he was too busy. I was nervous because I have never been a cook before in the kitchen and not to admit, I am not that great of cook. However, I impressed myself and was successful as a line cook! I caught on to the techniques used right away. This really stepped me out of my comfort zone and boosted my confidence especially when I didn't get any complaints on the food =P. I also learned a little about what it takes to be a manager, there is never a dull moment. Lara is a great manager and is willing to do anything to make sure her employees are happy and the restaurant is running smoothly. She even filled in for one of her employees so they were able to take a vacation. Healthy Hearth was short staffed during our time there, so it benefited them that we were there and able to help out. Thursday was our last day there and it was sad leaving them. Grace and I didn't want to leave because we were having such a good time there and started to get the hang of things. Also, Lara and Chef Chris were going to try and set us up to meet the RD, which would have been very valuable to me because I want to be an RD for pediatric oncology and talking with her would have given me more of an insight. I am hoping, however, to meet with her at some point if not during this internship then afterwards sent I'll be staying out here a week extra. On Friday, we met with Brandi Wright, who is in charge of payroll and were able to learn a little more about their job responsibilities. I was impressed with these two ladies and how much work they do, they handle up to 1,400 employees pay! It overwhelmed me to see how much paperwork these ladies do. They are very organized which allow them to stay on top of things that makes them to be good at their job. The rest of the day, I worked on our Business Plan and finished up small details in the remaining projects to turn in. Definitely a fulfilled and busy week!
Monday, July 14, 2014
The University of Oklahoma Week 7
The Weekend
On Saturday, we all went to Syrup for breakfast. Their pancakes are awesome. Later that day we went to the Republic Gastropub for dinner and also to Sara Sara Cupcakes for dessert. It was an awesome day in Oklahoma City and Norman! On Sunday, we went to Cattlemen's Steakhouse in OKC for their Breakfast Buffet and then spent time in Oklahoma City before I had to take Kirk to the airport to go back to Indiana.
Monday
This morning I worked with Windeon at Union Market on some grilled cheese recipes. We made a guacamole bacon grilled cheese, BLT grilled cheese, brie nutella and banana grilled cheese, brie nutella and blueberry grilled cheese, a banana peanut butter nutella sandwich, a banana peanut butter nutella raspberry preserve sandwich, and a banana peanut butter nutella raspberry preserve bacon sandwich. They were all awesome, and everyone loved them! Windeon said that they would be featured hopefully on the new Union Market menu!
Tuesday
Today we spent the first part of our day at Headington Hall with Curtis. He is the manager of Wagner Dining within Headington Hall. This dining facility has only been open for a year, and it is based in a new dorm that is for freshman (a majority being athletes). Curtis has had the opportunity to work with the Athletic Department and the Athletic Department's Registered Dietitian, Tiffany, very closely. They have developed a lot of really neat ideas that I really appreciate from a nutrition standpoint. They have a frozen yogurt machine, make your own smoothies, and all foods are labeled as either green, yellow, or red. Green means eat all you want. Yellow means limit it but you can have some. Red means slow down and try to avoid. At least, that is my interpretation :) . They are also currently working on getting all of the nutrition information for their cycle menu and displaying this information for the students by the food. I think that this is awesome, and I really like what they are doing with Wagner Dining! Curtis has a lot of great ideas and so does Tiffany, so I cannot wait to see what all they do with this facility! During the afternoon we met with Dot a lot and we finished up three of our projects! Starting to check everything off of our list.
Wednesday
Today I helped Shawn Henry organize some of her inventory for the shirts of the employees and I also worked on some of the projects in our office.
Thursday
Today we worked at Starbucks. It was a ton of fun! The employees were awesome and a great time to work with. We learned a lot about management, coffee, and how to be a barista! We ended up getting thrown in to making the drinks, and it was nerve-wrecking but a lot of fun to learn! I really enjoyed the coffee tasting, because Chris, the manager, taught us a lot about the different aspects of coffees, how it is made, what it pairs well with, etc. In the evening we worked at Couch Cafeteria because they needed extra hands for the Camp Crimson students who were eating there. We worked at Chick-Fil-A and it was so crazy busy the entire time we were there! I don't think I had a second to even think. Then we went back to Starbucks in the evening to work with them for the Camp Crimson Retro Night. We made a ton of tea and then gave the students samples throughout the evening.
Friday
Today we worked at Starbucks again and it was just like the first day, and I loved it! After work we went with some of the employees to the Library and got the best pizza and pot roast nachos ever! It was delicious!
On Saturday, we all went to Syrup for breakfast. Their pancakes are awesome. Later that day we went to the Republic Gastropub for dinner and also to Sara Sara Cupcakes for dessert. It was an awesome day in Oklahoma City and Norman! On Sunday, we went to Cattlemen's Steakhouse in OKC for their Breakfast Buffet and then spent time in Oklahoma City before I had to take Kirk to the airport to go back to Indiana.
Monday
This morning I worked with Windeon at Union Market on some grilled cheese recipes. We made a guacamole bacon grilled cheese, BLT grilled cheese, brie nutella and banana grilled cheese, brie nutella and blueberry grilled cheese, a banana peanut butter nutella sandwich, a banana peanut butter nutella raspberry preserve sandwich, and a banana peanut butter nutella raspberry preserve bacon sandwich. They were all awesome, and everyone loved them! Windeon said that they would be featured hopefully on the new Union Market menu!
Tuesday
Today we spent the first part of our day at Headington Hall with Curtis. He is the manager of Wagner Dining within Headington Hall. This dining facility has only been open for a year, and it is based in a new dorm that is for freshman (a majority being athletes). Curtis has had the opportunity to work with the Athletic Department and the Athletic Department's Registered Dietitian, Tiffany, very closely. They have developed a lot of really neat ideas that I really appreciate from a nutrition standpoint. They have a frozen yogurt machine, make your own smoothies, and all foods are labeled as either green, yellow, or red. Green means eat all you want. Yellow means limit it but you can have some. Red means slow down and try to avoid. At least, that is my interpretation :) . They are also currently working on getting all of the nutrition information for their cycle menu and displaying this information for the students by the food. I think that this is awesome, and I really like what they are doing with Wagner Dining! Curtis has a lot of great ideas and so does Tiffany, so I cannot wait to see what all they do with this facility! During the afternoon we met with Dot a lot and we finished up three of our projects! Starting to check everything off of our list.
Wednesday
Today I helped Shawn Henry organize some of her inventory for the shirts of the employees and I also worked on some of the projects in our office.
Thursday
Today we worked at Starbucks. It was a ton of fun! The employees were awesome and a great time to work with. We learned a lot about management, coffee, and how to be a barista! We ended up getting thrown in to making the drinks, and it was nerve-wrecking but a lot of fun to learn! I really enjoyed the coffee tasting, because Chris, the manager, taught us a lot about the different aspects of coffees, how it is made, what it pairs well with, etc. In the evening we worked at Couch Cafeteria because they needed extra hands for the Camp Crimson students who were eating there. We worked at Chick-Fil-A and it was so crazy busy the entire time we were there! I don't think I had a second to even think. Then we went back to Starbucks in the evening to work with them for the Camp Crimson Retro Night. We made a ton of tea and then gave the students samples throughout the evening.
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| Getting ready for retro night! |
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| The late night crew! :) |
Friday
Today we worked at Starbucks again and it was just like the first day, and I loved it! After work we went with some of the employees to the Library and got the best pizza and pot roast nachos ever! It was delicious!
The University of Oklahoma Week 6
The Weekend
On Saturday, we went to breakfast at The Earth Deli & Cafe. We then went to the National History Museum on campus after taking a walk. We finished the day with dinner at Benvenuti's before my family left for their drive back to Indiana. On Sunday, I spent a lot of time cleaning our apartment and doing laundry. I also went to get a pedicure at a really cute salon in Norman, and I went to the grocery.
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Monday
Today we were up in Oklahoma City at Healthy Hearth. We started out our day by taking up the coffee and water for the patients to each floor and also taking boxed meals up to the chemotherapy patients for their convenience. We then cut a ton of vegetables to help make the feature of the day, a vegetable lasagna. We worked the line for the lunch rush, which always makes time fly by and is a lot of fun! Then I made a big batch of chicken salad for the rest of the week and continued to prep some items that would be used for the week.
Tuesday
We were back up in Oklahoma City at Healthy Hearth again today. We started our day the same way today, and started to do our morning routine by ourselves, and without any of the other employees. Today after we did our morning routine, I made a ton of cookie dough! Peanut butter and sugar cookie. We then worked the line again for lunch.
Wednesday
Today we were up in Oklahoma City at Healthy Hearth again. We did our morning routine and then helped to prepare for the day with prepping food and cooking foods. We worked on the line again, and then we worked with the Chef Chris and Lara to determine what we were going to do for our recipe development project for the next day. We decided on a dish, Fettuccine Florentine, and discussed how we would prepare it for the feature tomorrow. We picked this dish due to the fact that it was a healthier pasta dish and that it is is also featured in a cookbook sold by the Cancer Center for cancer patients.
Thursday
Today was our last day up in Oklahoma City at Healthy Hearth. We spent the morning working on our feature and getting the recipe just right to be served out to the customers. Once the lunch rush came, we sold our of our feature within the first hour! It was awesome, and everyone said that they really enjoyed the Fettuccine Florentine. After lunch, we worked on helping with a few catering things, a cake decorating class for the patients, and also finalizing our recipe that we used for the day. It was so sad saying goodbye to everyone at Healthy Hearth. They were all so inviting and kind and taught us a lot! We really enjoyed our time with them! That evening, I got to pick up my boyfriend from the airport to visit for the weekend from Indiana! We all went to the OKC Minor League Baseball Team game, and then we went to Deep Deuce for Trivia Night. It was a lot of fun!
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Friday
Today Lindsey and I had a meeting with Brandie Wright in the morning. She works for Payroll and told us a lot about her job. She works with the monthly and hourly times for the food service employees. She also works with job postings and release forms. She takes care of all of the paperwork for new employees, and maintains a lot of databases. Her job is like an office of records. Throughout the rest of the day, we worked a lot on our projects and making sure we knew where we were in all of them. We finished the Recipe Development and are very close to finishing the Business Plan. In the evening, Kirk and I went to Red Prime Steak House and then up to the Devon Tower for drinks. It was an absolutely amazing night!
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On Saturday, we went to breakfast at The Earth Deli & Cafe. We then went to the National History Museum on campus after taking a walk. We finished the day with dinner at Benvenuti's before my family left for their drive back to Indiana. On Sunday, I spent a lot of time cleaning our apartment and doing laundry. I also went to get a pedicure at a really cute salon in Norman, and I went to the grocery.
Monday
Today we were up in Oklahoma City at Healthy Hearth. We started out our day by taking up the coffee and water for the patients to each floor and also taking boxed meals up to the chemotherapy patients for their convenience. We then cut a ton of vegetables to help make the feature of the day, a vegetable lasagna. We worked the line for the lunch rush, which always makes time fly by and is a lot of fun! Then I made a big batch of chicken salad for the rest of the week and continued to prep some items that would be used for the week.
Tuesday
We were back up in Oklahoma City at Healthy Hearth again today. We started our day the same way today, and started to do our morning routine by ourselves, and without any of the other employees. Today after we did our morning routine, I made a ton of cookie dough! Peanut butter and sugar cookie. We then worked the line again for lunch.
Wednesday
Today we were up in Oklahoma City at Healthy Hearth again. We did our morning routine and then helped to prepare for the day with prepping food and cooking foods. We worked on the line again, and then we worked with the Chef Chris and Lara to determine what we were going to do for our recipe development project for the next day. We decided on a dish, Fettuccine Florentine, and discussed how we would prepare it for the feature tomorrow. We picked this dish due to the fact that it was a healthier pasta dish and that it is is also featured in a cookbook sold by the Cancer Center for cancer patients.
