University of Georgia - Week 4

Nikki and I are officially four weeks into spending the summer at UGA! Time is truly escaping us. We are buckling down on our projects and finalizing some important things and dates. Athens is still treating me good!

Monday

Monday afternoon was spent at the Red Clay Cafe in the student Tate Center. The Red Clay Cafe is composed of a coffee shop (Sweet Java Browns), salad eatery (Tossing Greens) and a sandwich shop (Between the Bread). We met up with Bambi Cumuze who is the Assistant Manager there. What I found the most interesting about Red Clay Cafe is that behind the employee doors, all of the eateries are connected. Summer is obviously slower than the normal school year, but during the busy lunch hour, employees hopped from one eatery to the next helping each other out. It was great being apart of their teamwork.

Bambi and Shannon!

Nikki is an avid coffee drinker so she was a pro at the coffee eatery.

Between the Bread and it's adjacent window. You order from one section and pick up at the next! 

Nikki made me a Caramel Vanilla Macchiato. I don't drink coffee but I may be converted by the time I leave here!

Tuesday

Today was day one of two spent in meetings. We got to wear Business Casual today (not that I love my famous red polo!), but it was a nice change. We met Kris for breakfast at Summit and chatted while we caught her up to how things are going. It's nice that she tailors our internship experience to what we want to see and do while we're here. (Take advantage of that future interns!). After, we spent the better part of the morning at Central Warehouse. We met with Brooks Oliver who is the Materials Manager there. He explained to us what his job entails and how he came to start a career at UGA. He also spent many years in North Carolina (Go Brooks!). Next we sat with Stuart Hammond while he gingerly taught us about the necessary beast named FoodPro. I can't even begin to explain how intricate of a system it is, but I tip my hat to what he does everyday! We spent lunch and the rest of the day with Jeanne. One of the most memorable parts of our time with her, was a list she gave us of a number of tips she's learned over the years as she worked her way up to the position of Executive Director. I will certainly keep that list for my future endeavors in this field.  

Wednesday

This afternoon we got to spend a ten hour shift with Marcus Britten, an Assistant Manager at Summit. Marcus is hilarious and so much fun to be around, so time went by quickly. When we first arrived, the dining hall was packed with camps. We spent time manning the floor, directing individuals and answering any questions. Later on in the day, Marcus showed us how to fill out the assignment sheet and close out the shift. He delegated tasks to his student workers and went around checking every station to make sure equipment was shut off and cleaned properly. He also went around Joe Frank Harris Commons checking to make sure the building was clear before locking doors and shutting off the lights. I noticed how smoothly things go when everyone is working together. 

Thursday

Susan van Gigch is the Associate Director of Retail Operations, and we had the pleasure of spending the day with her. We started off at the Parent Orientation Breakfast. Because Food Services is a large part of new student orientation, they use catered events as a means to explain to the parents everything about Food Services at UGA. Students and parents also get to enjoy the dining halls. And everyone knows that tasting the food is an imperative selling point! We also spent the morning visiting many eateries and commissary stores around campus. Susan is in charge of all the eateries and catering. Basically whatever else Food Services offers after the dining halls are taken out of the equation. She wears MANY hats, but her job looks like so much fun. I spend a lot of my free time browsing the web and looking at job postings, especially through the NACUFS website. It is interesting to get an insiders looks at one of the jobs I often see! 

Parent Orientation Breakfast

Friday

Another day of meetings and meetings! We met Allison Harper at O' House who is the Sr. Public Relations Coordinator with the Auxiliary services. At O' House, Allison was in the middle of putting together the new digital Nutrition Education Station. There is currently a large book located in all of the dining halls that details the nutrition information for all the foods offered. They are looking to eradicate the book and make everything available by just touching a button! They are also moving the station to the front of the dining halls so that students can make healthy choices before entering. Very smart I must say. We toured Allison's giant work station at the top of Snelling and got to look at some of the marketing materials she's in charge of. She has such a creative job! 

