Greetings from the “Biggest Little City in the World!”
Introduction:
My name is Heidi Flanders, and I am excited to share my summer experience as a NACUFS intern with you. I just completed my junior year at Viterbo University (La Crosse, WI), where I am majoring in nutrition and dietetics.
1 week ago today, I arrived in Reno via the train. The 2,000+ mile trip took around 44 hours, but did allow for some very scenic pictures along the way! I will be in Reno for a total of 8 weeks. When I arrived at the University, I got all settled into my dorm room in the Argenta Hall. There was a fridge full of drinks, snacks, and Nevada wolf pack items waiting for me! It was very welcoming.
Week 1:
My first day included meeting Chris and Russ, who again, were extremely welcoming! I got a tour of the campus, which is much larger than the small University I attend. I met a lot of the individuals in the foodservice department who I will be working with during these 8 weeks. The University runs its food service department through a contracted company called Compass Group. A division of Compass Group, called Chartwells, runs the food service department.
This week focused on allowing me to become familiar with how the foodservice operation works. I worked with Barbara, who is the director of residential dining at the University. The largest cafeteria on campus is the Downunder Cafe, which also has the DC Store next to it, where students can purchase convenience items. The summer months are less busy because there are much less students to feed, however there are still summer school students, camps, and special events that will be at the University over the summer. Barbara and I went through the budgeting procedure, staffing, and writing invoices for these events. I sat in on a billing meeting with the director of housing operations and dining services. The importance of organization became clear as we went through endless amounts of numbers and excel files. We were able to go through a P&L statement for the cafeteria, to see the revenues, costs, and expenses for the month.
I also met with the production manager, Richard, and learned about the ordering procedures for the cafeteria’s vendors. A record of current inventory is very important for ordering, and next week I will be helping with collecting inventory records. We went through Webtrition, which is used to organize the cycle menu that the cafeteria uses. This site can be used to know what food needs to be ordered for the upcoming week’s menu.
I observed Richard in the kitchen, and learned how important using standardized recipes is for industrial cooking. They keep recipes on hand, so that if any student has a question about an allergy, they are able to look up all of the ingredients. All of the chefs seem very passionate about their jobs at the cafeteria and were eager to answer any questions I had!
Barbara also taught me about the program Blackboard, which is used for the registers in the Downunder Cafe, as well as the DC store. By logging into the program from a computer, prices of items can be easily adjusted. It is a convenient way to manage the products sold, and also see what their contributing food cost percentage is.
Over the weekend, I had the chance to do some touristy things and explore Reno a little more! Being that I love to run, I was glad to find the Rancho San Rafael Park. Filled with trails, it makes a great place for running or hiking! One of the trails leads to a giant N spray painted on the mountainside. The students at the University repaint the N each year to show their wolf pack pride!
I also attended food truck friday at Idlewild Park. The park was filled with food truck vendors, live music, and lots of people there to enjoy it all! Of course a girl from a small town in Wisconsin couldn’t move to Reno without giving gambling a try! I went to my first casino, but am disappointed to say I did not win big (this time).
No comments:
Post a Comment