Final Weeks 7 and 8 at UND

These last two weeks were jam packed. My final days at UND comprised of  finishing up projects and getting in as much shadowing and final questions as possible before saying farewell.

Finishing projects:

• Wellness meals
• I worked on creating meals that satisfy requirements set by the Partnership for a Healthier America program. These meals will be offered out of Dakota Home style in the Wilkerson Dining Hall
• UCLC menus
• UND dining provides meals for child care centers on campus. These meals have to meet certain requirements for each age group which I reviewed.
• Customer service surveys
• Earlier in the summer Emily and I drafted questions which rate customer service in the dining halls. These last weeks Dustin Chuck and I edited the survey and administered it to diners. 
• Recipe testing for Persian and Indian cuisine
• I continued to cook with Aman and Akram. We shared the creations with other staff and I sent the recipes off to Chef Greg to scale up for the the dining hall.
• Presented Indian cuisine in the dining hall open for students and staff to try 
• I am so happy with how the food turned out and how it was presented in the dining hall. See pictures below:

Here are all of the foods we prepared and served on two plates

I wasn't the only one taking pictures :)

Shadowing:

• Nutrition Research Facility
• For more info visit: https://www.ars.usda.gov/main/site_main.htm?modecode=30-62-05-00)
• I got to spend two days at the USDA, Agricultural Research Service's Grand Forks Human Nutrition Research Center. This is separate from UND so I was lucky to get to explore this gem. Bonnie Hoverson took me under her wing and taught me about the research that goes on here. Let me show you around:

Here is Dr. Casperson in the metabolic chamber. This is a room that measures how much energy a person is burning while inside.

Sometimes research participants stay at the research facility. Here is part of participant living quarters.

This is where all kinds of physical tests can be done. Some things that are measured here are body composition and endurance.

Here I am wearing an apparatus from the metabolic cart. This can measure how much energy a person expends while moving about. Other equipment is used to measure resting metabolism.

• Management
• I learned about hiring, training, inspections, keeping track of food waste and more from Jason Gallagher.
• Human Resources and Budget
•  I learned about hiring in a university system and how budgets are tracked.
• Warehouse Receiving 
• Every weekday morning dining services receives groceries! Here are a few pictures of unloading and counting of goods.

• Catering
• UND has a great and hardworking catering department. Earlier in the summer I helped with a catered wedding. This last week I met with Andrea Green to learn about how they plan and staff all of the events. 

Last Day Celebration

Greg's famous cheesecake

Jackie, me, Joe, and Jason

Dustin and me

Thanks to everyone in Grand Forks who crossed my path. You welcomed me and taught me so much! I can't thank you enough.

University of Northern Iowa Weeks 7&8

I know I am late posting this and am already back in Michigan, but better late than never! My last two weeks at UNI were great. July 10-16 was the week that I had my special event (July 14) and much of the week was spent finishing last minute details for that. My previous blog post covers the event.

This week I also spent some time in the panther plot. This is UNI's campus garden. It is very large and primarily run by students. It is very organized and they grow a variety of crops including tomatoes (purple and red), bell peppers (purple and red), spicy peppers, corn, zucchini, cucumbers, lettuce, herbs, etc. The staff/volunteers et to take some produce and the rest goes to the dining halls to be incorporated in their recipes. I loved getting to spend the whole day in the garden, even if it was super hot! I love gardening!

We transplanted some plants, did LOTS of weeding, fertilized, picked crops, delivered weed/compost to the compost area on campus, and made sure the watering systems were ok. There were two other workers there while I was there. One of them was extending the height on the fence that encompasses the entire garden; the deer have been jumping the fence.

The final week, July 17-22, I was finishing some projects. Over the weekend, I completed and turned in the allergen venue menu changes project. It took awhile, but I was very happy with the result. I think the changes made the food more interesting for college students and brought more variety. Hopefully they will get good feedback this semester!

Another project I worked and and turned in during this week was a marketing promotion for the C-stores on campus. They are going to be offering some new sandwiches in the fall and Chris, the retail manager, wanted me to put together a package with some marketing options promoting the new options. 

This was a bit of a stretch for me and pushed me out of my comfort zone because I am definitely not a marketing major. I also am not a graphic designer, but I was able to pull together 4 options that I was happy with. These included paper flyers and potential digital signs that could be used on TV screens in the bistro itself. 

Another project turned in was the Prexy's recipe testing project. While I had my rotation there two weeks back, we did a grilled cheese recipe testing, including a multitude of different options with toppings and bread. I pulled together the testing report and rated the sandwiches base doff of feedback. I wasn't able to eat the sandwiches due to a dairy intolerance, but they received very positive feedback and I think the college students will love them! 