Next we met with Katherine Ingerson, the dietitian for the department. Because Nikki and I are both Dietetics majors, it was very interesting learning about all she does for Food Services. I love that she also counsels students on the meal plan for free, whether it's for a medical issue or weight management concerns. She's also is responsible for nutrition labeling all the food in the dining halls, and has a team to assist her in this endeavor. Aside from these two time consuming activities, she teaches courses, classes and any other nutrition related project. She's a very busy woman!

After lunch, we met with Cindy Malcolm and Beverly Sexton. Cindy is the Assistant Director of Business Services, and told us a little about how they manage accountant relations for Food Services. Beverly is the Human Resources Manager for Food Services. She briefly discusses how they handle hiring, training and job related activities.

What an active day!

Allison and the Maintenance crew.

Semi-finished product.

Saturday

Nikki and I are determined to spend a lot of time exploring Athens and getting out of our dorm room. Yesterday we went for a hike at the State Botanical Gardens (and got lost, but that's another story!). It was such a beautiful day to meander around in the woods. Later on after a movie, we ate at La Dolce Vita Italian Restaurant in the downtown area. 

Until next week!

University of Northern Iowa Week 5

This week was another great one! I was focusing on my special safari themed lunch this week. I finished designing, printing, and posting promotional posters, recipe testing five different items for my menu, and gathering some decoration supplies. The lunch is in just under two weeks and I still have a lot of work to do, despite this week’s advances.

Monday and Tuesday were scheduled very similarly, in that both mornings were dedicated to a diversity workshop and both afternoons to recipe testing. The diversity workshop was put on for UNI faculty and involved around 25 attendees and facilitators. The focus of the workshop was claiming our own identities and membership to various groups, as well as learning how to break stereotypes and change attitudes towards diverse groups. It was a powerful experience to listen to some of the attendees share their personal stories of discriminations, healing, and activism. Through the course of the workshop, I was able to recognize my own learned discriminative thoughts, and also how to effectively respond to discriminatory or intolerant comments.

In the afternoons on both Monday and Tuesday, I spent several hours in the dining center kitchen preparing samples of some of my special event menu items. I tested recipes for orange mango punch, sweet potato lentil soup, cucumber couscous salad, and tropical fruit pizza. On Monday, I gathered, measured and organized all of the ingredients that I needed so that on Tuesday all I had to do was cook the ingredients appropriately. The recipes turned out fairly successfully with only minor changes needing to be made. The cucumber couscous salad was the most troublesome because the recipe’s preparation method did not lend itself well to the kitchen equipment, and also because there was not enough dressing. I had to double the amount of dressing and consult with the cooks about using a more efficient cooking method.

On Wednesday, I spent the day with Lisa, my internship coordinator, and we discussed purchasing procedures and attended meetings. Lisa is the purchasing manager for UNI dining and she walked me through some of the behind-the-scene details of the job. Later in the day, we went to the residential dining staff meeting and listened to a presentation by a candidate for a Department of Residence assistant marketing manager position. In the evening, I watched Lion King for the first time in a long time to get some decorating ideas for my African safari event.

Thursday involved a few meetings and miscellaneous tasks. At 7am I went to the bakery to test out my elephant sugar cookie cut outs. I found a small, elephant cookie cutter to use and made about 50 cutouts with the sugar cookie dough the bakers had ready for me. When the cookies were cooled I colored two different types of icing and decorated half of the cookies with each kind. I tried out several different piping designs as well, and came up with a cute design that is fairly simple. When evaluating which icing to use for the cookies, I considered quality, visual appeal, and time efficiency. The icing that was preferred by the taste testers was very time consuming to decorate with because it needs to be spread, leading to a messy look. The other icing can be melted so the cookies can be dipped and cooled. The cookies with this icing were much neater looking, still had a high quality taste, and were much quicker to decorate. Throughout the rest of the day, I went to another presentation by a job candidate and worked on some designs for my project.

The bottom cookies are the design and icing I chose.

