My First Week at Montana State University

     Hello, my name is Rebecca Armstrong. I am a senior in the Dietetics program at Idaho State University.  I have the wonderful opportunity to be a NACUFS Food Service Management Intern at Montana State University this summer, and this blog contains the highlights of the many things I am experiencing during my time here. 


     The motto of the internship here is to work hard, play hard, and sleep when you go home.  That would be an accurate statement of how things go around here, and I am loving it.  So much has happened already (and we're just getting started) so here are 5 things I enjoyed in my first week:


1.  Kale Salad-  On my first day here, we had a meeting and a cutting (which I learned is the term for checking out product) with Spokane Produce.  Spokane Produce had a lot of great things to show the managers and chefs here at MSU, including a kale salad that I loved.  I was able to take the leftovers home with me, and I wasn't even mad that I ate kale salad for 5 days in a row.  It was amazing.  



2.  FSA Food Show- On my second day here I got to go to my very first food show.  I tried a lot of different food and beverages, learned that brokers exist, and met a lot of people.  After the food show I got to sit in on a meeting where I watched the process of creating new products as the rancher, the processor, the distributor, and the end user (MSU) discussed new meat products.  That meeting was an education in and of itself as I got to observe the process, dynamics, and interests of each party involved. 

(Thank you to Priscilla at FSA for the picture, I had a mishap with my phone and lost all of my pictures from the food show.)

3.  Nice People- I have been very welcomed by everyone at MSU, and everyone I have met in Bozeman is very nice.  Seriously, people here are ridiculously nice. 



4.  Kombucha on Tap- I visited the Bozeman Community Food Co-op, and when I saw that they have kombucha on tap, I knew I had died and gone to hippie heaven.  (I have since learned that a kombucha bar has recently opened in Bozeman, so I will be checking that out too.) 

5.  The Office- Apparently people here really like The Office.  I have heard references to this show from several people in a short period of time.  This leads me to believe that I have found my people. 

I feel that a regular feature of this blog needs to be highlights of things I have learned from Paul, my preceptor.

Lesson of the Week: Don't pay attention to the delivery, pay attention to the message.  You can lose a lot of good information if you're focused on the delivery.  Someone may seem abrupt, or even mean, but you have to focus on if what they are saying is true or has any value. 

-Rebecca