I was also able to meet with Carol in employment services. She went over the hiring process, termination, discipline, union vs. non-union employees, budgeting, and their contract. It was nice to get a little HR information. Back home, I used to work in an office on WMU's campus, and am very familiar with budget information sheets, so this was familiar territory. 

On Wednesday evening, I went out with pretty much all of the student supervisors for a "farewell dinner." It was very nice to kind of say goodbye to everyone and have a nice final dinner together. We went to Texas Roadhouse. It's a good thing that we all work in food service and are good to other food service workers, otherwise the waitresses might have hated having 24 of us. However, they said they loved us and were really fun!

Thursday was final evaluation day with Susan. I am very pleased with the feedback she gave and I received a certificate of completion from NACUFS. I have had such a wonderful internship experience. I can't even begin to explain how much experience this has given me. I think it will help immensely in the future in terms of preparation as well as my future dietetics internship and job as an RD. Thanks to UNI to being an awesome host school! I am very sad that this was the last year for the NACUFS internship.

I packed up the apartment and started loading my car on Thursday as well.

Friday morning started with a final meeting with Lisa, the dietitian and purchasing manager. I am so glad we were able to meet and go over her job in purchasing. This was very interesting to me. She covered pulling together bids and the deciding points for choosing one company over another (it's not just based on the lowest price). She also went over can cutting and other things she looks at when determining product selection. 

After out meeting, I was on the road back home. It was bittersweet to be leaving, but it was nice to see family and friends in Michigan again. This little one gave me a very warm and excited greeting!

Thank you all for continuing to follow my adventures and learning experiences! It's been fun!

Weeks 7-8 - Texas Tech, Final Presentation and the Market

Texas Tech University

Carolyn Greene

Hello ya'll!  This post is reallllyyy late (like three weeks late - eep!) but it's been such a busy few weeks since I left Texas that I just couldn't find time, or even a reliable internet connection for that matter, to actually sit down and write about my last two weeks.  Now that I'm home, and have a free day before my busy week starts up again, I'm hunkering down and working on all the things that I had put on the back burner since the last month of the internship.

Post-presensation photo with the one and only Alan!

Last time, I said the girls and I were getting ready for our final presentation.  In short, we did great!  Everything went so smoothly, and I think our ideas were well received by all parties involved.  We had a delicious lunch afterwards, by Top Tier catering themselves, and then had the rest of the day to ourselves.  I caught up on some sleep, and made sure I got a good dinner that night.  We knew we needed a little R&R after our stressful prior week to recuperate for our busy two weeks at the Market!

Tuesday through Friday had us buzzing like bees at the Market.  We had a projected 1500 or so campers expected that week, and the only way to describe the experience is that.  It. Was. Crazy!  In all the years I've done food service, I don't think I've ever served so many people in such a short period of time!  The kids came in waves, and it was almost constant movement for the entire duration of the shift.  I definitely learned a lot about handling high volume that week!

We all got to try our hands at different stations all around the unit.  Most of the time, I was either serving at the Carvery, which was the main line, but I also served at the Taco station, and had a night or two plating fruit.  Some days I fronted, which meant I kept the front of the unit in order, or looked over the dining hall while   At the end of week 8, we got to meet with the main manager, Jessie, who talked to us about the managerial side of food service,  That was an informative meeting,  and I had the chance to ask all the burning questions I had about topics like employee training, production, and ordering and storage.

During week 8, we were at the Market again, but the counts for those few days were much lower than week 7, having no more than 250 people a day.  I got the chance to ride Zamboni, our motorized floor cleaning contraption, which was a lot of fun!

On Wednesday morning or week 8, I went to my last crossfit class at Paladin.  It was such a pleasure and honor to be able to train with all the folks that morning!  I just wish I had more time with Crossfit Paladin - the environment was so welcoming, and it definitely had started to feel like a family!  I'll be back one day!

To end our time at Texas Tech, us girls had to go out with a bang.  With the help of Dee, the head of recruitment in Hospitality, we turned Alan's office into the Batcave!  As we were working on Alan's office, we had the brilliant idea to also do Dee's office too.  The results were spectacular and we had so much fun with it!  This is the goodbye Alan never saw coming!

Alan's office - The Batcave!

Dee's office - aka Robin's office

Friday was our last official day of the internship.  We had a short debriefing session with Alan, Dee, and Cape, and reflected on our two months with Hospitality.  Those two months were such a blessing, and I would not have traded the experience for anything.  The people I've met, fellow interns and the Hospitality staff, were such wonderful, embracing people, and I'm so glad I have this chance to meet them.  I'm so excited to see where these experiences take me going into my last year of my undergraduate career!

Final Weeks in Berkeley, CA

  
It's hard to believe that as I type this, we are now finished with our 8-week NACUFS internship experience! Between long educational days in the campus kitchens to the worldly and eye-opening field trips, we got more out of our time here than we ever thought possible. Here's a glimpse back on our last two weeks at UC Berkeley. 

~WEEK 7~

MONDAY: The penultimate week here began on a relaxing yet productive note. In fact, most of our time in week 7 and 8 was spent working on our final project and presentation. We worked really well together, and came up with a lot of really great ideas!  As mentioned in earlier blog posts, our main project for this summer involved a makeover of one of the dining halls on campus, Café 3, to a more plant-forward menu. I'll go into more detail of exactly what our involvement in this project was later in the week. 

TUESDAY: Tuesday we spent the day in Crossroads, working with the sous chefs to prep foods for lunch. We kept busy cutting up tons of produce (zucchini and watermelon) and brushed up on our knife skills. It wasn't that exciting of a day, but since we knew our time here was coming to and end, we cherished every last moment working in the kitchens. Once we finished we headed over to Café 3 to get some last minute questions answered for our project.   


WEDNESDAY: On Wednesday we were invited to a Cheese Making Class!! Along with a few other member of the Cal Dining staff, we ventured over to the north part of campus to an educational kitchen in the Food Service department. Here we learned how to make 3 soft cheeses: Ricotta, Fromage-Blanc (Goat Cheese), and Mozzarella. We were delighted to learn that cheese making requires neither expertise nor expensive ingredients or equipment. We started by heating the milk base so that it started to curd. The enzyme rennet is added to help that process happen. The milk then begins to coagulate into one uniform mass. Once the cheese was solidified to our liking, the next step determined the type of cheese we would be making. For the Fromage-Blanc, we separated the curds from the whey (milk proteins) by pouring the mixture through a cheese cloth. The liquid whey went straight through into the pot, and the remaining curd mass was then wrapped up tightly with the cheese cloth. We hung this to further filter out while we finished the other cheeses. For the ricotta, a similar process was followed with the exception of whole milk being used in place of goat's milk. Ricotta also did not need to be drained as much as the Fromage-Blanc, so we were able to eat this one shortly after preparation. Lastly, the mozzarella had a few additional steps after the draining of the whey from the curds. We had to slice the cheese into 1" thick strips, then heat the strips in salt water. After we removed them from heat, we allowed the cheese strips to cool slightly before stretching the cheese with our hands. We had to stretch and knead the cheese, then form it into little mozzarella balls (as shown below). Once we were done with all the cheese we got to sample them with a variety of classic "cheese foods" like tomato, crackers, grapes, and wine. We had such a fun time making cheese!!
  


THURSDAY: On Thursday we started our day at Crossroads, brainstorming ideas to more conveniently display allergen information about the daily menu during service. The current method is to type up the menu items individually for each station and then add allergen information accordingly. This is an extremely time-consuming process for the office staff, as they have to do them every day, three times a day. After printing the allergen information, they then place them in plastic holders that go on top of the serving line. Our task was to come up with more efficient ways of displaying this information. Though we had many ideas, the two best ideas were to use chalkboards to write the menu and allergen information each day and to have one spot in the dining hall specifically dedicated to allergens where students could look up the allergens for each menu item. The chalkboard idea cuts down on office time and opens up the potential for a student or other food service worker to write up the menu and allergens easily without needing to access the office. The allergen zone would also eliminate the need for printing and save lots of time putting up signs at each station. They management team seemed excited about the ideas and they hope to pilot them at at least one station very soon! The rest of the day was spent working on our final presentation, which included completing the Cafe 3 menu analysis. The analysis comprised of us going over the menu and designating each item as vegan, vegetarian, or neither and then compiling statistics based on this information that might be useful to the management team. It was definitely a productive day!

FRIDAY: Today was our last field trip :(

And they certainly saved the best for last! We toured the famous Bill Niman's cattle and turkey farm and were treated to a delicious lunch served out of their actual home. The day began with a quick truck ride to the edge of the ranch (literally on the ocean!) to visit some of the happy cows. Bill talked a lot about the benefits of grass-fed beef, as well as logistics of running a cattle farm. All the cows were very docile and not at all bothered by our interruption, which Bill Niman said was an indicator of happy and relaxed cows. Niman is a huge supporter of the grass-fed beef movement, and strongly believes it could be a system that is replicated throughout the United States. After visiting the cows, we took another bumpy truck ride to the baby cows, where we learned that the cows are switched to different pastures based on age or pregnancy status. The cows do a lot to keep the brush down in the fields, which makes the pastures grassy and sustainable for cattle grazing. 

After visiting the calves, we entered the loud confines of the turkey enclosure. Contrary to the horrendous conditions most American poultry is subjected to, the turkeys' enclosure at the ranch was wide open and clean. Before we left, Bill gave us some turkey eggs to take home and eat (which we did, and they were unbelievably delicious!). A delicious lunch was then served from their own kitchen and was made by Bill's wife, Nicolette. After some wine and good conversation, we then head out on the road back to Berkeley.

<--Turkey egg

~FINAL WEEK~

TUESDAY: Tuesday we spent the day with Liam, another member of the Cal Catering team. His job is to oversee "Training Tables" which is basically just the catering and food service operation for the athletes on campus. Although he mostly works with the football team, he's also provided meal services for the basketball, volleyball, soccer, and rugby teams. We started the day at California Memorial Stadium. This is where the football team plays and trains, as well as where the primary catering office and Training Tables kitchen is located. Liam gave us a tour of the kitchen, where we were allowed to observe the football players come in for both breakfast and lunch meals. During each of the meals we had the pleasure of talking to Jordan, the new sports dietitian on campus. Fresh out of grad school, it was really interesting to hear the new and exciting nutrition-related ideas that he was bringing to Cal. He explained to us some of the healthy changes he was making to the Training Tables menus, as well as the Sports Nutrition education sessions he was planning on executing for the football team. At every meal, as athletes come through the service line, Jordan encourages them to balance out their plates with protein, grains, and vegetables. He's also a big advocate for the salad bar. The last part of our day consisted of commuting over to the other end of campus to the Haas Pavilion, where both the volleyball and basketball teams play. We saw the micro kitchens there and learned how meals are executed there on a bit smaller scale.

  

MONDAY, WEDNESDAY, THURSDAY: 3 Full days this week were spent completing our project and getting every detail ready for our final presentation on Friday. Everything was starting to really come together, and we were getting very excited!! We decided to use Prezi to make our presentation, which was a learning experience in itself but looks a lot more exciting than just your average Powerpoint. 

FRIDAY: Presentation day!! And also our very last day as NACUFS interns at UC Berkeley. It was a bittersweet day, but being able to present our ideas for Café 3 that we had been working on all summer was the perfect culmination of the internship. Some of the highlights of our presentation included an overview of the new elements of the Café 3 menu, some background and research on why the project was a good idea for Cal, and possible pros and cons of the new menu implementation. We also analyzed the new menu to see what percentage of recipes were vegan, vegetarian, or meat-based. Since the idea was to make Café 3 primarily a plant-forward dining hall, it was important to see what the statistics actually were! It was fascinating to pick apart each recipe and look at the ingredients to make our judgement, especially since we found the menu to be 50% vegan, 43% vegetarian, and only 7% meat-based!! Some other fun parts of our project were coming up with marketing ideas to advertise the new "look" of Café 3 to the students and faculty at UC Berkeley. We also talked about what the addition of a Kosher station to the dining hall would be like, and brainstormed all the special things the chefs and managers would need to consider to include that accurately and professionally. Overall, everyone seemed to LOVE our presentation and we both felt really proud of ourselves. It all came together so nicely, and was the perfect opportunity for us to say our thank yous and goodbyes. 

From the bottom of our hearts THANK YOU to NACUFS and Cal Dining for an amazing summer internship experience. Without a doubt we are going to take everything we learned back to the east coast, and with us as we move on through our dietetic internships this upcoming year. 

So long and farewell,

Madeline and Emily

Final Week at Rutgers University

For our last three days, our coordinators let us pick 3 rotations during these past two months that we wanted to revisit. We picked Starbucks, Henry’s Diner, and Neilson Dining Hall (to work with Chef Barry). We also wanted to visit UBHC (the behavioral health center) and IFNH (with Peggy) again, but Peggy and Jessica are both out at the NACUFS conference.

Intern Choice #1: Today was the first of our intern choice days. We decided to go to Starbucks and spend the day learning about the art of coffee making. When we arrived at 8am, we worked with the managers, Ronny and Rachel. Ronny taught us how to make some of the drinks such as iced espressos, iced coffees, and different mixed teas. He even taught us how to steam milk properly.

Denisse and I made the famous green and pink drinks!