Friday was a bit of an unusual day, but it turned out positively. I was scheduled to work with Lisa all day, but she ended up being unavailable. Instead, I organized my own schedule for the day and completed many important tasks. In the morning, I went to the student union and assisted with making ID cards for incoming freshmen during their orientation. The process of making ID cards is part of the Department of Residence, which the dining services are also a part of. I was able to use Lisa’s office to work on projects and event planning details. After lunchtime, I went craft shopping with Susan, one of the dining managers and internship coordinators. We went to Hobby Lobby and found a cartful of supplies for me to use for decorations for my event. But as we were heading for the checkout, the POWER WENT OUT in the store. We weren’t really sure what to do because it did not seem like it would be fixed soon, and only cash and check could be taken for payment during the outage. We waited for a while but ended up leaving the cart at the front of the store and will have to go back on Monday. We braved the storm and ran to the car to carry on with our shopping trip. Several of the surrounding stores and stop lights were without power as well, but we were able to go to Dollar Tree and the grocery store further down the road to get a few other items. After our eventful trip, I visited the catering storage facilities to look for decorations to borrow for my event. The remainder of the day was spent typing up a few evaluations.

Next week will consist of project work, meetings, inventory review, and assisting with job interviews. I have about three and a half weeks left here, and still have quite a bit to accomplish!

Michigan State University--Week 4

It’s been another busy and exciting week at MSU.

            Coming straight from a weekend on Mackinac Island, we began Monday with a tour of Paramount Coffee Roasters in Lansing. We had heard much about this company (their coffee is served in all campus dining halls and many local shops), so it was great to see the facilities and learn about the coffee-roasting process. Having studied abroad in Costa Rica, I always thought more about growing coffee, not the roasting process. This tour showed me that precise roasting is just as important for creating the tastes we like; the roasting machine, the temperature, and the time all greatly influence the taste. I also learned that flavored coffee beans are processed with flavored chemicals; hazelnut coffee, for example, has no trace of nuts in it. I’m not sure what I expected, but I think I’ll be more likely to stay away from flavored coffees now. The tour was very well-done and informative, and we enjoyed learning while taking in the delicious aroma of coffee. We spent the rest of the day serving dinner at Veg Out.   (images: left-storage room of raw green coffee beans; center- the roasting machine; right-the packaging machine) 

 

            On Tuesday, we went to a presentation on sustainability and a tour of MSU’s recycling center. Their main goal is to divert as much waste as possible from the landfill. The recycling center takes paper, cardboard, plastic, and metal. Functional items such as old dorm furniture, clothing, bikes, computers, and kitchenware go to the Surplus Store, which can then resell items to a new home. We were among many university food service employees at the presentation, and I thought it was great that MSU takes the time to education its staff on environmental/sustainability policies.

            In the afternoon on Tuesday, we got to meet with Gina, the dietitian. Macy and I had been looking forward to this meeting because, as dietetics students, we wanted to find out about her experience in the field, and what a job here as a registered dietitian entails. We learned that Gina has spent a lot of time on allergen safety, and she has created an extensive online meal management program; anyone can go on the dining website and find the ingredients and nutrition facts for a meal they might eat that day at a dining hall. Gina also gave us some ideas for our internship project—we will be helping create educational tools for monthly nutrition events.

             

            On Wednesday, we worked at Holmes, a dining hall that is only serving to camps over the summer. This week was Grandparents University—a chance for alumni to stay on campus with their grandchildren and do fun activities. Macy and I alternated “directing traffic” (sending people to specific food lines to keep any one from becoming too crowded) and serving in the line. It was fun to chat with the families and hear about their experience on campus.

            In the afternoon, we left Holmes for a bit to go to a pizza crust tasting. A new vendor wants MSU to use their dough, so a crowd of chefs and dining executives gathered in Case (another dining hall) to evaluate the pizza. We did a side-by-side comparison of our currently-served pizza, the new dough that came frozen and ready to be topped and baked, and a new dough that came pre-topped and ready to be baked. We ate and then filled out an evaluation sheet to comment on the acceptability of the taste, appearance, and texture of the new crust. I personally enjoyed the new pizza but thought it tasted too uniform and pre-frozen. I prefer the more homemade taste that comes from proofing and docking the dough in-house.

            Thursday was a fun day, because we got to meet the NACUFS interns from Ferris State University. We toured the football stadium and basketball arena, both a source of great pride for MSU. Then, we showed them around Brody and ate lunch there, talking about what we’ve been doing and comparing our various tasks and projects. It was nice to learn about the differences in each school’s program. With theirs focused slightly more on management, I’m glad I’m at MSU learning more about culinary. It will be fun to go tour Ferris with them next Tuesday!

            On Friday, we worked at yet another dining location on campus—Shaw. Like Holmes, it is only open for conferences and camps during the summer. On Friday, it hosted a Green Carpet day lunch—a meal for rising high school seniors in the area. Parents and students included, it was a crowd of 580, and we served them all in under 20 minutes. With pasta, rice, chicken, veggies, and sandwiches prepared ahead in the kitchen, it was very different than the cook-to-order style I love in Brody. Each server put one food on the plate and passed it to the next server to complete the plate—an assembly line meal. It was very efficient, and I think I would have really enjoyed the rush if I had felt more established in my position. As it was, I just tried to help as much as possible without getting in the way of the seasoned Shaw servers.

            After lunch, we went to an intake meeting, where we listened to staff from culinary, building facilities, and operations go over specifications for a group coming to campus. I never realized how much went into planning camps and conferences; little things like snacks on a table at night--and the placement of that table--have to be planned well in advance. It was interesting, but we were glad to get outside afterward and enjoy the beautiful summer day at MSU’s outdoor pool. 

University of Nevada - Reno | Week 4

Week four flew by, I swear it was just the end of week three! I spent another week at the Downunder Cafe. Monday I worked production helping making breakfast sandwiches, pizza, and grill items. I also helped the baker make jello, and accidentally created a new flavor, orange-lime! Woops! Note that orange and green make a delightful brown color, yum! Monday was a busy day with groups at the DC. Every summer groups come to UNR to have conferences and camps, which I am sure is similar to practically every other college university. This week there were two bigger groups eating at the DC amongst others. Nevada Boy's State, and Orientation which kept the staff occupied for the majority of the lunch hour. It was great to experience how they operate during a busier time, which would be similar to the numbers they'd have during the school year.

The rest of the week I spent helping Barbara with billing and other little things in the office. I actually like doing that kind of thing because its methodical once you get the hang of it. I also spent a lot of time working on my project and am happy with how much I am getting done. 

Thursday I went to the Reno Rodeo with some ladies from dining. It was so fun! I was blown away by how cool all the events were at the Rodeo. Being a rodeo newbie it was fun to see everything and learn what they were doing. I have a lot of respect for the riders that participate in the rodeo. 

Reno Rodeo!

Barbara and I rocking our cowboy hats

I am really starting to like it in Nevada, there are so many fun outdoorsy things to do on weekends like hiking. I met up with my friend Rosie (same name!) who lives in Sacramento and went to UW-Madison with me. We hiked the Mt. Rose Summit and then went to Lake Tahoe for lunch and an afternoon at the beach. Lake Tahoe is gorgeous and I cannot wait to go back! 

Mt. Rose Summit Hike

My first official time in CA

The Rosie's 

Durrell: Day 27

This morning I worked with Catering again.  I usually wear my SJU sweatshirt because I'm normally cold at work - even when I'm not in the cooler.  Today I picked up my Slow Caves pullover instead, probably because it was easy to locate.  When David saw me, he appeared surprised and I wasn't sure why until he asked me if liked Slow Caves.