Thursday
Today was our last day up in Oklahoma City at Healthy Hearth. We spent the morning working on our feature and getting the recipe just right to be served out to the customers. Once the lunch rush came, we sold our of our feature within the first hour! It was awesome, and everyone said that they really enjoyed the Fettuccine Florentine. After lunch, we worked on helping with a few catering things, a cake decorating class for the patients, and also finalizing our recipe that we used for the day. It was so sad saying goodbye to everyone at Healthy Hearth. They were all so inviting and kind and taught us a lot! We really enjoyed our time with them! That evening, I got to pick up my boyfriend from the airport to visit for the weekend from Indiana! We all went to the OKC Minor League Baseball Team game, and then we went to Deep Deuce for Trivia Night. It was a lot of fun!
Friday
Today Lindsey and I had a meeting with Brandie Wright in the morning. She works for Payroll and told us a lot about her job. She works with the monthly and hourly times for the food service employees. She also works with job postings and release forms. She takes care of all of the paperwork for new employees, and maintains a lot of databases. Her job is like an office of records. Throughout the rest of the day, we worked a lot on our projects and making sure we knew where we were in all of them. We finished the Recipe Development and are very close to finishing the Business Plan. In the evening, Kirk and I went to Red Prime Steak House and then up to the Devon Tower for drinks. It was an absolutely amazing night!
Thursday, July 3, 2014
University of Oklahoma - Week 5
The Weekend
On Friday, I went to Hillbilly Po Boy's with my sister and a whole bunch of her friends to celebrate her birthday that was on Monday. I got the blackened shrimp Po Boy with slaw and the orange sauce and it was amazing!! Definitely recommend it. Afterwards, my sister, her husband and I went to the Dierks Bentley concert. I had a really good time :) On Saturday, I just pretty much lounged around because I was exhausted. However, Saturday night Grace and I went to the Lady Antebellum concert and had a great time! Sunday I join my sister for brunch at Cheever's. I had the Shrimp & Grits and it was delicious! To work off all those calories, I helped my sister with loading hay for the barn.
Monday
Today Grace and I just worked on our Management Review. Dot is gone all week for the holiday so we have all week to just work on that sent we don't have log ons yet for C-Bord to work on the nutrition analysis of Headington Hall.
Tuesday
Today we just continued working on the Management Review. Additionally, we got our free snow cones with Lauren, Robbie, and Amanda :) We also got to sit in on the meeting where all the directors and managers go over the new guidelines for their employees.
Wednesday
Today we were with Frank all day! He showed us all around campus and gave us the history of everything. We were able to see the construction going on at Cate. We also tried a new item that might be added to the menus, a nutella cronut!! It was delicious, it is pretty much a mixture of croissant and a donut filled with nutella :) We also got to take a tour of Headington Hall and talk with the Sports Nutritionist and how they accommodate the athletes. Afterwards we took a tour of the stadium and were able to see the President's own personal suite. Here Frank told us all what goes on with catering during football season and what long days they have. After wards, we took a mini tour of the National Weather Center. Today was a lot of fun and very informative. Frank is a great tour guide and Headington Hall's food is delicious! I'd eat there every day if I could and would love to live there if I had all the advantages that the athletes do.
Thursday
Today Grace and I continued working on our Management Review Project. We got lunch with Grace's family, they drove all the way from Indiana!! We also got to leave early for the holiday weekend :)
On Friday, I went to Hillbilly Po Boy's with my sister and a whole bunch of her friends to celebrate her birthday that was on Monday. I got the blackened shrimp Po Boy with slaw and the orange sauce and it was amazing!! Definitely recommend it. Afterwards, my sister, her husband and I went to the Dierks Bentley concert. I had a really good time :) On Saturday, I just pretty much lounged around because I was exhausted. However, Saturday night Grace and I went to the Lady Antebellum concert and had a great time! Sunday I join my sister for brunch at Cheever's. I had the Shrimp & Grits and it was delicious! To work off all those calories, I helped my sister with loading hay for the barn.
Monday
Today Grace and I just worked on our Management Review. Dot is gone all week for the holiday so we have all week to just work on that sent we don't have log ons yet for C-Bord to work on the nutrition analysis of Headington Hall.
Tuesday
Today we just continued working on the Management Review. Additionally, we got our free snow cones with Lauren, Robbie, and Amanda :) We also got to sit in on the meeting where all the directors and managers go over the new guidelines for their employees.
Wednesday
Today we were with Frank all day! He showed us all around campus and gave us the history of everything. We were able to see the construction going on at Cate. We also tried a new item that might be added to the menus, a nutella cronut!! It was delicious, it is pretty much a mixture of croissant and a donut filled with nutella :) We also got to take a tour of Headington Hall and talk with the Sports Nutritionist and how they accommodate the athletes. Afterwards we took a tour of the stadium and were able to see the President's own personal suite. Here Frank told us all what goes on with catering during football season and what long days they have. After wards, we took a mini tour of the National Weather Center. Today was a lot of fun and very informative. Frank is a great tour guide and Headington Hall's food is delicious! I'd eat there every day if I could and would love to live there if I had all the advantages that the athletes do.
Thursday
Today Grace and I continued working on our Management Review Project. We got lunch with Grace's family, they drove all the way from Indiana!! We also got to leave early for the holiday weekend :)
Tuesday, July 1, 2014
The University of Oklahoma Week 5
The Weekend
On Friday evening, I went to Logie's on Campus Corner for the evening. The next day we went to Bricktown for the Scotty McCreery and Lady Antebellum concert, which was awesome! We also went to Crooked Crust that evneing in Campus Corner, and it was great pizza. I highly recommend it! On Sunday, I spent time out by the pool!
Monday
Today Lindsey and I spent the entire day in the office just working on some of our projects. Dot is gone this week, so we have all week to work on those.
Tuesday
Today we worked a lot on our management review. We also went with some of the TOD staff to get free snow cones at 11! Lauren is so great about trying to include us and make us feel welcome! We also got lunch with them. We went to a meeting in the afternoon that was reviewing the Employee Handbook for Food Services that is given to the employees when they are hired. There was a meeting with a lot of the directors to discuss changes that need to be made to clarify some issues that they have had in the past year.
Wednesday
Today we went around with Frank for the day and he took us to Cate, Headington, the Stadium, and the Weather Center. It was really fun! Frank knows so much about all of the history of OU and all the buildings. We got to also go up to Catering in the Union and try a Nutella Cronut that they are trying out, and it was delicious! I couldn't stop eating them, and ended up eating an entire plate. Haha. Headinton Hall is really really nice. This is where all of the athletes stay, and the dining hall in it is called Wagner Dining, which is run by Curtis. Since the dining hall is where the athletes eat, the sports dietitian for the university also has a large role in what is served. All of the foods are labeled as either green, yellow, or red, and there was a ton of fresh fruit! Lindsey and I loved it! We ended up eating lunch here and it was awesome and so fresh! We got to go up to the stadium and look out from all of the club seats and suites. It is really nice up there, and I can't believe all of the work that the food service staff has to do on game days to feed all of those people. We also got to go to the top of the Weather Center to the observation floor, and you could see for miles and miles. It was incredible! My family got in this evening, so we went to Ray's BBQ and it was awesome! I for sure recommend it!
Thursday
Today we worked on our projects in our office for the day. Frank came into our office during the day and told us that we were all dismissed from work at 2pm for the day, which was exciting! He also brought us cucumbers from his wife's garden, which were the biggest cucumbers I have ever seen. We got lunch with my family at Laughing Tomato and then walked them around campus for awhile. That evening I went out to eat at Pepe Delgados with my family and we went to the movies.
Friday
We had work off today due to the fact it was the fourth of July! My family and I went to the Oklahoma City National Memorial Museum, which was very well done and really interesting to learn about. We then ate at the Mule in Oklahoma City, and their food was awesome! We then watched the fireworks in Norman and played some games.
On Friday evening, I went to Logie's on Campus Corner for the evening. The next day we went to Bricktown for the Scotty McCreery and Lady Antebellum concert, which was awesome! We also went to Crooked Crust that evneing in Campus Corner, and it was great pizza. I highly recommend it! On Sunday, I spent time out by the pool!
Monday
Today Lindsey and I spent the entire day in the office just working on some of our projects. Dot is gone this week, so we have all week to work on those.
Tuesday
Today we worked a lot on our management review. We also went with some of the TOD staff to get free snow cones at 11! Lauren is so great about trying to include us and make us feel welcome! We also got lunch with them. We went to a meeting in the afternoon that was reviewing the Employee Handbook for Food Services that is given to the employees when they are hired. There was a meeting with a lot of the directors to discuss changes that need to be made to clarify some issues that they have had in the past year.
Wednesday
Today we went around with Frank for the day and he took us to Cate, Headington, the Stadium, and the Weather Center. It was really fun! Frank knows so much about all of the history of OU and all the buildings. We got to also go up to Catering in the Union and try a Nutella Cronut that they are trying out, and it was delicious! I couldn't stop eating them, and ended up eating an entire plate. Haha. Headinton Hall is really really nice. This is where all of the athletes stay, and the dining hall in it is called Wagner Dining, which is run by Curtis. Since the dining hall is where the athletes eat, the sports dietitian for the university also has a large role in what is served. All of the foods are labeled as either green, yellow, or red, and there was a ton of fresh fruit! Lindsey and I loved it! We ended up eating lunch here and it was awesome and so fresh! We got to go up to the stadium and look out from all of the club seats and suites. It is really nice up there, and I can't believe all of the work that the food service staff has to do on game days to feed all of those people. We also got to go to the top of the Weather Center to the observation floor, and you could see for miles and miles. It was incredible! My family got in this evening, so we went to Ray's BBQ and it was awesome! I for sure recommend it!
Thursday
Today we worked on our projects in our office for the day. Frank came into our office during the day and told us that we were all dismissed from work at 2pm for the day, which was exciting! He also brought us cucumbers from his wife's garden, which were the biggest cucumbers I have ever seen. We got lunch with my family at Laughing Tomato and then walked them around campus for awhile. That evening I went out to eat at Pepe Delgados with my family and we went to the movies.
Friday
We had work off today due to the fact it was the fourth of July! My family and I went to the Oklahoma City National Memorial Museum, which was very well done and really interesting to learn about. We then ate at the Mule in Oklahoma City, and their food was awesome! We then watched the fireworks in Norman and played some games.
Monday, June 30, 2014
University of Oklahoma - Week 4
The Weekend
On Friday, after work, we went into Bricktown for dinner at Zio's. They had cheap pasta and it was actually good! Afterwards, we went to a cupcake shop, Pinkitzel, for a little dessert. It was delicious, however I heard Cuppies & Joe is the place to go for cupcakes but they were closed. After dinner we went to Fuzzy's to try their gallon margarita (we all shared). It was really good, like drinking a slushie, however still a challenge finishing it between the 3 of us. On Saturday, Grace and I went to Remington Park to watch my sister ride. That night we went to the casino for dinner benefitting the Sport of Kings Challenge that my sister competed in on Sunday. I stayed with my sister that night because I got up 3am Sunday morning to help her and the other people in charge of the Sport of Kings Challenge to set the jumps up for the event and to get my sisters horse, Ari ready for the day. I helped with the event and my sister throughout the day and got pretty burnt on my arms and face. Luckily, I did not get a sunglass tan line...somehow! It was a lot of fun helping my sister out. I got to pig out on the food trucks at Remington Park. My favorite thing that I had was the s'mores calzone :) I also got to pet a baby kangaroo, Grace actually was able to hold it!!! (there is a picture of the baby kangaroo & my sister on her blog)
Monday
Today, we actually got to ride to HSC with Ryan. We were crammed in this little truck, but we eventually got there okay. We worked in Healthy Hearth. Today was the best experience I had so far in this internship. I was able to work with Chef Chris and help prepare the specials for the day and also helped with inventory. I want to go back and work for them everyday!! I was able to get a true insight in food service management. I am particularly interested in working with cancer patients in my career so hearing how Healthy Hearth specializes their menu options particularly for the patients interests me and would love to come to Healthy Hearth more often to work. It was neat seeing how Healthy Hearth ensures the quality of their menu items and the experience that their customers have while at the operation to make sure the food is safe to consume sent their customers are at high risk due to their low immune functioning. Additionally, Lara asked if we would do the nutrition analysis of her menu!! This would be awesome to do. I really hope we will be able to ride up with Ryan more often to work at the Healthy Hearth. Today, was the first day during my internship where I felt value and it was related to something that I am particularly interested in doing as a career and would love the opportunity to gain more experience in.
