From left: Alice, Kristen, Jeanine, and Mary Frances!
After a whirlwind week of meeting Purdue Dining and Catering Staff, receiving our assignments, and adjusting to a (huge!) land-grant university, it's difficult to know where to begin... After moving in and introductions, we had an awesome dinner with Purdue staff and got to know some of our bosses, including Greg, Sally, Mary Jo, Tom, and our helpful supervising interns, Kristen and Kristin.
On Monday, we received our PUIDs, keys, and learned where the dining halls/offices were. We attended a staff retreat and met more of the dining and catering staff, and it is impossible to overstate how welcoming, kind, and warm they are. They genuinely wanted to hear our opinion and views on how to approach various dining issues. (And seemed to have pretty good recall of our names after viewing our intro PowerPoint for an hour!)
On Tuesday, we received our assignments: designing comprehensive nutrition education programs based on the wellness wheel, particularly focusing on redesigning the occupational, spiritual, and environmental wellness programs. In addition to this, we have to prepare the application for the NACUFS Innovation Award for our work (no pressure!) and to design four rack-cards describing the eight major allergens and how Purdue University accommodates students with them.
On Wednesday and Thursday, we focused primarily on working on our projects, meeting with different professionals to discuss resources for allergens on campus and what the ultimate vision for our nutrition education program/rack cards are. After brainstorming, we then presented our ideas to Kari Glebe and then have been working non-stop since.
Friday was easily our most exciting day, as we took a food tour of Chicago's Chinatown! With our fabulous tour guide Car-Lin, we hit five major restaurants in the area- Triple Crown, Chiu Quon Bakery, Lao Szechuan, Lao Beijing, and St. Anna Bakery in addition to historic Chicagoan landmarks such as Ping Tom Memorial Park, the Pui Tak Cultural Center, and Chicago Chinatown Friendship Association, a Buddhist Temple.
It was an amazing journey, traversing through the old part of the neighborhood and learning some of its history- including an illicit gambling ring in what is now the Pui Tak Cultural Center!- to the newer part of the neighborhood, where we were able to see a sculpture garden centered on the Chinese zodiac; the memorial park dedicated to Ping Tom, a champion of the neighborhood who helped to expand housing; and an amazing view of the Chicago skyline.
Dim Sum at Triple Crown - yum!
Pui Tak Cultural Center
Peking Duck- everyone's favorite delicacy (and the overwhelming group fave!) at Lao Beijing
In our free time, we've hit the CoRec to rock climb, boulder, hot tub, and sauna (Alice's fave). We've also explored the local farmer's market and have explored the downtown area, Chauncey Village, checking out local joints such as Von's in addition to running, biking, and driving the enormous campus. We decided to expand our education and hit Fair Oaks Family Farm, taking the Dairy Adventure and learning all about the processing of milk and dairy products... We also witnessed the miracle of birth, seeing a veal calf being born! (Hello future Triple XXX hamburger!) Then we got homemade ice-cream and enjoyed the gorgeous Indiana scenery.
Cookies 'n' Cream FTW
It's been an exciting week and we can't wait to learn more! Stay tuned for more K-JAM (Our initials, btw). Until next week NACUFS. XOXO
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