I am not really a fan - that evening I went to see their show without any idea of who they were.   It was warm when we went out so I was dressed for summer.  About 30 minutes later it got a little chilly.  Luckily at the show they were selling band paraphernalia and believe it or not there was just one sweat shirt left.  Even better, it was my size and it cost only $15.  I think this has been the least expensive sweatshirt I have ever bought.  So, back to David - the drummer of the band is his best friend.  It was pretty interesting what happened after that.  I met David yesterday, and we were even paired together to work the catering event.  We probably spoke about three words to each other.  We had nothing to share, or so we thought.  After we realized that we both had some level of interest in Slow Caves, things changed.  I thought this was pretty interesting because the same thing happened with Philip and I earlier this week when I heard him playing Soca music.
Rachel presented our task for the day and advised that we had 150 sandwiches to prepare.  That didn't seem like a big deal to me - we had a system, David and I made the sandwiches and Rachel wrapped them in the wax paper.  However, Rachel went home because she was not feeling well.  I still didn't feel overwhelmed. David and I worked pretty quickly as we had no other choice - the customers had to get their sandwiches.  Anthony, one of the managers, pitched in and helped us prepare some of the hummus wraps (which looked pretty good - something else I intend to try at home).

We finished up the sandwiches and then helped our co-workers pack cookies, tomatoes and lettuce for the lunch boxes.  We thought we were finally done when one of the catering team members came into the kitchen asking for the rest of the lettuce and tomatoes.  I advised her that the left over items were in the cooler.  There were only about 5 or 6 bags each of lettuce and tomatoes left. We learnt that we needed 40 more.  I started to panick a little.  We were almost done and scheduled to pack the truck for delivery in a few minutes.  David and I both looked at each other in confusion. We filled all of the boxes with lettuce and tomatoes but could not understand what had happened.  Then I remembered. Justin, one of the student managers asked where the extra boxes were and I assumed - maybe we just didn't have enough boxes in general.  Four of us got on it right away and began bagging more lettuce and tomatoes.  We were relieved when we were advised that they no longer needed anymore bags of lettuce and tomatoes.

We packed everything up and got on the delivery truck, dropped off the boxes and headed off to lunch at Ram's Horn.  The ride to drop off the boxes was fine as Chuckie and I were able to make a "seat".  However, heading back was a different story.  Every two seconds I was trying to regain my balance and looking for something to hold onto so that I would not tumble over. It was difficult but fortunately it was a short 5 minute drive.

The rest of the day consisted of meetings, upon meetings, upon meetings.  I sat in briefly on a staff and MS 150 planning meeting.  MS 150 is a large biking event that raises funds for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.  I then met with Steve, one of the managers at Corbett to discuss plans for the Bollywood themed special event.  It went pretty well but neither of us were familiar with the culture of the theme and realized that we would have to do our research and also get others involved to avoid a misinterpretation of the culture.  Steve had already tested out Sandesh, an Indian dessert and offered me some to taste!  It was yummy.  We talked briefly about the issues that he encountered with making the dessert.  He used lemon to make the milk curd but added cream for thickness.  The second time he tried the recipe he used more cream to try to increase the thickness but the fat interfered with the curding process.  Afterwards, I was on my way to Palmer to meet with Lauren briefly about the food policy plan to ensure that we were both on the same page before we began going into detail.

I ended my day at Durrell working on the special event projects.

After the gym, Alex and Hailey wanted to hop on a bus and go on an "adventure".  We didn't do any planning at all.  We went to the transit center and got on the next bus.  We actually met this wonderful woman who heard me playing music off of my phone and came over to talk to us.  It was really amazing, she shared personal stories with us and (with our permission) offered prayers as well.  She offered an interesting perspective on life, family and careers.  Its crazy how some people come into your life at the right time and with a purpose.

After we got off the bus, we realized it was the last one running for the night!  We walked around the plaza and when we were done we tried to call for a ride.  We had no success so we started to walk back to campus which was approximately a 3 mile walk.  It was a beautiful night and the stars were out and shining brightly.  Finally, we caught up with the other interns and Kyle collected us.  Tonight was an interesting evening!

Durrell: Day 26

I started off my morning in Palmer, completing the conference meal count reports.  These reports document how many meals are used out of the meal plans that were purchased.  I generally go to Palmer weekly to create the reports after the conference has ended to obtain the final number of meals used.

