University of Washington Week 3!

Monday, June 27, 2016

University of Washington Week 3!

Hello again from Seattle!

We have just finished up our third week here at UW and can't believe how fast it's going. We started out the week with another ice cream tasting, and this time there were cookies included! We have one more company to test before we decide on which ice cream to bring in, but we wouldn't mind trying a new one every week. :) Besides ice cream, Monday was also spent reviewing the results of a food waste and recovery survey that UW participated in. We learned a lot about what UW and the city of Seattle are currently doing to decrease food waste while feeding the hungry, and what more they can do.

On Tuesday we were informed that we would be leading the monthly safety group meeting on a topic of our choice. We will be presenting on food allergens and how to prevent cross contact in front of all the dining managers, so they can take the material back to their employees. So, we have been working on this presentation, as well as other projects throughout the week.

Another project we have been working on is to go through the prices in the campus market as well as their purchase history and make suggestions on which prices to change. This goes along with our benchmarking project where we compared the prices of surrounding markets, restaurants, and grocery stores. Overall we are looking at the whole picture of pricing and learning a lot about value and food costs!

Slurping coffee!

On Wednesday we sat in on the dining leadership meeting. During the meeting, Joseph, who is in charge of the UW coffee roasting program, presented on his most recent trip to Nicaragua where he visited the farms we get the coffee beans from. It was super cool, and from there we were able to go to our very first coffee cupping! A coffee cupping is where the aroma and taste of various coffees are tested and graded. We were total amateurs, but had so much fun learning and slurping our coffee as loudly as possible.

Thursday was spent working on our various projects, running a few errands to the units, and attending a recycling webinar. If you can't tell, UW works to be as sustainable as possible and it is interesting and encouraging to watch a large institution work towards having as little waste as possible. We wish all schools would do the same!

On Friday we had the chance to sit in on an annual meeting with one of our biggest food vendors. We learned a lot about what that relationship looks like as well as the quantity of food it takes to feed a campus of this size.

This weekend and throughout the week we of course had plenty more Seattle adventures. The other people in the pictures are ACUHO-i interns at UW - we take on many of our adventures with them because the more the merrier! We had the chance to go to the only Starbucks Reserve Roastery and Tasting Room. It was a HUGE Starbucks with a gigantic roaster, a really unique menu, and awesome Starbucks merchandise. As big Starbucks fans, we were in heaven. We got a shot of espresso with mint syrup and sparkling water. So yummy! To top it off, inside the tasting room there is a PIZZA restaurant, so of course we got some delicious pizza to go with our coffee.

This weekend was Pride weekend in Seattle, so we spent a lot of time at the Pride festivities, as well as an amazing brunch at Portage Bay cafe. Can you tell we love documenting our food almost as much as we love eating it?