Tuesday
Today, me and Grace finally got the opportunity to attend the New Employee Orientation with Lauren Royston. We learned all about the Housing and Foods Services values and objectives. We learned what the University expects from us as employees and the benefits we receive being an employee. Lauren was a total sweetheart and made me and Grace feel very comfortable expressing our interests and concerns. She cracked me up with her knick knacks that we could play with to keep us awake and attentive during the presentation. Lauren was very nice and showed me and Grace around a little bit and gave us more of an insight on what we could do and where we could go around campus. She wanted to make our time here at OU fun. She even invited us to have lunch with her at Redbud Cafe at the museum and took us on a little tour of the gift store. Overall, we got the opportunity to learn a little more about the Housing and Food Service Department and their history and who made up the Housing and Food Services Department.
Wednesday
Today we met with Marcia Musser over at Couch who is the Operations Manager. She took us through Couch and told us about all the operations within couch. We also had the opportunity to help set up for the Camp Crimson BBQ.
Thursday
This morning we were with Chef Gary at couch and went over all the menus that he uses for couch. He went over how he deals with individuals who have allergies and how he prepares food for each meal period. Additionally, today we presented our employee in-service presentation. It went well. I learned that people are not big fans of vegetables around here... It was a challenge to come up with new ideas for the individuals who are not fans of vegetables to consume vegetables so they receive the essential nutrients. I had to be creative when thinking of healthy snack ideas and new recipes. I also learned that I should incorporate more material on what individuals who have allergies or intolerances can consume to receive all the essential nutrients.
Friday
This morning we were with Francis over at Couch, however she wasn't aware that we were coming, there fore she was not prepared. She just told us about her responsibilities at Couch. Afterwards, Frank took Grace and I over to the Union to check out the new Union Market and the Bookmark. We also hung out with Chris a little bit and were able to taste test Starbucks coffee! After lunch, we met with Sam, the manager of Couch and went over inventory and finances. We overlooked all the financial reports of all the on campus food operations which was interesting who makes profit. We also got to eat cake!
On Friday, after work, we went into Bricktown for dinner at Zio's. They had cheap pasta and it was actually good! Afterwards, we went to a cupcake shop, Pinkitzel, for a little dessert. It was delicious, however I heard Cuppies & Joe is the place to go for cupcakes but they were closed. After dinner we went to Fuzzy's to try their gallon margarita (we all shared). It was really good, like drinking a slushie, however still a challenge finishing it between the 3 of us. On Saturday, Grace and I went to Remington Park to watch my sister ride. That night we went to the casino for dinner benefitting the Sport of Kings Challenge that my sister competed in on Sunday. I stayed with my sister that night because I got up 3am Sunday morning to help her and the other people in charge of the Sport of Kings Challenge to set the jumps up for the event and to get my sisters horse, Ari ready for the day. I helped with the event and my sister throughout the day and got pretty burnt on my arms and face. Luckily, I did not get a sunglass tan line...somehow! It was a lot of fun helping my sister out. I got to pig out on the food trucks at Remington Park. My favorite thing that I had was the s'mores calzone :) I also got to pet a baby kangaroo, Grace actually was able to hold it!!! (there is a picture of the baby kangaroo & my sister on her blog)
Monday
Today, we actually got to ride to HSC with Ryan. We were crammed in this little truck, but we eventually got there okay. We worked in Healthy Hearth. Today was the best experience I had so far in this internship. I was able to work with Chef Chris and help prepare the specials for the day and also helped with inventory. I want to go back and work for them everyday!! I was able to get a true insight in food service management. I am particularly interested in working with cancer patients in my career so hearing how Healthy Hearth specializes their menu options particularly for the patients interests me and would love to come to Healthy Hearth more often to work. It was neat seeing how Healthy Hearth ensures the quality of their menu items and the experience that their customers have while at the operation to make sure the food is safe to consume sent their customers are at high risk due to their low immune functioning. Additionally, Lara asked if we would do the nutrition analysis of her menu!! This would be awesome to do. I really hope we will be able to ride up with Ryan more often to work at the Healthy Hearth. Today, was the first day during my internship where I felt value and it was related to something that I am particularly interested in doing as a career and would love the opportunity to gain more experience in.
Tuesday
Today, me and Grace finally got the opportunity to attend the New Employee Orientation with Lauren Royston. We learned all about the Housing and Foods Services values and objectives. We learned what the University expects from us as employees and the benefits we receive being an employee. Lauren was a total sweetheart and made me and Grace feel very comfortable expressing our interests and concerns. She cracked me up with her knick knacks that we could play with to keep us awake and attentive during the presentation. Lauren was very nice and showed me and Grace around a little bit and gave us more of an insight on what we could do and where we could go around campus. She wanted to make our time here at OU fun. She even invited us to have lunch with her at Redbud Cafe at the museum and took us on a little tour of the gift store. Overall, we got the opportunity to learn a little more about the Housing and Food Service Department and their history and who made up the Housing and Food Services Department.
Wednesday
Today we met with Marcia Musser over at Couch who is the Operations Manager. She took us through Couch and told us about all the operations within couch. We also had the opportunity to help set up for the Camp Crimson BBQ.
Thursday
This morning we were with Chef Gary at couch and went over all the menus that he uses for couch. He went over how he deals with individuals who have allergies and how he prepares food for each meal period. Additionally, today we presented our employee in-service presentation. It went well. I learned that people are not big fans of vegetables around here... It was a challenge to come up with new ideas for the individuals who are not fans of vegetables to consume vegetables so they receive the essential nutrients. I had to be creative when thinking of healthy snack ideas and new recipes. I also learned that I should incorporate more material on what individuals who have allergies or intolerances can consume to receive all the essential nutrients.
Friday
This morning we were with Francis over at Couch, however she wasn't aware that we were coming, there fore she was not prepared. She just told us about her responsibilities at Couch. Afterwards, Frank took Grace and I over to the Union to check out the new Union Market and the Bookmark. We also hung out with Chris a little bit and were able to taste test Starbucks coffee! After lunch, we met with Sam, the manager of Couch and went over inventory and finances. We overlooked all the financial reports of all the on campus food operations which was interesting who makes profit. We also got to eat cake!
Tuesday, June 24, 2014
The University of Oklahoma Week 4
The Weekend
This weekend we spent Friday out in Bricktown with our friend Jack! Lindsey was craving Italian food so we went to Zio's and then we went to a cupcake place called Pinkitzel. After that we went to Fuzzy's again and hung out for awhile! The next morning Lindsey and I woke up early to drive to Remington Park in OKC to watch her sister show horses. That was really interesting since I have never really been around that sort of lifestyle, so I learned a ton!
We then went back to our apartment and did some chores and went grocery shopping. Later that evening we returned to Remington park for a charity dinner for a group that her sister is a part of. The next morning we went back up for the real competition to take place! It was the perfect day for it, and I got significantly burnt. There were a ton of food trucks there and we both got Margherita pizza and a S'mores calzone. Yum. I also got to hold a baby kangaroo and it was the cutest thing ever!
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Monday
Today was Lindsey and I's favorite day so far by a long shot. We went up to the Health Sciences Center in Oklahoma City. Unfortunately when we arrived no one was aware that we were supposed to be coming up, so we went to Healthy Hearth since they are the most busy establishment up there so maybe they would have something for us to do. It turned out that they for sure did! They were amazing up there. Once we got there, we dove right in and I worked with the daily features and wrote up their descriptions and sent out an email to around 450 people with all of this information! Then I worked with Catherine, who is the baker for the Healthy Hearth, and she and I worked with the customers all day and getting them their food, filling drinks, taking orders, making pizzas, and much more. I was busy all day and the time flew by. They then made us lunch, and after that they let us organize their inventory and draw up charts for it. They gave us the perfect amount of direction and flexibility. I loved Lara, their manager, and Chris, their chef. They treated us like we were professionals and taught us a lot! It was so sad to leave them at the end of the day, and they told us to come back, and we definitely want to! We stayed so busy and felt so respected. Lara really wants us to work on getting the nutrition information for all of her menu items. She also bought Lindsey and I one of their cupcakes (PEACH, so yummy!!).
Tuesday
Today we met with Lauren Royston for the New Employee Orientation. She was so energetic and excited about what she does for the University. She listened to everything we had to say, and came back with a lot of suggestions. It is clear that she really wants every employee to have the best possible experience they can have while working at OU. She took us out to lunch after, and we really just got to spend a lot of quality time with her. It was nice to have someone take the time to get to know us on a personal level, and actually seem interested in who we are as people. She really made us feel welcomed, and I'm extremely grateful for spending the day with her!
Wednesday
Today we had our mid internship evaluations, which went well. In the afternoon, we spent time with Marcia Musser. She works at Couch in Operations. She showed us all around the building and told us a lot more about the specific operations that they have within Couch and how they differ. We worked with her to set up a picnic for the Camp Crimson that is currently going on at OU!
Thursday
Today we worked at Couch with Chef Gary in the morning. However, he really did not have a lot for us to do so we ended up being passed around to the different supervisors. We spent time with Chris, Diane, and Sherri. We helped get the salad bar ready for the day by slicing tomatoes and rinsing fruit. We then spent a very long time in baking with Sherri where I got cookie trays ready, made cookies, and filled rolls in bowls. In the afternoon, we gave our Presentation on Manage Weight Sooner at the Manager's Meeting. I am very glad that it is over; one less thing to worry about. In the evening, we went out to the Warren Theater in Moore to see 22 Jump Street to celebrate being done with our presentation. It was awesome! We sat in the balcony and there are waiters who serve you at your seat. I had an entire couch to myself and they are heated seats so I just laid back and relaxed. It was so fun!
Friday
Today we were supposed to meet with Francis in the morning who is the store room supervisor at Couch. She works a lot with the supervisors and inventory and trying to keep the numbers low. After this, we went around with Frank Henry to look at the soon to be Union Market and also Bookmark Cafe. We also spent time with Chris Kaeser, who is the manager of Starbucks. We did a short coffee tasting with him and he was teaching us about the different aspects that are incorporated into various types of coffee. Frank showed us around the campus also and told us a lot about the history of OU. I really enjoyed this time! In the afternoon we met with Sam, who is the manager of Couch. We talked over their allergy process and how we could improve the process overall through the communication of students, Dot, supervisors, workers, and Sam. We thought that it would be nice to display the allergy information someway on the food. He also went through a lot of numbers with us of all the different food service operations of OU and explained what the numbers meant and where they should be. This was really interesting to learn about. He also let us eat cake, so that was awesome. :)
This weekend we spent Friday out in Bricktown with our friend Jack! Lindsey was craving Italian food so we went to Zio's and then we went to a cupcake place called Pinkitzel. After that we went to Fuzzy's again and hung out for awhile! The next morning Lindsey and I woke up early to drive to Remington Park in OKC to watch her sister show horses. That was really interesting since I have never really been around that sort of lifestyle, so I learned a ton!
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We then went back to our apartment and did some chores and went grocery shopping. Later that evening we returned to Remington park for a charity dinner for a group that her sister is a part of. The next morning we went back up for the real competition to take place! It was the perfect day for it, and I got significantly burnt. There were a ton of food trucks there and we both got Margherita pizza and a S'mores calzone. Yum. I also got to hold a baby kangaroo and it was the cutest thing ever!
Monday
Today was Lindsey and I's favorite day so far by a long shot. We went up to the Health Sciences Center in Oklahoma City. Unfortunately when we arrived no one was aware that we were supposed to be coming up, so we went to Healthy Hearth since they are the most busy establishment up there so maybe they would have something for us to do. It turned out that they for sure did! They were amazing up there. Once we got there, we dove right in and I worked with the daily features and wrote up their descriptions and sent out an email to around 450 people with all of this information! Then I worked with Catherine, who is the baker for the Healthy Hearth, and she and I worked with the customers all day and getting them their food, filling drinks, taking orders, making pizzas, and much more. I was busy all day and the time flew by. They then made us lunch, and after that they let us organize their inventory and draw up charts for it. They gave us the perfect amount of direction and flexibility. I loved Lara, their manager, and Chris, their chef. They treated us like we were professionals and taught us a lot! It was so sad to leave them at the end of the day, and they told us to come back, and we definitely want to! We stayed so busy and felt so respected. Lara really wants us to work on getting the nutrition information for all of her menu items. She also bought Lindsey and I one of their cupcakes (PEACH, so yummy!!).
