6/20-25 Week 3 from UND

Week 3 was a busy week here in North Dakota.It all started with some inventory maintenance on Monday morning. Every year UND dining does a complete manual inventory count of its main warehouse. Employees throughout the dining operation take time away from their typical duties to help out with this endeavor. We split up into three groups: one for dry goods, one for frozen items and one for paper/plastic goods.We count everything up and compare it to the electronic records. This way we can correct the records to reflect the true inventory and look into any mistakes. It was really cool to see how the inventory is carefully looked after. Though the total count is only performed once a year, inventory is monitored at every transaction and via random audits throughout the year.

The Warehouse


The inventory team going over records

Later that week I worked in UND's very own Bakery. Here they make most of the desserts for the dining halls including donuts, bars, muffins, brownies and cakes. They also make treats for retail locations and some catered events. Lastly they make much of the breads for sandwiches and all of the pizza doughs on campus. I got to work with bakery manager, Tracey Fetter who was super nice and a great teacher. He had a lot of patience with me when I practiced piping icing into flowers and letters. My free hand is far from elegant especially after two iced coffees (night shift).


Here are some treats from the bakery

The Sweet Endings Concept at Wilkerson features many homemade treats from the UND Bakery

Thursday and Friday were filled with a road trip to Dickinson, ND. We did a factory tour of Baker Boy and Cloverdale meats. In between Emily and I visited Medora, an iconic western town and site of the Theodore Roosevelt National Park (North Dakota Badlands-beautiful). I was really excited to see this place especially since this is the 100th year anniversary of the national parks which we have Teddy Roosevelt to thank for in the first place.

On our way to Dickinson we traveled on the Enchanted Highway. Here is the sculpture "Geese in Flight" from the car window

Before the factories tours we enjoyed a bratwurst lunch at this cleverly named shop

UND's Executive Chef Greg showing off his legs before the Baker Boy tour

Baker Boy Factory in Dickinson ND

Donut holes coming off of their cooling tower. This allows the donuts some time to cool down and dry off after coming out of the fryer. They will be frozen later. All of baker boy's large orders are shipped frozen to maintain their freshness.


I thought this piece of equipment was especially neat. That huge bowl (you could probably fit ten people in there) that is tipped in the picture has just finished dumping dough into the funnel. The dough is then formed into individual buns of an even weight and shape.

Here are the finished buns. Yum!

Here is a picture of the beautiful North Dakota Badlands

Emily and I saw the Medora Musical after the Baker Boy factory tour while the guys went golfing

Emily Brekke, Greg Gefroh, and Chuck Crummy all suited up for the Cloverdale meats factory tour. On the tour we went progressively from cooked to raw areas (from blue to red coats too). I was happy with this nod to food safety.

This machine quickly sucks up those red dogs and removes the casing. The unwrapped dogs move on in the line and the casing is sent directly to the trash. Cool to see in action.

So this is bacon before it is cut into strips and packaged

Just some ground meat with all the spices. It reminds me of making meatloaf..just a lot larger!

These are the seasonings

Right besides the manufacturing floor are offices which happen to be decorated like an old western street front

and lastly a picture of the infamous rubber boots. Poor Jeff pulled his hamstring while golfing the night before. It took a few people to get his boot off.

On Saturday Emily and I worked with UND Catering for a wedding at the Alumni Center. I learned that presentation makes a huge difference in how a dish is perceived.