 

After bringing the reports up to date, I headed over to Durrell to begin working with catering.  Prior to this, I've only had the opportunity to catered one event, which was the SJU Senior Banquet this semester.  It is always nice to experience what goes on outside of the typical collegiate dining hall environment.  At the SJU catering event I helped with set-up, take-down and worked the line as a runner to ensure that containers were always ready for service.  At Durrell's catering event I worked the floor which was a new experience.  I was responsible for making sure that pitchers were full, line staff had the items they needed and clearing tables at the appropriate time.

 

The event was held for retirees and focused on giving them information about the updates and progress of housing and dining services.  I was aware of a lot of the initiatives and accomplishments of CSU but I was pretty amazed at their efforts towards sustainability and student satisfaction.  It was interesting to see how we tailored the event  based on the audience.  It was expected that this particular group would arrive early - which they did.  This really wasn't an issue for us as it just meant a quick set-up.  As I was going around to retrieve the empty plates, I tried to say "Pardon me, excuse me or are you done with this?" but I soon realized this was not effective as most of them could not hear me.  It felt a little weird at first to just reach around people, but I tried to make eye contact to ensure that they knew that I was there to service their table.

 

We began to clean-up, but before we were done I had to walk over to Palmer for a meeting with Christian in Marketing to discuss the progress of the special events that I'm planning for the department.  The meeting went well. Ben and Christian have been extremely helpful with providing guidance which has helped me to make progress with my projects, particularly the ones with themes that seem pretty foreign to me.

 

This was followed by another meeting in Palmer with Brittney, the Registered Dietitian, about the food allergy plan for CSU.  It was brief and straight forward.  I will be working with Brittney's dietetic intern, Lauren, on putting together documentation which advises students, faculty, parents and all concerned of CSU Residential Dining Services' policies on food allergies.

 

As a result of bad timing at the gym, I ended up missing dinner in the Cafeteria so I decided to pick up something on the way to a show at Tap and Handle that we had plan to watch in Old Town.  I only had $5.00 to find something quick to eat.  I figured Big City Burrito should be in my price range, I got there and the veggie burrito was $5.69.  I assumed taxes would bring it up a bit so I gathered about $1.25 in coins to make up the difference.  We got to Tap and Handle but it was actually Open Mic and it did not appear as if anyone had plans of performing.  So we headed back to school to catch some of the Summer Concert Series in the Lagoon.  Within two minutes of arriving at the Lagoon, the band announced "and we always end with this song...".  I couldn't retain my laughter.  Just my luck - we missed two shows in one day!

Durrell: Day 25

Ryan and I started off the morning in the cooler.  I thought I was prepared with my sweatshirt, but it really did not help to keep me warm.  We noticed that a lot of the items that were in the cooler were not actually on the inventory list which meant we would have to write them down to take an account of the items.

Ryan had a meeting to attend so Ben came in to complete the inventory count with me.  It didn't take long before Ben also realized that there we were not finding many of the items on the actual inventory list.  Eventually we pretty much disregarded the list and just wrote down everything by hand as we found it.  As we went through the items in the cooler, we discussed the importance of the First In First Out (FIFO) method.  We came across containers that were opened before the items that went into the cooler first.  Ben also rearranged certain items that were on containers and placed them on the shelves where they should be.

It was around 8:30a.m. when I realized that I needed to take a "freezer break".  Ben must have read my mind!  As soon as we were done with the shelf we were working on, Ben reminded me that he was used to the temperature and that I could step outside whenever I needed to.

Later in the afternoon we had a conference call with my faculty moderator (Professor Bernie) which I think went pretty well.  All of my internship goals are being accomplished or is in the process of getting there.

I was craving ice-cream all day, so after the gym (counterproductive, I guess) I went to Mahalo Yogurt and sampled nearly every flavour.  I finally decided on coconut, it was satisfying :).  I was walking around town for a bit when it started to rain.  I noticed the CSU Plant Environmental Research sign on a corner, I was pretty sure it led back to the CSU campus - at least I was hoping it was a shortcut back.  I decided to head in and walk around.  I've noticed the area from the outside when riding around on my bike but I didn't realize that there was so much more there to see.  

Pond within CSU's Plant Environmental Research Center