Tuesday
Today we met with Lauren Royston for the New Employee Orientation. She was so energetic and excited about what she does for the University. She listened to everything we had to say, and came back with a lot of suggestions. It is clear that she really wants every employee to have the best possible experience they can have while working at OU. She took us out to lunch after, and we really just got to spend a lot of quality time with her. It was nice to have someone take the time to get to know us on a personal level, and actually seem interested in who we are as people. She really made us feel welcomed, and I'm extremely grateful for spending the day with her!
Wednesday
Today we had our mid internship evaluations, which went well. In the afternoon, we spent time with Marcia Musser. She works at Couch in Operations. She showed us all around the building and told us a lot more about the specific operations that they have within Couch and how they differ. We worked with her to set up a picnic for the Camp Crimson that is currently going on at OU!
Thursday
Today we worked at Couch with Chef Gary in the morning. However, he really did not have a lot for us to do so we ended up being passed around to the different supervisors. We spent time with Chris, Diane, and Sherri. We helped get the salad bar ready for the day by slicing tomatoes and rinsing fruit. We then spent a very long time in baking with Sherri where I got cookie trays ready, made cookies, and filled rolls in bowls. In the afternoon, we gave our Presentation on Manage Weight Sooner at the Manager's Meeting. I am very glad that it is over; one less thing to worry about. In the evening, we went out to the Warren Theater in Moore to see 22 Jump Street to celebrate being done with our presentation. It was awesome! We sat in the balcony and there are waiters who serve you at your seat. I had an entire couch to myself and they are heated seats so I just laid back and relaxed. It was so fun!
Friday
Today we were supposed to meet with Francis in the morning who is the store room supervisor at Couch. She works a lot with the supervisors and inventory and trying to keep the numbers low. After this, we went around with Frank Henry to look at the soon to be Union Market and also Bookmark Cafe. We also spent time with Chris Kaeser, who is the manager of Starbucks. We did a short coffee tasting with him and he was teaching us about the different aspects that are incorporated into various types of coffee. Frank showed us around the campus also and told us a lot about the history of OU. I really enjoyed this time! In the afternoon we met with Sam, who is the manager of Couch. We talked over their allergy process and how we could improve the process overall through the communication of students, Dot, supervisors, workers, and Sam. We thought that it would be nice to display the allergy information someway on the food. He also went through a lot of numbers with us of all the different food service operations of OU and explained what the numbers meant and where they should be. This was really interesting to learn about. He also let us eat cake, so that was awesome. :)
Friday, June 20, 2014
The University of Oklahoma - Week 3
The Weekend
Grace and I met my sister and brother-in-law for dinner and drinks in Oklahoma City on Friday. We went to Deep Deuce Grill. I would definitely come back to this place. We sat out on the patio sent it was gorgeous out. More of a laid back type of place. I had the BBQ pork shanks and they were delicious! The meat was falling right off the bone. Afterwards, we decided to check out the new hotel, a loft, for cocktails on the rooftop. This is probably the only place in the city where you cannot see the Devon tower in Oklahoma City. Very pretty watching the sun set and nice set up to relax. After that, we met my sister friend, Michelle, at Whiskey Lounge sent she was working in the city. Here I tried the Beignets. I never had them before but Grace kept saying how good they were when she went to France and I was having a sweet tooth so I couldn't resist. Grace was certainly right, they were really good! The whip cream was even home made, I would definitely recommend them. On Saturday, it was finally nice to lay out by the pool and get some color (even though I got slightly burnt on my back). I am not use to being this pale during the summer sent I normally live down at the shore. But laying by the pool on Saturday was very relaxing and much needed! Grace and I didn't do much Saturday night besides relax. Unfortunately, Grace got sick Saturday night and into Sunday and is now missing work on Monday. Apparently there is a virus going around because my sister had it last week. Hopefully Grace feels better by today so she can come back to work and I won't get sick! Anyway, on Sunday I decided to meet my sister for lunch at Pops. I got the Arcadia burger, which is a 1/3 lb burger with homemade BBQ sauce, bacon and blue cheese. Me and my sister shared onion rings and the Root Beer bread pudding. She got the B.E.L.T which is bacon, egg salad, lettuce and tomato on Texas toast. Everything was really good. Afterwards me and my sister planted her plants she got the other day and then did a little shopping in Midwest city and then had homemade dinner at her in-laws farm. Janice (mother-in-law) made fried chicken, fried zucchini, baked beans, potato salad, and strawberry cake. Everything was really good :) Obviously you can see this weekend was filled with plenty of comfort food and that I will be paying for it the gym this week!
Monday
As I mentioned before, it is just me in the office today sent Grace is sick. Hopefully, she will be feeling better by the time I get home and be back to work tomorrow. I stayed at my sisters last night because I am trying to not catch the virus. I brought Grace home some Gatorade, 7up and saltine crackers though so maybe that'll make her stomach feel a little better. Today, I had a meeting with Danna Todd to discuss her job responsibilities in the Housing and Food Services department at OU. She is in charge of the Room and Board Work Program that OU has to offer and has been in charge ever since before her son has been born (who is bout to turn 18)! OU offers a great program to their students who qualify. The Room and Board Work Program is a separate employment opportunity for students who live in either the Residence Halls or OU Traditions Square. Students who qualify for Federal Work Study may take part in this program. These students generally work 16 hours each week and 10 service hours per semester. Where the students will work is based on their availability. If they call in sick one day, they are required to make up their hours within the two week paid period to stay in the program. As soon as the students get paid, they must go pay their bill. There are 150 spots for the Room and Board Work Program. Additionally, these students are able to move in a week before classes start to attend training and be fully prepared to start when classes start. Danna Todd is also in charge in the purchasing of the housing and food services. Today, I also got to try a new meatloaf recipe that is gluten and allergen free. It was actually pretty good!
Tuesday
Today Grace was well enough to come back to work, thankfully! We had a meeting with Kevin Barker who is in charge of the Business Operations. Being in charge of business operations entails financial report, franchise payments and budgeting. For budgeting, he uses historical data and does it month by month. Budgeting ties in with purchasing and planning on what he is going to buy. Kevin is also in charge of Food Safety. He teaches the ServSafe course once or twice a year and does assessment of the on campus food operations. Today we also put together all the pieces to our in-service project and have the date that we are going to present, June 26th. We finished our powerpoint, brochure and lesson plan. The last thing that we still have yet to do is actually make the snack that we are going to hand out to give it a test run and see if it is appropriate for our presentation and practice to become more familiar with what we are going to say.
Wednesday
Today we met with Kevin Barker again, however this time, we performed a sanitation inspection of Couch. We did a quick assessment of the operation and went through all the things that he usually does. The inspection started as soon as we walked in the door. Kevin says that is the front area isn't clean then the back isn't likely to be clean, meaning the front waiting area is a good area to see if the operation is clean. We got a closer look into the little details on how Kevin checks to make sure the operation is clean and sanitized and all items are stored properly. We also were able to check the temperatures of all the items on the line. We saw that if the temperature of an item falls into the danger zone then it gets thrown away to decrease the risks of food borne illnesses and is replaced. Additionally, I noticed that Kevin does not assume anything, he always asks a supervisor why something is happening. For example, a towel was on a prep area. Kevin asked the supervisor what that towel is used for and why it was there to make sure that it was safe. I never realized before how much detail goes into inspection and how every little inch of an area must be monitored to ensure the safety of a customer. A lot of things must be taken into perspective and a lot of regulations are to be followed to decrease the likelihood of someone to become sick. Today, we also started brainstorming ideas for our business plan/special event. We came up with the idea of doing something nutrition related sent we are both nutrition majors. We decided to plan a week long event during National Nutrition Awareness Month, which is in March, and it is Nutrition Awareness Week where each day would have a different theme.
Thursday
Today we got to meet and speak with both Nancy and Shawn. Nancy is the Director of Customer Relations, she is also Franks assistant and like all the other people that we have spoke to so far, wears many hats. For example, she does administrative work and keeps track of all the calenders. She is also in charge of the meal plans. OU offers so many options for meal plans, it's almost overwhelming! Nancy also makes all the travel arrangements and the university vehicle reservations. Furthermore, Nancy serves as a liaison of Food Service and companies. One thing that I thought particularly interesting are the athletes meal plans and the tight regulation on the athletes diet. For example, Nancy was telling us about the pasta penalty...the athletes had to pay NCAA $1.50 because they went to an event where they ate pasta and pasta isn't on their diet so they got in trouble. While Shawn is the Director of Retail Operations. She is in charge of 16 or 17 operations here on OU campus. Shawn does the bid processes, departmental orders, and deals with discipline leave. There are a lot of improvements that are currently happening in some of her operations. For example, Wendy's got tore down and made into the Union Market. The Union Market will be serving upscale grilled cheeses, pouton, has a salad bar, hot bar, soup bar, sushi, cow of the fly sandwiches, and infused water!! This is a great improvement from Wendy's and addition to the Union. I am excited to try the specialty grilled cheeses!! Also, the bookmark cafe is currently being renovated and Starbucks just finished being renovated. Then on June 30th, the Chinese place in the Union is going to be walled off to expand Chick-fil-A which will increase productivity. The managers that Shawn is in charge of are TJ (the laughing tomato, chick-fil-a, and quiznos), Rhonda (flying cow cafe), Windeon (Union Market), Chris (Starbucks), and Donna (Einstein Brothers Bagels). Shawn is strict on three things when terminating someone, those three things are time, attendance, and cell phone usage. Which I completely agree with Shawn, employees should be fully present when scheduled to work, that is what they are hired for. To terminate someone though, the Vice-president must give permission.
Friday
Happy Friday!! Today we got a free root beer float which is just what we needed after this long week :) Today, we researched grilled cheese options that we could add to the Union Market's specialty grilled cheese sandwich menu. We also overlooked our employee in-service project sent we will be turning in our lesson plan to Dot on Monday.
Grace and I met my sister and brother-in-law for dinner and drinks in Oklahoma City on Friday. We went to Deep Deuce Grill. I would definitely come back to this place. We sat out on the patio sent it was gorgeous out. More of a laid back type of place. I had the BBQ pork shanks and they were delicious! The meat was falling right off the bone. Afterwards, we decided to check out the new hotel, a loft, for cocktails on the rooftop. This is probably the only place in the city where you cannot see the Devon tower in Oklahoma City. Very pretty watching the sun set and nice set up to relax. After that, we met my sister friend, Michelle, at Whiskey Lounge sent she was working in the city. Here I tried the Beignets. I never had them before but Grace kept saying how good they were when she went to France and I was having a sweet tooth so I couldn't resist. Grace was certainly right, they were really good! The whip cream was even home made, I would definitely recommend them. On Saturday, it was finally nice to lay out by the pool and get some color (even though I got slightly burnt on my back). I am not use to being this pale during the summer sent I normally live down at the shore. But laying by the pool on Saturday was very relaxing and much needed! Grace and I didn't do much Saturday night besides relax. Unfortunately, Grace got sick Saturday night and into Sunday and is now missing work on Monday. Apparently there is a virus going around because my sister had it last week. Hopefully Grace feels better by today so she can come back to work and I won't get sick! Anyway, on Sunday I decided to meet my sister for lunch at Pops. I got the Arcadia burger, which is a 1/3 lb burger with homemade BBQ sauce, bacon and blue cheese. Me and my sister shared onion rings and the Root Beer bread pudding. She got the B.E.L.T which is bacon, egg salad, lettuce and tomato on Texas toast. Everything was really good. Afterwards me and my sister planted her plants she got the other day and then did a little shopping in Midwest city and then had homemade dinner at her in-laws farm. Janice (mother-in-law) made fried chicken, fried zucchini, baked beans, potato salad, and strawberry cake. Everything was really good :) Obviously you can see this weekend was filled with plenty of comfort food and that I will be paying for it the gym this week!
