Rachel here at FSU and I can't wait to tell you all about our most recent adventures! A lot has happened since Annabella posted our last blog, but I can't wait to share with you our experiences.
First, I want to share with you guys about our neat treat to Gordon Food Service headquarters. For those who may not know who Gordon Food Service is, it is the largest food service distributor in North America. It's headquarters is in Grand Rapids, MI, which is roughly 1 hour from us here at FSU in Big Rapids, MI. It's hard to describe how amazing GFS really is, the size of the facility alone is amazing. We toured both the business building and the distribution building, with the company of fellow interns from MSU! We were first given a tour of the new office building, where we saw lots of unique art work and a very unique work environment for GFS employees.
This is our group that toured Gordon Food Service with FSU interns on the left and MSU interns on the right with each of our supervisors. We are standing in front of a piece of unique artwork in Gordon's business building, which is in the shape of the U.S. made out of cast-iron skillets!
This is just one of the neat features of Gordon's business building that provides its employees with a unique work environment. This is a patio on the rooftop of one of the floors of the building in which employees can sit and eat lunch or do work.
These are just a couple of examples of what we saw in Gordon's business building. Next, we traveled just about a mile down the road to its distribution center, which we also took a tour of after being treated to a delicious lunch. The distribution center at Gordon's is truly remarkable to witness, it is immense in size and its amazing how efficiently it functions and operates. For example: Gordon Food Service uses robots to store and move the heavy pallets up several stories. Without the use of these robots they could not keep in stock as many products as they currently have without expanding the size of the building in length. They use the height of the building to their advantage by using the robots to store items and replace pallets when necessary. A lot of employees also work in this building. They work very hard to complete orders correctly and get them packed onto trucks and shipped in a very efficient manner.
These two pictures are of one of the robots at Gordon's, although I couldn't get the full height of the building in the picture you can kind of see the size. Gordon's currently uses several of these robots.
Next we want to tell you all about is our experience of helping cater a local wedding. Ferris State University has a catering department, which we got to experience a few weeks ago. The happy couple got married along the lake on a local golf course and the reception was held in a nearby hall, where we provided the food.
These are some of the pictures Annabella took of the wedding cake and ice cream cone cupcakes that were at the wedding. We did not provide these for the wedding, but we thought they were a really cute idea for a wedding that made it fun and unique.
Another one of our experiences the Monday after the wedding was working in the campus Starbucks. We spent about three hours learning about the company itself and how its run, followed by some different coffee tastings, and then we got to make our own drinks!
Here is Annabella and I with our Starbucks drinks we proudly made!
Our next experience to share is our inservice on food allergies we held for the dining center staff. Annabella and I spent a couple of weeks putting together a presentation and information to pass out to the dining center employees to share with them about the importance of food safety and allergies. It was definitely a challenge, but a great experience for us to learn more about allergies and share it with others!
Outside of work, we have enjoyed some fun activities as well. Locally, one of the must-try experiences is tubing down the river. Annabella and I did this on one very hot Saturday with one of the employees from the Rock Cafe at Ferris, Catherine. It was a blast and we hope to do it again before the end of the internship!
Here is Annabella, Catherine, and I tubing down the river that afternoon. This takes roughly a couple hours and is a very enjoyable way to cool off and relax on a hot day.
Next, is a recap of our 4th of July. With a long weekend I chose to make the drive back home to Ohio and asked Annabella to join me. We spent the weekend bike riding, four-wheeling, catching up with friends and family, relaxing by a campfire, and of course enjoying some fireworks! It was nice to pay a visit home, but I also really enjoyed sharing my home with Annabella, as well as showing her Northwest Ohio, which she had never been to.
Annabella and I enjoying an afternoon four-wheeler ride in my hometown.
Lastly, I'm excited to tell you all about our visitors from Michigan State University. Yesterday on the 6th we hosted the MSU interns and their supervisors. We showed them around campus, through our dining facilities, sports complex, and optometry building. We enjoyed sharing stories and getting to know each other a little better over lunch. It was a fun day and we are glad they could join us! