Saturday, June 4, 2016
Last night, I arrived in Savannah, Georgia! Stayed here for the night, while still on my way to Statesboro! Woke up this morning for a nice walk in the Georgia heat, only to end up at a local Saturday morning farmer's market and health food store. Enjoying the south so much already!! Feeling at home :)
DAY 2:
Sunday, June 5, 2016
I arrived yesterday at my villa at Georgia Southern University! I had time to get settled in, unpack my belongings, and set out to explore the beautiful campus and surrounding community of Statesboro. I am very pleased with what I have seen here so far! After a good night's sleep, I was able to explore some more of downtown Statesboro, as well as explore a local restaurant with my new fellow internship coordinators, Emily and Jeff, and their families! We shared such a nice dinner together and told stories of our pasts as well as our future hopes for the summer. Tomorrow is the day I will begin my journey with Eagle Dining! Stay tuned :)
DAY 3:
Monday, June 6, 2016
First day on the job! Feeling official with my badge. Met the crew! It's true... that southern hospitality is so wonderful. Everyone was so welcoming! Was provided with tours of all of the campus dining kitchens, Starbucks, Chick-Fil-A, etc. Inspected a variety of extremely clean and organized walk-in freezers, dry stock rooms, dish rooms, and fancy equipment! Very impressed. Went through a round of training in order to refresh my Serv Safe memory... knife training, food safety, cleanliness, foodborne illness, payroll, the whole deal. Got my Georgia Southern e-mail account and even my chef coats and chef hat!! Ate lunch in the main campus dining commons with Emily! Chose to go with the wok station; lo mein noodles with kung pao broccoli, vegetable egg roll, salad bar, and coffee. So many options :) Very impressed by the "No Whey" station, that was designed specifically for students who suffer from a variety of food allergies! But more to come on that later, since I will be working with Brittany (nutrition coordinator) on Friday. Then, was taken on an all-inclusive tour of Statesboro in the Eagle Dining Services van!! In the middle of a torrential downpour/ tropical storm of course :) At least we upgraded from a golf cart to the van! Toured the IT building and a few campus landmarks: sweetheart circle, art museum, wildlife center, football stadium. Then proceeded to downtown, the brewery, various local restaurants and boutiques, the "S-mall", FoodWorld, Sonics, Walmarts, everything you can imagine. And of course received the tour explaining where all of the bars are located :) It's going to be a great summer!! Looking forward to working with Rebecca tomorrow, who is in charge of purchasing for the university. We will be discussing purchasing, figure out ways we can improve, and will be gearing up for the Farm-To-Table Dinner on Thursday! We have a bunch of shopping to do and local farms and businesses to visit in order to prepare and bring it all together! Keep on readin soon :)
Side note: Whenever introduced to someone new in Georgia, they make sure to say, "She is from THE Ohio State University!" And proceed to laugh:) In a nice way of course :)) Oh Ohio State..... We sure are proud :)
DAY 4:
June 07, 2016
With Rebekah Boatright today, the purchaser for Eagle Dining Services at GSU. Rebekah can be described as the greatest superwoman of all time. As I venture into her office, she is quickly getting to work, answering calls, catching up on e-mails, running from office-to-office filling everyone in, setting up meetings, inputting information, approving orders, contacting farmers, etc., all while wiping the peanut butter out of her hair from the rough morning of taking her son to a new daycare, in the midst of moving into a new home this week. If this woman is not superwoman, then I do not know who in the world has her beat. Rebekah, despite all of her obligations, is immediately welcoming, quick to introduce me to everyone, and quick to jump right in and explain to me everything she is doing and everyone that she is meeting with.
Overall, Rebekah is scrambling this week in order to make the huge Farm-To-Table Dinner at the Belle House happen this Thursday afternoon. This event features local farmers, local businesses, and local ingredients and works to bring the community together in a place that is centered around good and fair food, along with vibrant conversations. The dinner is hosted and put on for by the Friends of the Library, which is a group that works to bring events like this to life in the community. Anyone is welcome, and they have kindly chosen Eagle Dining Services to provide the catering and find the local venders for the celebration.