Monday
As I mentioned before, it is just me in the office today sent Grace is sick. Hopefully, she will be feeling better by the time I get home and be back to work tomorrow. I stayed at my sisters last night because I am trying to not catch the virus. I brought Grace home some Gatorade, 7up and saltine crackers though so maybe that'll make her stomach feel a little better. Today, I had a meeting with Danna Todd to discuss her job responsibilities in the Housing and Food Services department at OU. She is in charge of the Room and Board Work Program that OU has to offer and has been in charge ever since before her son has been born (who is bout to turn 18)! OU offers a great program to their students who qualify. The Room and Board Work Program is a separate employment opportunity for students who live in either the Residence Halls or OU Traditions Square. Students who qualify for Federal Work Study may take part in this program. These students generally work 16 hours each week and 10 service hours per semester. Where the students will work is based on their availability. If they call in sick one day, they are required to make up their hours within the two week paid period to stay in the program. As soon as the students get paid, they must go pay their bill. There are 150 spots for the Room and Board Work Program. Additionally, these students are able to move in a week before classes start to attend training and be fully prepared to start when classes start. Danna Todd is also in charge in the purchasing of the housing and food services. Today, I also got to try a new meatloaf recipe that is gluten and allergen free. It was actually pretty good!
Tuesday
Today Grace was well enough to come back to work, thankfully! We had a meeting with Kevin Barker who is in charge of the Business Operations. Being in charge of business operations entails financial report, franchise payments and budgeting. For budgeting, he uses historical data and does it month by month. Budgeting ties in with purchasing and planning on what he is going to buy. Kevin is also in charge of Food Safety. He teaches the ServSafe course once or twice a year and does assessment of the on campus food operations. Today we also put together all the pieces to our in-service project and have the date that we are going to present, June 26th. We finished our powerpoint, brochure and lesson plan. The last thing that we still have yet to do is actually make the snack that we are going to hand out to give it a test run and see if it is appropriate for our presentation and practice to become more familiar with what we are going to say.
Wednesday
Today we met with Kevin Barker again, however this time, we performed a sanitation inspection of Couch. We did a quick assessment of the operation and went through all the things that he usually does. The inspection started as soon as we walked in the door. Kevin says that is the front area isn't clean then the back isn't likely to be clean, meaning the front waiting area is a good area to see if the operation is clean. We got a closer look into the little details on how Kevin checks to make sure the operation is clean and sanitized and all items are stored properly. We also were able to check the temperatures of all the items on the line. We saw that if the temperature of an item falls into the danger zone then it gets thrown away to decrease the risks of food borne illnesses and is replaced. Additionally, I noticed that Kevin does not assume anything, he always asks a supervisor why something is happening. For example, a towel was on a prep area. Kevin asked the supervisor what that towel is used for and why it was there to make sure that it was safe. I never realized before how much detail goes into inspection and how every little inch of an area must be monitored to ensure the safety of a customer. A lot of things must be taken into perspective and a lot of regulations are to be followed to decrease the likelihood of someone to become sick. Today, we also started brainstorming ideas for our business plan/special event. We came up with the idea of doing something nutrition related sent we are both nutrition majors. We decided to plan a week long event during National Nutrition Awareness Month, which is in March, and it is Nutrition Awareness Week where each day would have a different theme.
Thursday
Today we got to meet and speak with both Nancy and Shawn. Nancy is the Director of Customer Relations, she is also Franks assistant and like all the other people that we have spoke to so far, wears many hats. For example, she does administrative work and keeps track of all the calenders. She is also in charge of the meal plans. OU offers so many options for meal plans, it's almost overwhelming! Nancy also makes all the travel arrangements and the university vehicle reservations. Furthermore, Nancy serves as a liaison of Food Service and companies. One thing that I thought particularly interesting are the athletes meal plans and the tight regulation on the athletes diet. For example, Nancy was telling us about the pasta penalty...the athletes had to pay NCAA $1.50 because they went to an event where they ate pasta and pasta isn't on their diet so they got in trouble. While Shawn is the Director of Retail Operations. She is in charge of 16 or 17 operations here on OU campus. Shawn does the bid processes, departmental orders, and deals with discipline leave. There are a lot of improvements that are currently happening in some of her operations. For example, Wendy's got tore down and made into the Union Market. The Union Market will be serving upscale grilled cheeses, pouton, has a salad bar, hot bar, soup bar, sushi, cow of the fly sandwiches, and infused water!! This is a great improvement from Wendy's and addition to the Union. I am excited to try the specialty grilled cheeses!! Also, the bookmark cafe is currently being renovated and Starbucks just finished being renovated. Then on June 30th, the Chinese place in the Union is going to be walled off to expand Chick-fil-A which will increase productivity. The managers that Shawn is in charge of are TJ (the laughing tomato, chick-fil-a, and quiznos), Rhonda (flying cow cafe), Windeon (Union Market), Chris (Starbucks), and Donna (Einstein Brothers Bagels). Shawn is strict on three things when terminating someone, those three things are time, attendance, and cell phone usage. Which I completely agree with Shawn, employees should be fully present when scheduled to work, that is what they are hired for. To terminate someone though, the Vice-president must give permission.
Friday
Happy Friday!! Today we got a free root beer float which is just what we needed after this long week :) Today, we researched grilled cheese options that we could add to the Union Market's specialty grilled cheese sandwich menu. We also overlooked our employee in-service project sent we will be turning in our lesson plan to Dot on Monday.
Tuesday, June 17, 2014
The University of Oklahoma Week 3
The Weekend
On Saturday, Lindsey and I spent some time by the pool and each got a little burnt. We went out for icecream at a local custard place, which was really good. We were going to go out for wine tasting, but decided to stay in, which ended up being a very good decision because I ended up with a bout of food poisoning that evening and all of Sunday. So the rest of my weekend was not very fun at all.
Monday
I spent the day at home trying to get over my food poisoning.
Tuesday
I made it back to work today. Not feeling 100%, but definitely better than I have been. So far today we have met with Kevin Barker who is the Director of Business Operations for the Food Service Department. He wears many hats. I have no idea how he keeps all of his jobs straight. He is in charge of financials, budgeting, purchasing, franchises, ServSafe teaching, safety inspections, temptrack & C-bord, audits, Liaison with the Health Department, and a part of the Oklahoma Restaurant Association. So he is a busy guy. Right now they are finishing up the fiscal year, so they are preparing all of those final reports and also budgeting for next year so he has a lot of things coming at him at the same time. He was extremely nice, and told use how he always tries to treat everyone as his customer (no matter what situation he is in). He offered to help us with whatever we need in the future, or any information we may need. We ate lunch at the Laughing Tomato, and then we started working on our business plan and also making some finishing edits to our In-Service presentation. That evening I had a meeting for an organization I am in at school, worked out, made a huge batch of pasta, and slept soundly!
Wednesday
Today we hammered out a lot of work on our business plan in the morning. We are rolling with the idea of setting up a Nutrition Awareness Week. We picked a different themed day for the 5 days of the school week, and we plan to set it up at the Union during National Nutrition Month in March. We do not actually have to carry out this business plan, since we obviously will not be here any longer, but we just have to plan it! We also went and performed a sanitation inspection with Kevin Barker at Couch restaurants. It was really interesting to follow someone around while they perform one of these seeing as we have learned all about them, but I have never actually gone on one with a professional. There are so many details that you have to pay attention to when you are performing these. He was telling us that the minute you walk into the place you are inspecting, the inspection starts. You can judge a lot by how a restaurant looks in the front, because chances are the back of the establishment will be worse than the front. He also told us to first just observe the place when you get there and see if anything huge takes your attention. I also did not know that as far as employee hygiene and criteria, if one employee does not have on a hairnet, the entire establishment flunks for that category. He also told us that he takes pictures to document what he finds because a lot of times the places will not believe him that something happened. We learned a lot from this inspection, and we did not even perform an entire inspection due to it being the summer, and them not being as busy! He said that when he usually does Couch it takes him around 6 hours total to do the entire thing, Wow!! He also told us a lot of stories about things he and his friends have found on inspections, and I literally could not believe it. He said Chinese places are the worst for sanitation purpose (not surprised, and this is why I refuse to eat at them usually other than PF Changs :) ). One time a Chinese restaurant was chopping their chicken over the floor drain and then they were told to throw it out and then the inspector caught them digging it out of the garbage can when they thought he had left!! Another inspector found one of the workers bathing in the sink using the same washing tools they use for their dishes. Yuck!! It makes me so much more cautious of my surroundings at a restaurant now that I know all of this stuff. We actually did not go to the Laughing Tomato for lunch (I know you are shocked..), but we went to Crossroads! It was really great! In the afternoon, we did some more work on our business plan.
Thursday
Well... When it rains, it pours. Walking to work today we got absolutely drenched. It was a light drizzle when we left the building, but as soon as we got far enough away from our apartment to turn back it started pouring. I am still soaked writing this. We met with Nancy today all about her many tasks she has! First and foremost, Nancy is Frank's assistant. She handles his calendar and his administrative work. Another large thing she is in charge is the meal plans for the university. There are so many options here for various types of meal plans! Each meal plan can be chosen based on the amount of actual meals and then meal plan points. It was interesting to find out all about the athlete meal plans, and how there are a bunch of rules that the university has to follow in feeding them based off of NCAA rules. I had no idea. She deals with a lot of numbers and a lot of reports overall. She handles taking care of franchise royalties, employee meals, termination of meal plans, financial reporting, paying rent for buildings, department charge cards, travel arrangements for the department, university vehicle reservations, maintaining approve driver lists for the department, and making student employee meal cards. On top of all of this already, she holds a position as a Director of Customer Relations during football game days. The suites in the stadium are controlled by an outside company, so she serves as the liaison between that company and the food service department. She then prepares a report after the game of what went wrong and what went right basically. She actually went to OU as a student and worked in food services while she majored in music with a minor in business! This afternoon we got to meet with Shawn Henry who is the Director of Retail Operations for the Food Service Department. She is in charge of approximately 17 different operations. Currently, her big project has been the new restaurant that will be going up in the Union, which will be called the Union Market. They are planning to specialize in upscale grilled cheeses (YUM). They currently have 7 specialty grilled cheeses prepared, and also poutine. They also will have a salad bar, hot bar, Cow on the Fly sandwiches, soup bar (with tomato soup, chili, chicken noodle soup, and a soup du jour), and sushi! On top of all of this amazing stuff, they are also planning on doing infused waters (one daily) that will have different fruits in them that talk about the benefits of those fruits. They are also going to take the leftovers from the hot bar and turn them into take home packages that people can pick up after work to take home for dinner. This is such an awesome idea to cut back on waste! They will also have basics like fruit, granola, and apparently bulk candy! All of their equipment is going to be brand new, other than their fryer, which only will be fairly used! Another one of the operations she oversees is the Bookmark Cafe, which is currently being renovated. Starbucks, which she also oversees, just went through a renovation also. The current Wong Key in the Union will stop operation on June 30th and be walled off to expand Chick-Fil-A so they will be able to expand that menu. For the Union Market, they will be implementing kiosk ordering, and there will be TV screen with rolling order saying when they are ready. These kiosks are also supposed to be able to remember your last couple orders, so if you have a regular, you will just be able to click on it to order. She is also currently thinking about reorganizing the management underneath her so that there are two managers that restaurants will report to: a north and a south area manager. This way she will just have these managers reporting to her, not all 17. Shawn has been in this position for 2 years now. She also is a part of the bid processes. They currently accepted a new milk bid, so she was at a meeting for that earlier today. Part of her job is also taking care of departmental orders currently because the person who used to take care of this job is no longer doing it. She also talked to us about disciplinary leave and termination since she has 17 operations under her this is a big thing. She is involved in all of those decisions. I found it interesting that they have to get vice president permission to terminate an employee. Overall, we learned a lot from her! She was so nice, and she wants us to come up with some upscale grilled cheese recipes for Union Market! I can't wait to start looking!
Friday
Today we got root beer floats! Woo! They were served in the afternoon during work. We spent a majority of the day just working on our projects.
On Saturday, Lindsey and I spent some time by the pool and each got a little burnt. We went out for icecream at a local custard place, which was really good. We were going to go out for wine tasting, but decided to stay in, which ended up being a very good decision because I ended up with a bout of food poisoning that evening and all of Sunday. So the rest of my weekend was not very fun at all.
Monday
I spent the day at home trying to get over my food poisoning.
