Hi all! It's Niki and Marie back again sharing with you our experiences as NACUFS interns at Penn State University. I can not believe we are already half way through our summer in Happy Valley! Time really does fly when you're having fun. :)
These last two weeks have been packed with exciting and interesting tours and activities. We started off week four with culinary training with Chef Mark. The goal of this training was to prepare us for our culinary challenge we have coming up! He taught us proper knife techniques and safety. He even taught us how to make apple swans!
Chef Mark's was the best of course, front and center.
The next day we started off with a diversity session. It really got us thinking about how much diversity we will see as dietitians, and how we can approach situations when we work with someone of a different culture or background. After this session we met for lunch with some members of the Human Resources department. They explained to us what they do and what their roles are and how HR works with dietitians. After lunch, we met with the master of career development for an informational presentation about how to construct the best resume and cover letter. We even had the opportunity to correct various errors on our own resumes.
The next day we met with Chris Hurley, the Senior Director of Housing and Food Services for the various commonwealth campuses and culinary support services at Penn State. He explained how Penn State supplies food to all the different campuses across the state of Pennsylvania and what his role was in that process. After this we got to explore one of the food research labs run by a past NACUFS intern who was working there while pursuing her masters degree. It was nice to talk with someone who had been in our shoes just two years prior! She also opened our eyes to a new career possibility working in food research! After this food tour we met with Ed Dobo who is a safety manager here at Penn State. He shared some interesting stories about some workers compensation cases that he has worked with in the past and we had some great laughs.
The last day of week four was definitely a crazy and exciting one! We got to prepare and serve a luncheon for the Board of Trustees of Auxiliary and Business Services. We spent the beginning part of the day prepping the room, which involved a lot of ironing linens! We also learned how to properly set up a table and where the various forks and knives go. Who knew it would be so complicated? After all the preparation we were very pleased with how the room ended up! Chef Stephan prepared the most amazing meal (which got to eat at the end!), and we met and served the Board.
We may or many not have any left
The warehouse!
Our favorite day so far has been our trip to Belleville. Lead by the hilariously sarcastic Chef Bill, we went deep into Amish country to go to flea markets and watch a livestock auction. We came home with a lot of goodies, including bags full of fresh bread, pies, and fresh produce. The livestock auction was a new and slightly horrifying experience for all of us interns, however, it is so important to understand how different cultures obtain food.
We traded in our cars for horse drawn buggies
So much deliciousness on one table.
Livestock auction
The next day, we met with the culinary services dietitians Melissa and Megan. We had a great conversation with them about their role in the dining hall. We discussed how they handle food labeling, menu planning, allergy tours, and more. We will be working with Melissa and Megan later in the internship to collaborate on an allergy training video for new Redifer hires. Later that day, we met with the purchasing department. Our conversation piggybacked off of the warehouse tour and delved further into the food purchasing process.
We rounded out the week with tours of Beaver Stadium, Wegmans, and the Mt. Nittnay hospital. As expected, the Beaver Stadium tour was fantastic. We were led by Spider, a facilities manager at the stadium who worked as Coach Paterno's equipment manager for over 20 years. We will let the pictures show you how beautiful this stadium is:
View from the top of the stadium. Wow.
Us with the student nutrition assistants and the one and only SPIDER!
Beautiful Happy Valley
Our next stop was Wegmans, where we met with store manager Jimmy. We learned about Wegman's unique business plan and attention to health and wellness. We definitely all have a new favorite grocery store! (Marie here - as an NC native, I am SO excited that Wegmans is opening in Raleigh, which is only 30 minutes from my hometown!) (Niki here - Dear Wegmans, please open in Indiana. Thanks in advance.) We ended the day at the Mt. Nittnay hospital, where we learned about the food service operation for both retail and patients.
We've tackled a lot these last two weeks! We'll check back in soon!
- Marie and Niki
No comments:
Post a Comment