In order to prepare for this event, Rebekah must venture out and find exactly what the chef calls for/ whatever is to be on the menu for the night! Rebekah, on a moment's notice, must be able to contact local vendors and farmers that she knows of and is to work with them in order to see who can provide the item that is closest to what is desired. That said, I sat in on some conversations with Sea-To-Table (sustainably-sourced fish), along with other local vendors, in order to learn what was particularly available and in season at this point in time. We came across certain challenges and learned how to combat that as they arose. For example, the chef had called for Sheepshead fish or Triggerfish, both of which were not hitting the dock this week. Therefore, we worked with the vendors around and found out the red and black drum were the fish that were coming in on this week in particular. So that is what will be used for the dinner! We then researched how to cook this type of fish, so that we could report back to the chef with some knowledge as to how to incorporate this fish into the menu.
Along the way, Rebekah provided me with some knowledge as to some of the day-to-day struggles she faces in her job. Although Rebekah is extremely into local, sustainable eating, she did explain to me the complications that she has encountered with simply wiping out these small farmers of all of their crops and with the local farmers simply being unable to provide the amount of food that a university so quickly goes through. It was interesting to hear her perspective, since she has worked in the restaurant industry for over eight years, and has now been in charge of purchasing, ordering, and inventory for everything food-related and supply-related that the University needs, for over 5 years now.
After dealing with some more voicemails, meetings, and e-mails, we were able to rent out the big GSU van to get out and venture to the farms to pick up the ingredients needed for the dinner! Out we went! We picked up corn meal, Carolina rice, and grits from one Mill down the road, along with fresh coffee beans from the local Three Tree Coffee Shop. Three Tree Coffee Shop has an incredibly interesting story and is a case in which a small, local family decided to buy a roaster and simply sell their coffee at the Farmer's Market in order to simply make the money back that they spent on their roaster. After seeing how much of a hit the coffee was, they decided to open a coffee shop eventually and was very well received by the entire surrounding community! The roasters stand by their three core values and truly care about the work they do and how they are impacting those around them and those who are giving their lives so that others can enjoy the luxury of a dang good cup of coffee. Here is a short video of their story and how they came to be, which also highlights their three values of:
1 Empowering the farmer
2 Engaging the community
3 Ending human trafficking
Watch their video here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqEm1Af2ulY
The coffee shop proved to be able to keep up with demand and popularity as Rebekah finally found a way to incorporate this local roaster into Eagle Dining Services and bring them onto campus. All coffee served on campus is now the lovely beans of Three Tree Coffee. And their cold brew is wonderful!!!
Rebekah further explained her ability to choose vendors and how that process works. She was able to choose these beans for the campus locations, since no contract for coffee existed. Other items, such as plates, cups, certain foods may be on contract and therefore, are more difficult to switch vendors. However, GSU is considered to be "Self-Op", which provides them with the flexibility to choose who they purchase from. They do choose to do business with USFoods for some of their items, since buying in bulk from this company proves to be cost-effective and saves on transportation, since large orders can come in together. This also solves issues, since orders from USFoods always drive the next day and can be in large quantities. This way, buying 2 cases of lettuce does not wipe a local farmer out, but instead can sustain a campus that goes through 6 cases of lettuce per day for salads.
Furthermore, the day consisted of:
-placing orders on MBM
-approving orders from all retail and dining locations on campus
-meeting with sales reps who wanted to sell kitchen equipment to us
-comparing prices of grilles, skillets, cups, plates, espresso machines, air filters, dual ovens, wine glasses, goblets..
-close communication with catering chef on what he needs
-tours of Statesboro
-the bidding process- must bid on any items over $3,000, must sit a certain amount of time (typically 30 days) and must have at least three bids before a purchase can be made in order to ensure the university is getting the best bang for their buck and also the best quality for the cost!
