University of North Dakota Week 1

`Hello from the University of North Dakota! I’m Lianna Costantini, a second year graduate student in Medical Dietetics at Ohio State and I am very excited to be a NACUFS intern this summer.

I arrived in Grand Forks the weekend before my first day and was welcomed by my intern coordinator, Dustin Frize. He helped me get keys to my room, introduced me to a bunch of staff, and showed me around before the internship officially started. I was also welcomed by Emily Brekke, UND dietetics student and fellow intern. She was super nice and drove me around town pointing out all the places I should check out.

When I got to my room in Noren Hall I was pleasantly surprised by a fully inhabited floor. There are a lot of summer programs which keep the dorms and the dining halls lively.

Day one was filled with introductions and tours of the facilities and departments that run UND Dining and Catering. On Day two Emily and I went over orientation material with training manager, Chuck Crummy. He educated and entertained us with stories of exceptional customer service from the Ritz Carlton and cruise ship server José. When you serve customers, remember it’s Show Time! UND’s dining services’ credo is to enhance the student dining experience by providing exceptional customer service and quality food.

Road Trip!   Later that day we drove to Fargo, North Dakota to tour the newly expanded Food Services of America (FSA) Warehouse and taste tested food products that could save the universities money. FSA is the distributor for all eleven of North Dakota’s state funded universities. The warehouse has expanded from 6 to 28 loading docks so that they can provide groceries to more food service operations such as Culver’s and Dairy Queen in addition to the universities. Here is a picture of chicken and beef products that we tried There were two versions of each product: a version that is currently being purchased and a version that is less expensive. It turns out that price is far from the only deciding factor when it comes the foods UND is willing to provide its students, faculty, staff, and guests. Other considerations include quality (taste, texture, color, aroma), brand recognition, and nutrition! UND uses the Guiding Stars Program (check out http://guidingstars.com/) to classify and point out foods in the dining halls with high nutritional values. If we are currently using a product that gets stars, it is not likely that we will move to a product that doesn’t get starts. This way we keep those healthy options which are already in place. One of the few products UND was willing to consider switching was a beef product that was very similar to what we were already buying. This product will have to go through some scrutiny in campus kitchens and student mouths before a decision is made.

On my third and fourth day I spent time getting familiar with food preparation and serving customers. I worked with Aman, preparing fresh grab ‘n go foods for UND’s retail locations (campus cafes and c-stores). Here are some healthy snacks:

  

washed and weighed to precision

I also worked with James and Caren at the first ‘Burgers on the Boulevard’ event of the season. This is a weekly grill out serving anyone on campus who likes burgers, dogs, grilled chicken and more. I helped grill up a whopping 235 orders!

UND keeps food exciting by always working on new foods and combinations to offer students. I got to be a part of designing some new shaker salads for retail locations, and I helped serve a new made-to-order ramen noodle bowl at the Gourmet Noodle concept in the dining hall with Lori and Cathy.

On Friday, day five, Emily and I started working on a project to transition the dining staff from hand recording food temperatures to using a temperature probe that automatically records food temperatures electronically. This will improve food safety and record accuracy. Before we can start using these new temperature probes, all temperature controlled menu items need to be catalogued in the HACCP Manager system. So we are off to being experts on all these menu items.

I also had fun outside of work. This past week, RA Zoe put on an outdoor painting event. I didn’t have my camera at the time to get an action shot but here is my finished creation:

 

I explored UND’s Wellness Center which will satisfy my love of group fitness classes this summer.

This weekend was the Grand Cities Art Fest. I enjoyed visiting all the booths with Danielle who introduced me to lefse, a Nordic treat popular in North Dakota and Minnesota.  It was delicious.

(Left: Me, Right: Danielle)

That’s all for now!