Tuesday
I made it back to work today. Not feeling 100%, but definitely better than I have been. So far today we have met with Kevin Barker who is the Director of Business Operations for the Food Service Department. He wears many hats. I have no idea how he keeps all of his jobs straight. He is in charge of financials, budgeting, purchasing, franchises, ServSafe teaching, safety inspections, temptrack & C-bord, audits, Liaison with the Health Department, and a part of the Oklahoma Restaurant Association. So he is a busy guy. Right now they are finishing up the fiscal year, so they are preparing all of those final reports and also budgeting for next year so he has a lot of things coming at him at the same time. He was extremely nice, and told use how he always tries to treat everyone as his customer (no matter what situation he is in). He offered to help us with whatever we need in the future, or any information we may need. We ate lunch at the Laughing Tomato, and then we started working on our business plan and also making some finishing edits to our In-Service presentation. That evening I had a meeting for an organization I am in at school, worked out, made a huge batch of pasta, and slept soundly!
Wednesday
Today we hammered out a lot of work on our business plan in the morning. We are rolling with the idea of setting up a Nutrition Awareness Week. We picked a different themed day for the 5 days of the school week, and we plan to set it up at the Union during National Nutrition Month in March. We do not actually have to carry out this business plan, since we obviously will not be here any longer, but we just have to plan it! We also went and performed a sanitation inspection with Kevin Barker at Couch restaurants. It was really interesting to follow someone around while they perform one of these seeing as we have learned all about them, but I have never actually gone on one with a professional. There are so many details that you have to pay attention to when you are performing these. He was telling us that the minute you walk into the place you are inspecting, the inspection starts. You can judge a lot by how a restaurant looks in the front, because chances are the back of the establishment will be worse than the front. He also told us to first just observe the place when you get there and see if anything huge takes your attention. I also did not know that as far as employee hygiene and criteria, if one employee does not have on a hairnet, the entire establishment flunks for that category. He also told us that he takes pictures to document what he finds because a lot of times the places will not believe him that something happened. We learned a lot from this inspection, and we did not even perform an entire inspection due to it being the summer, and them not being as busy! He said that when he usually does Couch it takes him around 6 hours total to do the entire thing, Wow!! He also told us a lot of stories about things he and his friends have found on inspections, and I literally could not believe it. He said Chinese places are the worst for sanitation purpose (not surprised, and this is why I refuse to eat at them usually other than PF Changs :) ). One time a Chinese restaurant was chopping their chicken over the floor drain and then they were told to throw it out and then the inspector caught them digging it out of the garbage can when they thought he had left!! Another inspector found one of the workers bathing in the sink using the same washing tools they use for their dishes. Yuck!! It makes me so much more cautious of my surroundings at a restaurant now that I know all of this stuff. We actually did not go to the Laughing Tomato for lunch (I know you are shocked..), but we went to Crossroads! It was really great! In the afternoon, we did some more work on our business plan.
Thursday
Well... When it rains, it pours. Walking to work today we got absolutely drenched. It was a light drizzle when we left the building, but as soon as we got far enough away from our apartment to turn back it started pouring. I am still soaked writing this. We met with Nancy today all about her many tasks she has! First and foremost, Nancy is Frank's assistant. She handles his calendar and his administrative work. Another large thing she is in charge is the meal plans for the university. There are so many options here for various types of meal plans! Each meal plan can be chosen based on the amount of actual meals and then meal plan points. It was interesting to find out all about the athlete meal plans, and how there are a bunch of rules that the university has to follow in feeding them based off of NCAA rules. I had no idea. She deals with a lot of numbers and a lot of reports overall. She handles taking care of franchise royalties, employee meals, termination of meal plans, financial reporting, paying rent for buildings, department charge cards, travel arrangements for the department, university vehicle reservations, maintaining approve driver lists for the department, and making student employee meal cards. On top of all of this already, she holds a position as a Director of Customer Relations during football game days. The suites in the stadium are controlled by an outside company, so she serves as the liaison between that company and the food service department. She then prepares a report after the game of what went wrong and what went right basically. She actually went to OU as a student and worked in food services while she majored in music with a minor in business! This afternoon we got to meet with Shawn Henry who is the Director of Retail Operations for the Food Service Department. She is in charge of approximately 17 different operations. Currently, her big project has been the new restaurant that will be going up in the Union, which will be called the Union Market. They are planning to specialize in upscale grilled cheeses (YUM). They currently have 7 specialty grilled cheeses prepared, and also poutine. They also will have a salad bar, hot bar, Cow on the Fly sandwiches, soup bar (with tomato soup, chili, chicken noodle soup, and a soup du jour), and sushi! On top of all of this amazing stuff, they are also planning on doing infused waters (one daily) that will have different fruits in them that talk about the benefits of those fruits. They are also going to take the leftovers from the hot bar and turn them into take home packages that people can pick up after work to take home for dinner. This is such an awesome idea to cut back on waste! They will also have basics like fruit, granola, and apparently bulk candy! All of their equipment is going to be brand new, other than their fryer, which only will be fairly used! Another one of the operations she oversees is the Bookmark Cafe, which is currently being renovated. Starbucks, which she also oversees, just went through a renovation also. The current Wong Key in the Union will stop operation on June 30th and be walled off to expand Chick-Fil-A so they will be able to expand that menu. For the Union Market, they will be implementing kiosk ordering, and there will be TV screen with rolling order saying when they are ready. These kiosks are also supposed to be able to remember your last couple orders, so if you have a regular, you will just be able to click on it to order. She is also currently thinking about reorganizing the management underneath her so that there are two managers that restaurants will report to: a north and a south area manager. This way she will just have these managers reporting to her, not all 17. Shawn has been in this position for 2 years now. She also is a part of the bid processes. They currently accepted a new milk bid, so she was at a meeting for that earlier today. Part of her job is also taking care of departmental orders currently because the person who used to take care of this job is no longer doing it. She also talked to us about disciplinary leave and termination since she has 17 operations under her this is a big thing. She is involved in all of those decisions. I found it interesting that they have to get vice president permission to terminate an employee. Overall, we learned a lot from her! She was so nice, and she wants us to come up with some upscale grilled cheese recipes for Union Market! I can't wait to start looking!
Friday
Today we got root beer floats! Woo! They were served in the afternoon during work. We spent a majority of the day just working on our projects.
Friday, June 13, 2014
University of Oklahoma - Week 2
Monday
Today we didn't have a busy schedule. We mostly worked on our employee in-service lesson plan and brainstorm ideas. We noticed from working an actual 8-5 job that our lifestyle has become much more sedentary from life at college even though we work out still in the afternoon. However, we know that not everyone are health and wellness freaks like me and Grace =P. So we came up with a topic for our project, how to manage weight with a sedentary job. I came up with the clever title "Manage Weight Sooner" (OU school mascot is a sooner). For the project we are using the weight management program they already have, Healthy Sooners, and ChooseMyPlate.gov to introduce maybe something new to the staff that they haven't heard of before. We got the idea approved by Dot, so now we are actually trying to condense our ideas to make a 20 minute presentation to the staff. It is challenging because we have so many good ideas that we could present to them but we only have so much time so we are struggling with making it more focused and direct.
Tuesday
Today we continued to work on our employee in-service and got a little bit further by outlining more on the information that we will present and what we want to do for handouts. Grace came up with the idea that we should make healthy, delicious snacks to handout during the presentation. Who doesn't love free delicious food!! We also met the Program Coordinator, Rayanna Reidy whose job entails kind of the liaison between housing and food services. This position was created to solve the problem of disconnection between housing and foodservices. Rayanna has been with housing and food services ever since she was 15 working at Cate for Shawn Henry! Being the Program Coordinator entails a lot of responsibilities such as the RAs cater menu develop that she updates every year. She also looks over the sponsorship requests for big events. Additionally she helps Louis with the international program that they have here at OU and the event they hold for the international students. I was overwhelmed with just hearing how much Rayanna does as the Program Coordinator, I couldn't keep up! Those were just a few of her responsibilities that I remember.
Wednesday
Today Me and Grace worked at the Flying Cow Cafe in the National Weather Center. We met Rhonda Winkleman, the manager of the Flying Cow Cafe. She was really nice and laid back. We learned how she became manager of the operation and how she manages the Flying Cow Cafe. She has 5 full time employees. She loves when students work for her but she mentions the struggle of scheduling the students due that the Flying Cow Cafe closes at 3pm and the day is prime time for students to be in class. She also mentions the limitation on space. She does combined inventory with other on campus food operations that way she only stores what she needs to prevent waste. Rhonda also mentions the slight lack of productivity due to the unique design of the Flying Cow Cafe. The Flying Cow Cafe was designed to match the rest of the building but this design isn't the best setup for the most production, she says that she makes it work the best she can though. Rhonda mentioned how she is able to stay open during the summer time is from the merchandise she sells that advertises the Flying Cow. Also, her workers come into work at six in the morning to make hundreds of sandwiches to sell at other on campus dining locations. During our day at the Flying Cow, we hand rolled dough and made the famous Indian taco. I never heard of this item before so I had to try it for lunch it was delicious. The fresh fry bread we made tasted like a funnel cake!! It got a little hectic for bout an hour and half during lunch time because everyone wanted the Indian taco but you can only make so many fry breads so there was a line that they had to wait for the fry bread to be made. The machine that makes the fry bread only made three at a time and me and grace alone hand rolled at least 40 fry breads ahead of time but they sold quick! The Flying Cow Cafe makes best with what they have, they don't have anymore room for another machine to make the fry bread and we make as many as we can ahead of time. However, due to the lack of space for another machine, I noticed it decreases productivity because we were waiting on more fry bread to be made in order to make the Indian taco so that was stressful. But we managed :) and the Indian tacos were well worth the wait for the fresh fry bread!
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Today we didn't have a busy schedule. We mostly worked on our employee in-service lesson plan and brainstorm ideas. We noticed from working an actual 8-5 job that our lifestyle has become much more sedentary from life at college even though we work out still in the afternoon. However, we know that not everyone are health and wellness freaks like me and Grace =P. So we came up with a topic for our project, how to manage weight with a sedentary job. I came up with the clever title "Manage Weight Sooner" (OU school mascot is a sooner). For the project we are using the weight management program they already have, Healthy Sooners, and ChooseMyPlate.gov to introduce maybe something new to the staff that they haven't heard of before. We got the idea approved by Dot, so now we are actually trying to condense our ideas to make a 20 minute presentation to the staff. It is challenging because we have so many good ideas that we could present to them but we only have so much time so we are struggling with making it more focused and direct.
Tuesday
Today we continued to work on our employee in-service and got a little bit further by outlining more on the information that we will present and what we want to do for handouts. Grace came up with the idea that we should make healthy, delicious snacks to handout during the presentation. Who doesn't love free delicious food!! We also met the Program Coordinator, Rayanna Reidy whose job entails kind of the liaison between housing and food services. This position was created to solve the problem of disconnection between housing and foodservices. Rayanna has been with housing and food services ever since she was 15 working at Cate for Shawn Henry! Being the Program Coordinator entails a lot of responsibilities such as the RAs cater menu develop that she updates every year. She also looks over the sponsorship requests for big events. Additionally she helps Louis with the international program that they have here at OU and the event they hold for the international students. I was overwhelmed with just hearing how much Rayanna does as the Program Coordinator, I couldn't keep up! Those were just a few of her responsibilities that I remember.