-Rebekah bets on anything less than $25,000- if more, goes to the University itself
-looked for lost cups that should have arrived
-request new invoices when damaged Oreos come in
-deal with Recalls that come up/ inform chefs right away to pull food, record, and destroy
-order new Concession Stand popcorn bowls and souvenir cups for football stadium
-work on re-designing some of the stations at the Dining Commons- need new equipment
-compare prices of equipment, ensure that they are offering same product, power-wise and size-wise
-local farmers are still picking some of the cantaloupe, peanuts, squash, corn- will pick up tomorrow!
-visited the Warehouse, where all non-perishables are stored (includes dried goods and freezer foods)
-visited catering kitchen/met chefs
DAY 5:
Wednesday, June 8, 2016
Walked in the door with coffee for the office, since I am an intern :)
-meeting with nutrition intern
-discussed more of inventory management
-more prep for Farm-To-Table, which is tomorrow night!
Field Trip with Rebekah, Jason, and Emily!
-to the local farms to gather the corn, cantaloupe, squash, fresh eggs, peanuts, pecans, baguettes, french bread, sourdough...
-Visited:
-Lee Farms, L&D Produce, and Sugar Magnolia Bakery
-discussed more about contract and bidding- must follow state rules (unless you can prove that you can get same quality for cheaper price, which Rebekah did with gloves!)
-must bid fresh to fresh or frozen to frozen (cannot bid frozen chicken fingers versus fresh chicken fingers)
-working closely on vendor relations
-research and development
-learned more in depth about US Foods and Premier 1- how to get better prices
-GSU also uses United Natural Foods Incorporated- provides Premier 1 pricing and can go here since US Foods simply cannot provide some of the healthy desired foods
-learned about local Co-Op that exists and provides monthly produce, cheese, milk to those who go in on it!
-able to get honey and coffee locally
-discussed local aquaponics, which use fish, that feed on the roots, while lettuce grows in the water
-local kettle corn, honey straws, and cheese straws are sold all around campus
-MSDS sheets rep came in to provide information on new, all-natural products
-discussed food waste and recycling- GSU recycles all of their grease- collect it and reuse/recycle into biofuels- company actually pays GSU for the grease
-GSU currently under audit, explained keeping records/inventory
-conference calls
-visited the library to see new coffee vending machine that was just purchased, made sure it was set up and working!
-ordered too much squash, work with chef to figure out how to use it!
-tried four new foods today: kohlrabi, boiled peanuts, a ladyfinger, and homemade sweet peach cobbler
I'm learning being a buyer is quite a bit of work, yet nice, since you do not have to try and sell yourself but instead, have everyone coming to you and wanting to sell to you! :)
Thursday, June 9, 2016
Farm To Table Dinner!
Began at noon in the catering kitchen, learning from the Chefs. Did a lot of prep work for the event tonight, cutting cucumbers, tomatoes, zucchini, summer squash, Pattypan squash, mint leaves, lemons, bread for bread pudding, mixing fresh sauces (steak sauce, salad dressings), etc.
Lots of work to be done!
Experimenting with cocktails for the night, trying to get the perfect tomato mint lime cocktail that is farm-fresh for the dinner.
Packed up the vans and headed over to the venue, the Belle House, around four-ish.
Met the catering team- time to set up all of the tables, chairs, set the tables, and ensure that all of the food and equipment comes in that we need!
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Catering has their own beautiful garden, where they harvest all of their own fruits, vegetables, and herbs to be used at events, such as the one today! Out there are: zucchini, squash, mint leaves, three kinds of basil leaves, thyme, rosemary, tomatoes, etc. etc. And marigolds to keep squirrels away!
Time for the grilling.. Chef Tom has been out here since yesterday slow-roasting pig tails, pig ears, and everything in between, Rib Eye, fresh Sheep's Head Fish from Sea-To-Table.
The event is a success! I grabbed a table and helped serve. The Friends of the Library have a wonderful time, after some quick decisions back in the kitchen are made, and after we all have scrambled for hours to send the nine courses beautifully out to the crowd. And there is even some fresh peach bread pudding and homemade honey pecan ice cream left for us!!