When Glenn, the other manager, arrived, he drove us out to visit the Starbucks Truck, which was parked near the Bake Shop. We were so amazed by the Starbucks Truck! Everything was so clean and it was amazing how all the devices in the regular store fit in such a small space.

This is the 5th Starbucks Truck to open in the country!

Inside of the Starbucks Truck

When we came back, we did some coffee testing. We tested multiple types of chai, which were made with soy milk since Denisse is lactose intolerant. I actually really liked the use of soymilk since it was sweetened with vanilla, so I enjoyed the slightly sweet and creamy taste of the regular chai. We compared that to the cinnamon chai, which was sweeter than the regular chai. We also tasted the espresso chai, which was good, but I’m still not used to the coffee taste. After another day spent at Starbucks, I can see how it’s challenging to learn all of the different drink codes and steps involved in making different types of drinks. However, it seems like a very fun job and the whole learning process will be very rewarding.

Breakfast at the Diner

Intern Choice #2: Today, we shadowed Laura, the student manager, and Theresa, one of the kitchen staff at Henry’s Diner. We started the morning by slicing cucumbers and halving cherry tomatoes for the side salads. We also helped tray up some cole slaw that Theresa made. Laura taught us a lot about waitressing and we got to shadow a few of her tables. As a student, she noted that at the end of the day, it was all about getting  higher tip. Therefore, when she asked tables what they would like to drink, she would also mention a few options to peak their interest. I thought it was interesting that the drink options that she would list would change depending on the group she was talking to. When the table was filled with high school students or younger kids, she would suggest a milkshake, but when she was assisting older individuals, she would mention the unsweetened iced teas and soda beverages first. I thought it was really cool that after years of waitressing, Laura didn’t even need to write down the orders on a pad, even when the orders were pretty complex.

Intern Choice #3: It’s our final day of the internship! It’s astonishing how quickly these past two months passed by. Today, we spent the day at Neilson Dining Hall with Chef Barry. We chose to work with Chef Barry as our last intern choice because the last time we met with him, the large international conference was happening and it was very hectic in the dining hall. When we left that day, after dicing multiple bags of bell peppers and vegetables in preparation for the large event, Chef Barry noted that he wished he had more spare time to talk to us about his role. Therefore, we decided that it would be a good idea to spend another day in the dining hall to make up for that. When we arrived at 8am, the morning breakfast group was just finishing up, so Chef Barry had us dice some bell peppers and onions for the upcoming lunch. Chef Barry told us about his background and how he opened up a restaurant in New York with a few of his buddies. He said it was successful, but it was also very tedious. The three of them all emphasized how working in a restaurant, while fun, involves a lot of sacrifices. There were many instances in which they had to skip holidays, family parties, and weekends. While we worked in the kitchen, Chef Barry also demonstrated how to use a knife sharpener and the different ways to cut red bell peppers.

Overall, the NACUFS Internship has been so eye-opening and amazing. I’ve learned so much in just these past two months and I never knew that foodservice and management encompassed so many different fields. Our coordinators, Peggy, Kelly, and Sandy, have been extremely helpful and friendly throughout this whole program and it’s been a very memorable summer!

Weekend Adventures: During our two months here in New Jersey, everyone we met has been asking us whether or not we visited the Jersey Shore yet. Since it’s a little far from where we are and would be hassle to commute by train, we would always sadly respond with a “no.” However, now we can proudly say that we have! Kelly and her husband were super gracious and invited us to spend a weekend with them at her house. After our shift on Friday, Denisse and I took the train down to Point Pleasant, where Kelly and her husband warmly welcomed us and picked us up. On Saturday, we drove out to Island Beach State Park, a beautiful and pristine beach. It was really cool because you could drive onto the beach!

You could drive onto the beach!

Jersey Shore

Kelly, Denisse and I spent most of our time reading out on the beach, and Kelly’s husband taught me how to fish! I’d never gone fishing before so it was a really cool experience!

First time fishing!

We didn’t catch anything :(, but Kelly’s husband had bought some fresh scallops and sweet New Jersey corn the day before at the Farmer’s Market. So that night, he cooked up a delicious dinner. The scallops were so juicy and meaty. I had never eaten such large scallops!

Freshly caught scallops for dinner

On Sunday, Kelly and her husband brought us to the Point Pleasant Pier. We tried raw clams for the first time, and ended the day with some refreshing soft serve. One thing that I discovered on this trip was Italian Ice! I don’t think I’d ever had it before, and I really enjoyed the smooth creamy texture!

Point Pleasant Beach Boardwalk

What a great way to end our adventures here in New Jersey. :)