A nice surprise on my walk to work
On Monday, I had the opportunity to shadow Chris who is the manager of the Campus Eateries, which are basically small convenient shops located around campus where students can grab a quick bite to eat or a drink between classes. Since there are 11 of these locations around campus, Chris' day is packed full with answering phone calls, emails, and driving around campus to the different locations. Over some yummy burritos from Barberitos, Chris told me about his career path and how he got the position he has today. I feel very fortunate to work in UGA's food service department as I hear about the employees' enthusiasm for the self-operated department and experience the close-knit community that they have here. I spent the rest of the day with the student supervisors who are responsible for closing out the campus eateries. They drive to each location, close out the register, and count the money to ensure that it's the correct amount.
The next day, Erin and I had a chance to work on our recipes for our New England event which entailed going through the department's recipe software, FoodPro, and finding any recipes we wanted to highlight for our special lunch. We're both really excited to have the opportunity to serve delicious dishes such as Rhode Island clam chowder and New England lobster rolls to the dining hall customers. Afterwards, we were lucky enough to partake in a coffee taste test because a coffee company wants their product to be used in one of the dining halls. We got to try iced coffee as well as cold brew coffee and several different teas. My favorite was the iced coffee since it was chilled and sweet! Later that day we met with two of the campus' chefs and our coordinators to discuss our New England event.
On Wednesday, Erin and I met with chef Shelly at the Bolton dining hall who gave us plenty of helpful tips for using Foodpro and writing our recipes. She also taught us about forecasting and using the software to make the correct amount of food based on how many people are anticipated to eat at the dining hall. Afterwards we had our midpoint evaluations with our coordinators (it's hard to believe we're at that point already) and then we had a meeting with Stuart who is the Foodpro expert on campus. He also gave us some advice for writing our recipes and showed us how the weekly production run works. The software can seem intimidating but Stuart did a great job breaking it down for us to help us understand each step as well as answering our questions.
On Thursday we had a change of pace as we worked the closing shift at Bolton. We shadowed three different assistant managers: Nikki, Cole, and Jorie. With such a big dining hall, it's necessary to have all three of them on hand to solve problems and delegate staff, especially during the school year when they serve thousands of students every day. We did multiple rounds around Bolton, checking the stations, especially when they changed from lunch to dinner service. We also worked with the cashier counting the number of campers coming in to eat. At the end of the night, we helped the stations clean everything and shut down for the night so that the morning staff would have everything in place the next day. We also checked the coolers to make sure all of the food was labeled and not expired.
On Friday, Erin and I had time to work on our New England event which we're really looking forward to so stay tuned!
This weekend was the town's annual Athfest, which is an awesome weekend-long festival with food, vendors, and tons of live music all throughout the town. Since my home town doesn't have anything like this, I really enjoyed experiencing it and seeing how supportive the town is of the local arts. Erin and I also finally had some real deal southern BBQ. Let's just say that we'll be back.
Outdoor Stage at Athfest: Family & Friends
Giant snake slide anyone?
Pulled pork, my favorite
It was dawg gone good to say the least.
We're looking forward to what Athens has in store for us this week! :)
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