Wednesday
Today Me and Grace worked at the Flying Cow Cafe in the National Weather Center. We met Rhonda Winkleman, the manager of the Flying Cow Cafe. She was really nice and laid back. We learned how she became manager of the operation and how she manages the Flying Cow Cafe. She has 5 full time employees. She loves when students work for her but she mentions the struggle of scheduling the students due that the Flying Cow Cafe closes at 3pm and the day is prime time for students to be in class. She also mentions the limitation on space. She does combined inventory with other on campus food operations that way she only stores what she needs to prevent waste. Rhonda also mentions the slight lack of productivity due to the unique design of the Flying Cow Cafe. The Flying Cow Cafe was designed to match the rest of the building but this design isn't the best setup for the most production, she says that she makes it work the best she can though. Rhonda mentioned how she is able to stay open during the summer time is from the merchandise she sells that advertises the Flying Cow. Also, her workers come into work at six in the morning to make hundreds of sandwiches to sell at other on campus dining locations. During our day at the Flying Cow, we hand rolled dough and made the famous Indian taco. I never heard of this item before so I had to try it for lunch it was delicious. The fresh fry bread we made tasted like a funnel cake!! It got a little hectic for bout an hour and half during lunch time because everyone wanted the Indian taco but you can only make so many fry breads so there was a line that they had to wait for the fry bread to be made. The machine that makes the fry bread only made three at a time and me and grace alone hand rolled at least 40 fry breads ahead of time but they sold quick! The Flying Cow Cafe makes best with what they have, they don't have anymore room for another machine to make the fry bread and we make as many as we can ahead of time. However, due to the lack of space for another machine, I noticed it decreases productivity because we were waiting on more fry bread to be made in order to make the Indian taco so that was stressful. But we managed :) and the Indian tacos were well worth the wait for the fresh fry bread!
Indian Taco
Thursday
Today we just continued working on our employee in-service project and outlined the actual information that we would like to use for the presentation while locating our sources. We also got to sit in on a managers meeting today which was interesting.
Friday
Today we got most of our employee in-service project done, we are bout 80% complete. Sorry, not really exciting the past few days. Just mostly been working on this project as of now sent we are presenting soon.
Friday
Today we got most of our employee in-service project done, we are bout 80% complete. Sorry, not really exciting the past few days. Just mostly been working on this project as of now sent we are presenting soon.
Monday, June 9, 2014
The University of Oklahoma Week 2
The Weekend
Saturday I slept in, which was amazing! Then I was productive for a little bit and did some laundry and finally went to the gym. We then headed out to Bricktown in Oklahoma City with Jack and walked around there. We stopped at Bolero and got some lunch and drinks, which was a really nice time to sit outside and hear the live music. We came back to Norman after that and enjoyed the hot tub for a little bit and then decided to explore the night life at Norman. We ended up getting dinner at Chimys, which had amazing tacos and margaritas for cheap too! After that, we ventured out to the Garage, which also had great food! On Sunday, we went to La Baguette for brunch, which was delicious, and then we ventured out to the Super Target before spending the rest of the day watching movies and of course, Game of Thrones!
Monday
Today we worked on our projects all day. We started brainstorming project ideas for our In-Service that we have to complete, and we settled on doing something on the lines of how to manage weight while being a sedentary employee. We ate at Laughing Tomato again, as usual. Today we both got the veggie chili since it was somewhat cold for an Oklahoma summer day, and I got the Basil Tomato Supreme Flatbread. Yummo. After lunch, we worked on our lesson plan for the In-Service. We were starved when we got home so we made a huge pot of spaghetti with fresh cut peppers and ground beef. We watched frozen and then did our typical gym and hottub routine.
Tuesday
Today we worked on our projects again all day. I started working on the pamphlet that we want to incorporate into our employee in-service about managing weight. I researched a long list of healthy snacks and also apps that can be used to track caloric intake and also physical activity. All of the apps that I listed had been reviewed and approved by Dietitians. We ate at the Laughing Tomato again for lunch, and I got a ton of fruit and the Double B, which was really good. After lunch I kept working on the pamphlet and started researching into some snacks that we could incorporate into our in-service. I think I decided on making a soy bean recipe that I have made at home before (quick and easy) and also doing fruit kebabs. We also met with Rayanna Reidy in the afternoon. She serves kind of as a liaison between the housing and food service departments. She works a lot with the RA's of OU and working with them on getting food for their events. It was interesting to hear about other things she does like working with student organizations that have been approved to receive food from the food service department and planning international dinners every semester with the international students. Her job sounds like a lot of fun, and it seems that she has done a lot to make it her own. Her degree is in aviation, which is really funny that she ended up in food service. She went to OU (like almost everyone who works here) and ended up back here. So far we have met at least 6 employees in the food service department who worked here as students and ended up coming back and moving up in the department. Most of them majored in nothing having to do with food service, which I find very funny. After work, we went to Chimy's to take advantage of their $2 queso and chip deal (it's really good) and also I got their chicken street tacos, which were amazing and I would totally recommend them to anyone who comes to Norman.
Wednesday
Today we spent most of our day at the Flying Cow Cafe. We were working with Rhonda Winkleman, who is the manager of the Flying Cow Cafe. She was really nice and answered all of our questions. She is another person who went to OU majoring in something not related to food service and ended up back here. There is such a community at this place. One of the employees came back in while we were working who had been out for surgery, and they were all talking about how much they loved each other and missed each other. It is amazing to see that in a work environment. Lindsey and I did a lot of odd jobs at the Flying Cow today. We made the hamburger patties, rolled the dough out for the Indian Tacos, worked the Indian Taco line through the lunch rush, and washed dishes. I have never gotten so messy in my life. From rolling the dough, I had flour all down my shirt and pants. Then when I was working the Indian Taco line, the sour cream flipped all over my face when I was helping a customer (which I found totally hilarious). Then washing dishes, my shirt got soaked all the way through. I was a mess. So you may be asking yourself, what the heck is this Indian Taco she keeps talking about? Well let me tell you, it is delicious. It is a piece of dough rolled out and fried (yum) and then you pretty much make a taco with your choice of beef or chicken, type of beans, and all the usual taco toppings. They are famous at the Flying Cow Cafe and they have Indian Taco Wednesdays that everyone comes for. When we were working the line, we constantly had a huge line of people and couldn't keep up fast enough. We started the day rolling out around 50 pieces of dough, and had to make more dough during the day because they sold so many! I had a really fun time working the line and getting to talk to all of the customers. All of them were super nice!!! Except for some grouchy lady who complained that I gave her too much lettuce (??). Note to the public, if you don't want a lot of lettuce, say you would like a little bit of lettuce like every other human being that went through the line. There was a teaching convention going on, so I got to talk to a lot of teachers and that was fun! Oh yeah, and of course Lindsey and I made ourselves an Indian Taco and it was bomb. I got everything on it of course (gotta try it all). I was not feeling well all day, so once we got home I pretty much just laid in bed all night and got a good night's rest.
Saturday I slept in, which was amazing! Then I was productive for a little bit and did some laundry and finally went to the gym. We then headed out to Bricktown in Oklahoma City with Jack and walked around there. We stopped at Bolero and got some lunch and drinks, which was a really nice time to sit outside and hear the live music. We came back to Norman after that and enjoyed the hot tub for a little bit and then decided to explore the night life at Norman. We ended up getting dinner at Chimys, which had amazing tacos and margaritas for cheap too! After that, we ventured out to the Garage, which also had great food! On Sunday, we went to La Baguette for brunch, which was delicious, and then we ventured out to the Super Target before spending the rest of the day watching movies and of course, Game of Thrones!
Monday
Today we worked on our projects all day. We started brainstorming project ideas for our In-Service that we have to complete, and we settled on doing something on the lines of how to manage weight while being a sedentary employee. We ate at Laughing Tomato again, as usual. Today we both got the veggie chili since it was somewhat cold for an Oklahoma summer day, and I got the Basil Tomato Supreme Flatbread. Yummo. After lunch, we worked on our lesson plan for the In-Service. We were starved when we got home so we made a huge pot of spaghetti with fresh cut peppers and ground beef. We watched frozen and then did our typical gym and hottub routine.
Tuesday
Today we worked on our projects again all day. I started working on the pamphlet that we want to incorporate into our employee in-service about managing weight. I researched a long list of healthy snacks and also apps that can be used to track caloric intake and also physical activity. All of the apps that I listed had been reviewed and approved by Dietitians. We ate at the Laughing Tomato again for lunch, and I got a ton of fruit and the Double B, which was really good. After lunch I kept working on the pamphlet and started researching into some snacks that we could incorporate into our in-service. I think I decided on making a soy bean recipe that I have made at home before (quick and easy) and also doing fruit kebabs. We also met with Rayanna Reidy in the afternoon. She serves kind of as a liaison between the housing and food service departments. She works a lot with the RA's of OU and working with them on getting food for their events. It was interesting to hear about other things she does like working with student organizations that have been approved to receive food from the food service department and planning international dinners every semester with the international students. Her job sounds like a lot of fun, and it seems that she has done a lot to make it her own. Her degree is in aviation, which is really funny that she ended up in food service. She went to OU (like almost everyone who works here) and ended up back here. So far we have met at least 6 employees in the food service department who worked here as students and ended up coming back and moving up in the department. Most of them majored in nothing having to do with food service, which I find very funny. After work, we went to Chimy's to take advantage of their $2 queso and chip deal (it's really good) and also I got their chicken street tacos, which were amazing and I would totally recommend them to anyone who comes to Norman.
Wednesday
Today we spent most of our day at the Flying Cow Cafe. We were working with Rhonda Winkleman, who is the manager of the Flying Cow Cafe. She was really nice and answered all of our questions. She is another person who went to OU majoring in something not related to food service and ended up back here. There is such a community at this place. One of the employees came back in while we were working who had been out for surgery, and they were all talking about how much they loved each other and missed each other. It is amazing to see that in a work environment. Lindsey and I did a lot of odd jobs at the Flying Cow today. We made the hamburger patties, rolled the dough out for the Indian Tacos, worked the Indian Taco line through the lunch rush, and washed dishes. I have never gotten so messy in my life. From rolling the dough, I had flour all down my shirt and pants. Then when I was working the Indian Taco line, the sour cream flipped all over my face when I was helping a customer (which I found totally hilarious). Then washing dishes, my shirt got soaked all the way through. I was a mess. So you may be asking yourself, what the heck is this Indian Taco she keeps talking about? Well let me tell you, it is delicious. It is a piece of dough rolled out and fried (yum) and then you pretty much make a taco with your choice of beef or chicken, type of beans, and all the usual taco toppings. They are famous at the Flying Cow Cafe and they have Indian Taco Wednesdays that everyone comes for. When we were working the line, we constantly had a huge line of people and couldn't keep up fast enough. We started the day rolling out around 50 pieces of dough, and had to make more dough during the day because they sold so many! I had a really fun time working the line and getting to talk to all of the customers. All of them were super nice!!! Except for some grouchy lady who complained that I gave her too much lettuce (??). Note to the public, if you don't want a lot of lettuce, say you would like a little bit of lettuce like every other human being that went through the line. There was a teaching convention going on, so I got to talk to a lot of teachers and that was fun! Oh yeah, and of course Lindsey and I made ourselves an Indian Taco and it was bomb. I got everything on it of course (gotta try it all). I was not feeling well all day, so once we got home I pretty much just laid in bed all night and got a good night's rest.
Thursday
Today I woke up to a huge storm! Walking to work was like walking through a lake. Lindsey got splashed by a car and got mud all over her white pants. Yikes. Anyways, today we pretty much continued working on our projects in our office. We went to the Manager's Meeting with all of the managers from the Food Service Department and get to hear them talk through all of their items of business. It was interesting to see how different people's jobs relate together, and we also got introduced to a lot more people. Our power was out at our apartment, which was no fun, but eventually it came back on and we did our typical dinner, gym, relax routine.
Friday
Today we did a lot of work on our project. I finished the pamphlet and Lindsey finished the PowerPoint. We spent the evening in Oklahoma City with Lindsey's sister and her husband. They took us out to dinner at the Deep Deuce Grill where we got a jumbo pretzel and I got an awesome turkey burger and fries. We then went to this new hotel in OKC that has a outdoor lounge on the top floor that we could take pictures of the amazing view. After that, we went to the WSKY Lounge, which was another cool place! There are so many different places to eat and go to in the city! I am overwhelmed.
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| The view from the aLoft hotel! |
University of Oklahoma - Week 1
Arrival Weekend
Hey y'all! My name is Lindsey Mayhew and I am from New Jersey. I go to Penn State and major in Nutritional Sciences - Dietetics Option with a minor in Human Development and Family Studies. I left early Friday morning to make the long road trip to Oklahoma with my mom. We arrived around noon on Saturday. After picking up my key to the apartment is when I met Grace! :) We were welcomed with a bag of goodies from our intern supervisor Dot, which was so welcoming and sweet. After unpacking me and my mother went and visited my sister who lives in Harrah, Oklahoma. We stayed with her Saturday night and went into the city for a delicious dinner at Red Prime (highly recommend it!!). The following day we all went for brunch before dropping my mother off at the airport. Sunday afternoon, I invited Grace over my sister's for dinner to meet her and her husband, John. We all had a really good time getting to know each other better.
Monday
So far, the first day has just been kind of a blur and overwhelming. It feels like syllabus week at school, it's exciting because you don't have any responsibilities yet, however overwhelming because you get everything dumped on you for what you have to do all at once. Thankfully, I am not interning alone, so I feel me and Grace can complete everything without a problem working as team :) Everyone we met so far is really nice and welcoming. They are also helpful and are able to answer any possible questions while recommending things we should do and places we should try during our stay. There are a ton of good places to eat so hopefully we will be able to try them all! When Dot was taking us around and showing us where everything is, I couldn't keep up, I feel like a freshman all over again! I will probably have to go back and walk it myself after work to see where I am going.
Tuesday
This morning Grace and I went to receive our Food Handlers card to be able to work. Luckily, Grace remembered her ServSafe certificate so she didn't have to take the class. Unfortunately, I forgot to bring my ServSafe certificate so I had to take the class. But, the class was only an hour including taking the test which isn't bad at all. The test was extremely easy, only took me 10 minutes tops to take! Afterwards, we came back to Dot to see what we would be doing for the rest of the day. We were assigned to help Xcetera out opening their store. We spent almost the whole day restocking the shelves and talking to the managers of the store. It was interesting seeing how much thought gets put into where to place everything at and what to sell them for. For lunch, Me and Grace tried the Laughing Tomato in the Union, it was delicious! We want to go there everyday for lunch and our goal is to try everything on the menu before our internship ends (and our meal plans =P).
Wednesday
Today we met with Gary Baker, the General Manager of Crossroads. We spent the whole day with learning about the operation and what it is like being a general manager of Crossroads. Crossroads is open 24 hours and has 126 items on their menu!! Not including their secret menu. They have 13 full time employees that work during the summer while during the school year they have 40-60 employees. These employees consist of mostly students. Some of these students have the option if eligible to pay for room & board through working a minimum of 16 hours week and 10 hours service which is a great opportunity! I learned so much today what it takes to manage a 24 hour operation. I could immediately tell that Gary is very passionate and enthusiastic about what he does. He doesn't believe in hierarchy and that everybody should work as a team to reach the common goal, excellent customer service. Gary is more than willing to roll up his sleeves and step in where needed. I believe this makes running the operation more effective when everybody is willing to help out. It was impressive to see how Gary keeps track of inventory. He checks inventory three times a week and records inventory weekly (every Friday). He also uses a handy system called WhenToWork to schedule his employees efficiently and to keep track of who is on/off and when most employees need to be scheduled during the most busy times. Gary explained C-board to us in a nutshell and how he prices items to sell on the menu. He admits that he loses money in the summer due to not as many customers because most of the customers are students, however he mentions he makes up for it in the school year, especially during football season! Gary repeatedly said to us that, we aren't here for making money, we are here for OU. Gary has a method on training his employees. I asked him how long it takes to train an employee before you trust them on their own? His response was three weeks which surprised me because I thought it would be two days tops! I asked why so long and he said because a trained employee in my perspective is able to work in every position I put them in whether it be the grill or the cashier, they are fully prepared for any task. I thought this is a great method when training employees because it improves customer service by having every employee trained in every aspect of the operation. I also learned to be an effective manager, you need to be attentive and trust your employees. Gary portrayed this throughout the day when he was sitting down with us and going over everything. He had some setbacks today, for instance the grill catching on fire, but he remained calm and handled the situation immediately. He also trusted his employees that they knew what they were doing and he was able to turn his back on them to focus his attention on teaching us about his position.
Thursday
Today we were suppose to have a meeting with Robert Weaver but he had to reschedule. So instead, sent we met with Gary Baker yesterday at Crossroads he mentioned he is always changing the menu at Crossroads every semester and is willing to try new things to keep up with what is trending, me and Grace decided to look over their menu and see what can possibly be added to that enormous menu already. Grace and I are very interested in the fitter food menu and wanted to do something related to that for our recipe development project. We noticed that for Crossroads fitter food breakfast menu their option were mostly eggs. Which sounded delicious but I am more of a pancake/french toast/waffle breakfast type person (I enjoy my carbs =p). We looked up many recipes to try and find an appetizing breakfast item that would meet the requirements to be a fitter food. The requirements for the fitter foods is that it must be less than 500 calories, no more than 15 grams fat and lower sodium than the original. We found many options. Personally my favorite that we discovered were the Banana-Nutella French Toast :) It looked so delicious that I made it for dinner! I didn't have all of the ingredients so it didn't look the same but it was still delicious. How can go you go wrong with nutella!
Hey y'all! My name is Lindsey Mayhew and I am from New Jersey. I go to Penn State and major in Nutritional Sciences - Dietetics Option with a minor in Human Development and Family Studies. I left early Friday morning to make the long road trip to Oklahoma with my mom. We arrived around noon on Saturday. After picking up my key to the apartment is when I met Grace! :) We were welcomed with a bag of goodies from our intern supervisor Dot, which was so welcoming and sweet. After unpacking me and my mother went and visited my sister who lives in Harrah, Oklahoma. We stayed with her Saturday night and went into the city for a delicious dinner at Red Prime (highly recommend it!!). The following day we all went for brunch before dropping my mother off at the airport. Sunday afternoon, I invited Grace over my sister's for dinner to meet her and her husband, John. We all had a really good time getting to know each other better.
Monday
So far, the first day has just been kind of a blur and overwhelming. It feels like syllabus week at school, it's exciting because you don't have any responsibilities yet, however overwhelming because you get everything dumped on you for what you have to do all at once. Thankfully, I am not interning alone, so I feel me and Grace can complete everything without a problem working as team :) Everyone we met so far is really nice and welcoming. They are also helpful and are able to answer any possible questions while recommending things we should do and places we should try during our stay. There are a ton of good places to eat so hopefully we will be able to try them all! When Dot was taking us around and showing us where everything is, I couldn't keep up, I feel like a freshman all over again! I will probably have to go back and walk it myself after work to see where I am going.
Tuesday
This morning Grace and I went to receive our Food Handlers card to be able to work. Luckily, Grace remembered her ServSafe certificate so she didn't have to take the class. Unfortunately, I forgot to bring my ServSafe certificate so I had to take the class. But, the class was only an hour including taking the test which isn't bad at all. The test was extremely easy, only took me 10 minutes tops to take! Afterwards, we came back to Dot to see what we would be doing for the rest of the day. We were assigned to help Xcetera out opening their store. We spent almost the whole day restocking the shelves and talking to the managers of the store. It was interesting seeing how much thought gets put into where to place everything at and what to sell them for. For lunch, Me and Grace tried the Laughing Tomato in the Union, it was delicious! We want to go there everyday for lunch and our goal is to try everything on the menu before our internship ends (and our meal plans =P).
Wednesday
Today we met with Gary Baker, the General Manager of Crossroads. We spent the whole day with learning about the operation and what it is like being a general manager of Crossroads. Crossroads is open 24 hours and has 126 items on their menu!! Not including their secret menu. They have 13 full time employees that work during the summer while during the school year they have 40-60 employees. These employees consist of mostly students. Some of these students have the option if eligible to pay for room & board through working a minimum of 16 hours week and 10 hours service which is a great opportunity! I learned so much today what it takes to manage a 24 hour operation. I could immediately tell that Gary is very passionate and enthusiastic about what he does. He doesn't believe in hierarchy and that everybody should work as a team to reach the common goal, excellent customer service. Gary is more than willing to roll up his sleeves and step in where needed. I believe this makes running the operation more effective when everybody is willing to help out. It was impressive to see how Gary keeps track of inventory. He checks inventory three times a week and records inventory weekly (every Friday). He also uses a handy system called WhenToWork to schedule his employees efficiently and to keep track of who is on/off and when most employees need to be scheduled during the most busy times. Gary explained C-board to us in a nutshell and how he prices items to sell on the menu. He admits that he loses money in the summer due to not as many customers because most of the customers are students, however he mentions he makes up for it in the school year, especially during football season! Gary repeatedly said to us that, we aren't here for making money, we are here for OU. Gary has a method on training his employees. I asked him how long it takes to train an employee before you trust them on their own? His response was three weeks which surprised me because I thought it would be two days tops! I asked why so long and he said because a trained employee in my perspective is able to work in every position I put them in whether it be the grill or the cashier, they are fully prepared for any task. I thought this is a great method when training employees because it improves customer service by having every employee trained in every aspect of the operation. I also learned to be an effective manager, you need to be attentive and trust your employees. Gary portrayed this throughout the day when he was sitting down with us and going over everything. He had some setbacks today, for instance the grill catching on fire, but he remained calm and handled the situation immediately. He also trusted his employees that they knew what they were doing and he was able to turn his back on them to focus his attention on teaching us about his position.
Thursday
Today we were suppose to have a meeting with Robert Weaver but he had to reschedule. So instead, sent we met with Gary Baker yesterday at Crossroads he mentioned he is always changing the menu at Crossroads every semester and is willing to try new things to keep up with what is trending, me and Grace decided to look over their menu and see what can possibly be added to that enormous menu already. Grace and I are very interested in the fitter food menu and wanted to do something related to that for our recipe development project. We noticed that for Crossroads fitter food breakfast menu their option were mostly eggs. Which sounded delicious but I am more of a pancake/french toast/waffle breakfast type person (I enjoy my carbs =p). We looked up many recipes to try and find an appetizing breakfast item that would meet the requirements to be a fitter food. The requirements for the fitter foods is that it must be less than 500 calories, no more than 15 grams fat and lower sodium than the original. We found many options. Personally my favorite that we discovered were the Banana-Nutella French Toast :) It looked so delicious that I made it for dinner! I didn't have all of the ingredients so it didn't look the same but it was still delicious. How can go you go wrong with nutella!
Banana-Nutella French Toast
(got the picture from the internet because I couldn't wait a second longer to take a picture)
Also, at work today, we were able to attend a carnival!! The directors were in the dunk tank so that was entertaining to watch. Grace and I kind of pigged out at the carnival and had a soft pretzel and then a Neapolitan ice cream sandwich which was delicious and was perfect because it was 100 yesterday!! Later that evening, Grace and I had to go to the gym and swim for all the goodies we had today :) While at the carnival, we also met Dana Whorton who is charge of catering and found out that we will be working with him on Friday catering for the President at his mansion. He showed us the ballroom in the Union yesterday and around the kitchen which was pretty neat. I am looking forward to check out the President's house tomorrow (maybe I'll be able to try some of the delicious food!)
Friday
First off, I am not use to this weather out here! We have severe thunderstorm warning and I normally like thunderstorms but I am paranoid we are going to get a tornado for how strong the winds are. Anyway, as I mentioned on Thursday, today we worked with Dana Whorton. We catered the presidents private mansion. It was quite an experience seeing how much thought and detail goes into catering. Charlotte (one of the chefs that we catered with) had to take a picture of the presidents counter tops and their kitchen to ensure everything is exactly the same for when we leave. Everything was so precise. We had to serve on the left and pick up from the right. We were told not to speak to the guests but simply smile. Charlotte knew where everything was at in the presidents kitchen. We used their dishes and some of their ingredients for making the dressing to the salads. The presidents wife specifically picked out for what to be served out of her cookbook. It was Charlotte's first time making the stuffed chicken with beef but it turned out pretty good! There was definitely a strict routine for how things to be done. We had to hand wash all the silverware while carefully stack the other dishes in the dishwasher and put them back properly as if we were never there. It was exhausting to cater someones every need. I am use to waitressing but catering goes into way more depth. After all the guest had their meal and we packaged what was left into the presidents fridge we were finally able to eat but only the leftovers. I was so hungry!! The chicken and some dinner rolls were the only things left which was delicious however I wish I would of been able to try the side dishes that Charlotte made. After we cleaned up everything we packed leftover chicken stuffed with beef, side dishes and the wine in the presidents fridge. It was definitely an exhausting day but very interesting to experience how detail oriented the catering aspect is. Might I add, the presidents private mansion is absolutely gorgeous!
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