Nine dinner courses, 70 guests, four cases of wine, and 11.5 hours later, I'd say everyone's ready to call it quits.. until 7am, when we're all coming back to unload the trucks and do all of the dishes!
DAY 7:
Friday, June 10, 2016
It's Friday!
Working with Brittany today, the University's Nutrition Coordinator, and Brittany's dietetic intern, Nelson. Testing recipes in the test kitchen today for the "No Whey" station at the Dining Commons!
The No Whey station was designed specifically for those with food allergies, since all of the recipes created do not contain any of the top eight common allergens. However, any student can choose to eat here! Today we are experimenting with: vegetable stir-fry with cauliflower rice (broccoli, carrots, onion, garlic, ginger), homemade allergen-free ginger/garlic soy sauce, allergen-free whipped cream (made from the juice leftover in a garbanzo bean can, cream of tartar, sugar, and vanilla) with fresh strawberries and peaches for dipping, and roasted chickpeas for salad-toppings (honey cinnamon and salt&vinegar). An entire day prepping, cooking, tasting, and serving!!
And... lunch at the Dining Commons.
DAY 8:
Monday, June 13, 2016
Working with the marketing department!
Beginning with SOAR orientation in the morning, helping to greet incoming students and their parents and answer any questions referring to directions or how meal plans work at the university. Watched as the marketing team implemented their crazy graphic design skills to develop various posters, brochures, signs, videos, images, and even designs for the football stadium cups! Working with Katie Miller and Michael Murphy was a treat!! This team sparked my own creativity and looked to me for opinions and insight! It was great to be included in the processes! Attended a presentation in the afternoon for orientation, detailing what Auxiliary Services consists of and all that they do! Was able to watch all of the nutrition coordinator, Brittany's, nutritional educational videos! Videos ranging everywhere from healthy condiment options around campus to students' personal allergen testimonials and what they have found to be helpful when coming to college for the first time. Also received a tour down in the Printing and Postal Services, where I met Brenda, a fellow Columbus native! :) Loved being Michael Murphy's sidekick for the day!! Thanks Murph!!
Checked out GSU's second dining commons, Lakeside, in the afternoon. A beautiful location, located on the lake, with upstairs seating! Loved the Mexican nacho station, with delicious guacamole.
DAY 9
Tuesday, June 14, 2016
Discussed a wide range of topics, ranging from new bike repair stations that are coming in around campus to designing parking passes and T-shirts. Next was the main dining meeting with Katie, Jenna, Jeff, Mark, and Greg! Great to have everyone in the room together, spitballing ideas left and right. Trying to come up with names for new stations that will be coming to the Dining Commons! I must not say anymore!! We had some great ideas though :)
Discussed ways in which we can "update" and improve retail locations around campus. Change the menu, change the design, change the colors, change the location? Sharing ideas for Zach's Brews, Chick-Fil-A, etc. Add new fads- nitro coffee, froyo?? A lot of brainstorming going on in this room!!
In the afternoon, was looking over the rough outline of the menu for a camp that we are promoting and trying to engage the community in currently! Preparing for this week-long camp, known as "Kidz Kitchen Brigade", which allows kids ages 10-13ish a chance to learn how to cook recipes, receive proper knife training, and cook their parents a beautiful homemade meal on the last night of the camp! Kids receive the opportunity to work with Georgia Southern's finest chefs and learn a wide variety of recipes and terms! My job was to look over the recipes and decide which words may be too big for these age ranges to understand and to break these recipes down into simpler terms. I also looked over the glossary of terms that we intend to provide in the back of the book and provided examples of each term, to help students better understand what the words mean! I also threw some hard terms out, such as oxidation and reduction, and added some terms in that were more relevant to the recipes. Terms in the glossary included words such as kneading, simmer, garnish, boil, stir, toss, preheat, mix, melt, grease, grate, bake, beat, blend, etc. I am so excited to help out with this event that will be held in July! So now is when we work on getting the world out to the surrounding community!
(Let me just add- today my phone says "feels like 110 degrees"). Still getting used to this wonderful heat and humidity!!
Fun fact for the day: I learned that a lot of GSU's campus is considered to be "wetlands" and therefore, cannot be touched or built upon. The remaining parts of campus hold a rule that says, if you tear one tree down, you must plant five more in it's place! Very cool!! Thank you so much for a great couple of days, Marketing!! Thanks to Katie, Jenna, Michael, and Sara! :) I'll be seeing you all around the office still :)
Finally, had a meeting with Jenna and Katie, discussing the new Eagle Dining Services Safety Committee that they are creating! What a great way to keep an eye on food safety and cross contamination regulations in the dining halls. This committee will consist of 14-15 individuals who will aid with ensuring safe practices are being conducted properly and preventing slips, burns, and so on in the dining commons! Rewards will even be delegated for those locations that prove to live by their standards! We had a meeting in order to discuss what this group will potentially cover, who will be able to apply and how, what their logo should be, and how this should be marketed to the applicants and also to the public.
Another very educational day! With dietetics, I will definitely use these skills I have learned in order to better understand how I should create educational handouts, videos, and any other creative materials for my patients and/or the surrounding community. :) Thanks everyone!!
DAY 10
June, 15, 2016
With Blue Tie Catering today! Some prep in the kitchen, setting up for the Legislative Appreciation Dinner at Georgia Southern's Football Stadium, and finally bringing in all of the food in and serving! Even got to the drive the huge catering vans!! Walked around serving some hors d'oeuvres on the football field, consisting of fried green tomato BLT's with pimento cheese, along with a low-country shrimp salad in a filo cup. The menu for the night consisted of grilled seasonal vegetables, roasted potatoes, grilled swordfish, and a sirloin. Dessert included a beautiful summer drunken strawberry shortcake and a flaming banana topping, prepared fresh by the wonderful chefs! Another great night with my catering team :)
DAY 11/DAY 12
June 17, 2016-June 18, 2016
Catering for rehearsal dinners on Friday and two weddings on Saturday! One at the Belle House and one at the Georgia Southern Golf Course. Two beautiful weddings that went well :)
Week 3: June 20-24, 2016
Worked with the wonderful Katy Lewis on Monday! Katy is GSU's Inventory Control Manager. We were able to explore Eatec, which is GSU's new system that they are implementing in order to control how food is kept track of, how food comes in and out, how food waste is managed, how cost and use are managed, etc, etc. I was provided with a thorough tour of the site and was exposed to the benefits and drawbacks of the system! I spent another great deal of the day sorting through invoices, emails, meeting agendas, educational workbooks, and much more in order to provide a safe place that important information can be kept and reviewed in the future, when needed! I had an opportunity to come up with my own SOPs (standard operating procedures) in order to help Katy prepare to outline various jobs around campus. On Tuesday, I was passed along to spend some time with the lovely HR department! What a lovely group of ladies :)
HR welcomed me with open arms and showed me the ropes of just what Auxiliary Services actually covers and how they manage to keep employees well trained, safe, and accounted for. I spent some time with Abby providing some "on-boarding" help, which consists of standard training for new employees. I was able to see what every single GSU employee must do in order to be welcomed onto the team! This helped me to see what Georgia Southern particularly values and cares about, which proved to be the safety and well-being of their employees. Next, I was able to sit in on some discussions in order to brainstorm ideas for safety week! Safety week at Georgia Southern is time to inform everyone around campus about how they can better perform their daily tasks in a safe and effective manner. Safety week is all about protecting everyone in the GSU family!
In order to raise awareness, we worked on making little notecards that had funny sangs to remind people that we "mustache (must ask) you to be safe during safety week!" We then attached candy to each little note and ventured all around campus in order to deliver these personalized notes to all faculty and staff of Auxiliary Services around campus! This gave me the chance to get to know a lot of the GSU employees!! :)
I also attended numerous trainings throughout the week, in honor of Safety Week. I helped conduct special Knife Skills course that was held for various chefs around campus and conducted by Michael Price. I also attended a Job Safety Analysis Training class in which I learned how to prevent error and mishaps in every job around campus. I learned how to detect issues, outline what the exact problem is, and come up with solutions and simple, clear, standard operating procedures so that employees can easily follow directions and prevent them from hurting themselves. We watched a variety of safety videos as well and worked in groups in order to form solutions. I even learned how to change a flat tire in this class as well! The HR team gladly took me under their wing and showed me the ropes for the week. I give them so much credit for all that they keep track of and do.Vicki and Katie sure know how to keep everyone organized! I also attended a director's meeting with Vicki, which was a great example of a way in which collaboration was key in the workplace setting. We attempted to form solutions for a variety of different issues that had come up, while all of the crucial people were in the same room together: housing, IT, health services, HR, dining services, etc. HR even allowed me to sit at their "cool kids" lunch table and provided me with some great food facts!! I think I got my fill for a while! HR taught me everything from how to process employee information and how to deal with Family Medical Leave to the truth about where vanilla comes from.... Enough said. :) Thank you HR for taking me under your wing and showing me around for the week!
Finally, Friday came around and it was time to follow Mr. Bud around, who is the general manager of Dining Commons. Bud graciously accepted me onto his team and had me take a look at how all of the food comes in, how to count inventory in, and where everything goes. I then got to spend some time in the kitchen, prepping for the big lunch that was going to happen at Dining Commons! I was able to break down a few large hotel pans of pork into pulled pork and helped out with a few other finishing touches. In the afternoon, it was time to throw myself into the various stations at Dining Commons and learn the ropes, so that I can jump in and help out when needed! I started at Signatures, making sandwiches, wraps, and filling up the salad bar and yogurt parfait bar. I then ventured over to the coffee shop, where the lovely baristas taught me how to make all of the various smoothies, milkshakes, frappacinos, lattes, and teas. This was great fun :) Finally, I ended the day in the bakery, and my does that station smell wonderful. I am so thankful for everyone that was willing to kindly train me today and I look forward to picking up the extra stations in the future so I can lend a helping hand in the craziness of lunch and dinner rushes! Thank you everyone for another great week! I am loving Georgia Southern and the surrounding community of Statesboro!! :)
Saturday:
Found the lovely farmer's market! A lot of great vendors, including Hunter's Cattle, L&D Produce, Three Tree Coffee... Bought some fresh herbs (orange mint) to make some refreshing infused water and bought some fresh, delicious iced coffee. Thanks to Rebekah for showing me around the market!! Also stumbled upon a nice little hiking trail down the street, with some educational signs describing the wonderful animals that live around here, such as venomous rattlesnakes and poisonous spiders :)
Today was my last day working with catering. Served a dinner for the historical society in the ballroom. A plated meal of spinach salad, chicken, rice, asparagus, dark chocolate lava cake, and greek yogurt cheesecake. Arrived in the morning to prep the meal, set up the venue and set the tables, prepared to serve, served drinks during cocktail hour and each course during dinner, then stuck around for clean-up. Another great event and I am glad I got to see a plated meal come together this time!
Tuesday:
Spent the morning working at Mongo's and Backyard Grille training. Was trained by the lovely Bryana. :) Prepped the food, cleaned up the kitchen, stocked everything up front, and finally received our rush of students coming in from camps and orientation! Kept serving a constant stream of chicken fingers, french fries, sweet potato fries, grilled chicken, fried green beans, hot dogs, chicken patties, corn dogs, pizza rolls, pasta salad, potato salad, chicken salad, tuna salad, and veggies. A lot of frying and filling as we go! Also was able to help out a bit at Mongo's, where stir-fry is made fresh all day long, along with vegetable egg rolls, pork egg rolls, potstickers, and fried rice. Thanks everyone for training me!!
Then, was able to attend a NACUFS conference call with Emily and Jeff! Very cool to see how a conference call goes :) Especially a NACUFS one! Planning for the national convention!
In the afternoon, met with the chefs of Dining Commons and received my PROJECT that I will be working on for the rest of my time here in Statesboro! I will be creating a binder of SOPs for the Signatures location at Dining Commons and will be working very closely with these employees, supervisors, managers, and surrounding Dining Commons staff in order to fully understand the ins and outs of this sandwich/wrap/salad/fruit/yogurt location. I will be spending a great deal of time getting to know this station and learning how each piece of equipment works, learn how each recipe is conducted, how food is served, prepared, kept fresh, recorded, and how food waste is dealt with. I will be looking to see how food is handled and stored, how temperatures are taken and recorded, and what local and state regulations must be followed. I will talk with employees in order to gain better perspective and in order to get an idea of where the station needs some more direction, what they do well, what would be helpful for employees to know, and what types of information would be helpful for training purposes. I have some old example binders that provide examples of roughly what the binder that I am creating should entail, although there is still much more information to outline as well! I will also attempt to create a masterpiece that is appealing to employees, that is an extremely helpful reference of all standard operating procedures and how all equipment works and how all food should be handled. This will be what I will be working on for the remainder of my time!! Therefore, I spent my afternoon searching for examples of other SOPs out there to gain a better idea of what my SOPs could look like and also began writing a few of the standard SOPs that I know I want to include, such as hand-washing, personal hygiene, food washing, etc. I'm excited to see where this project takes me and this is definitely a learning experience for me!!
Finally, I am excited to also work with Chef Jerry over the course of my last few weeks at Georgia Southern in order to perform recipe testing and come up with new ideas and techniques for the new stations that will going in at the Dining Commons in the fall. I have a lot to look forward to! :)
Wednesday:
Went with a handful of Dining Commons employees on a coffee roasting tour with the local Three Tree Coffee Roasters!! Went to the warehouse to see how a green coffee bean gets roasted to perfection and how a beautiful cup of coffee is created (and consumed :)). Some facts I learned:
-coffee comes from the plant, coffea
-caffeine is actually a natural pesticide that enhances the survival ability of the plant! caffeine paralyzes and kills insects that attempt to attack the plant!
-green coffee beans contain an extremely concentrated amount of caffeine. caffeine content decreases the more and more the bean is processed and roasted
-all Three Tree's coffee is Fair Trade certified
-fair trade ensures that the farmers who work extremely hard in the fields all day, harvesting the plants, receive at least $1.60 per pound of coffee, so that they have a fair living wage and can provide for a family
-in parts of Indonesia and other parts of the world, farmers receive only 20 cents per pound of coffee that they harvest
-fair trade EMPOWERS the farmer and everyone involved
-the farmer also gets a portion of Three Tree's profits as well, so have motive to provide QUALITY
-beans like to roast themselves; with some, the flavors are enhanced and come out beautifully when roasted lightly, and with others, flavors POP out when roasted darker; with experimentation, you can find to which degree each bean prefers to be roasted at :)
Thursday/Friday:
Working on my project! Created a variety of documents so far and sending them to my colleagues to take a look at! Photographing the various stations and recipes, outlining how to make each sandwich, how to take breaks, what to wear to work, what opening and closing duties entail, how the oven works, how to use temperature logs, how to practice food safety, how to handle food..
Exploring Statesboro a bit more this weekend! Went to Trivia Night and a tour/tastings at the local Eagle Creek Brewery. Visiting Savannah for the weekend!! Happy fourth of July!!!
Monday:
Working on my special project! Created a Prezi for the presentation that I am going to give at the end of the month in order to reveal the project that I have been working on. The link to my Prezi (still in progress) is here:
http://prezi.com/ohftjmu-behz/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy&rc=ex0share
Figured out my tentative schedule for the remainder of my time here in Georgia!
Tomorrow: Farm Tour all day!! Must wear my rain boots :)
Thursday/Friday: work on project
Next week: Kids Cooking Camp! Cooking recipes all week and learning kitchen skills!
Whenever I get a free day: cooking lessons in the kitchen with Chef Jerry!! Chef Jerry is willing to teach me any of his beautiful skills that he has up his sleeve :) Can't wait to learn from the best!
Final week: Present my project and wrap up with everything I have been working on here at Georgia Southern. The time has flown by!!
Stay tuned.
Wednesday:
FARM FIELD TRIP!
1. Lee Family Farms- produce! also eggs and beef
2. Hunter Cattle- sausage, bacon, all types of beef, eggs
3. Bootleg Farm- goat cheeses (hard and soft), goat's milk, drunken goat, ice creams
Thursday/Friday:
In the morning, I helped out with SOAR orientation for incoming freshman students! I answered any questions that parents or students may have had and helped direct families where to go on orientation day. I worked with Eagle Card Services and assisted students on how to navigate through the process in order to create their new Eagle ID cards! I had a great crew of people working with me for the day :) In the afternoons, I worked more on my big project and presentation! Less than two weeks until I present my findings to Eagle Dining Services! Therefore, I need to look through all of my information again to ensure there are no spelling errors or formatting issues and I need to create any other documents that I believe would be helpful to new dining employees at Georgia Southern. It is coming along nicely so far! Next week I should be able to finalize, print, and create my lovely binder!
Monday:
Worked again with Eagle Card Services, directing traffic amongst the craziness of orientation day! Working on my project this afternoon!! I cannot believe my final days here are coming to an end! :(
Tuesday:
Helped out with the Kids Cooking Camp in the morning! Kids ages 10-13 were able to bake bread from scratch, watch the dough rise, and taste their beautiful creations! The kids also created a chocolate caramel ice cream from scratch, along with a chicken tortilla treat!
Wednesday:
Kids cooking camp again today! Today, we cooked grilled kebabs with fresh zucchini, pineapple, red onion, red and green peppers, steak, and chicken. We marinated the kebabs with fresh spices and rolled them in olive oil as well. Next, we watched as the chefs carefully seared the kebabs and then coloked them in the oven to enhance flavors even more! Next, we started on the roasted potatoes, which we also marinated with fresh spices and quartered them with our knives! Finally, we made breakfast biscuits with cheddar cheese and bacon layered on top. The kids loved the meal! We also gave a quick nutrition lesson once again and created a taste testing activity for the kids! We peeled fresh apples and potatoes and then cut them into similar sized pieces. We then blind-folded the kids one at a time, asked them to plug their nose, and asked them to taste one of the two! They then were asked to try and guess which food they ate; either an apple or potato! This was a fun way to show the kids that being able to smell foods is directly related to being able to taste foods! We discussed why this is as well!
In the afternoon, Tesia (Brittany's dietetic intern) and I worked on creating lesson plans and future activities related to food and nutrition so that the instructors can use these lessons next year at the camp and the rest of this week as well. This is the first year for the camp and therefore, we are all learning as we go! We came up with lessons on MyPlate, Food Group Bingo, and How to Create a Bug Spray from the fresh herbs in the garden!
Thursday/Friday: Still working with the kids cooking camp and also helping out with the final orientation days at Georgia Southern! The kids made crab cakes with a fresh corn salsa, along with fresh roasted vegetables. On Friday, the children got the opportunity to cook all of the foods that they made throughout the week and bring their parents in to eat for a banquet as they accepted their certificates, knives, and cookbook. They got to show off everything that they have learned and even received a cookbook to take home with every recipe that they made in it. The kids are excited to come back next year for the camp! I also spent some time with Eagle Card Services once again, helping incoming students create their Eagle ID cards and answering any questions that the parents or students had. Shout out to Richard, who made Eagle Card Services a good time and who is also an avid reader of my blog! :)Time to drive up to Myrtle Beach for the weekend to see my family who is vacationing just a couple of hours away :) Happy Friday :)
Thanks for reading!! :)
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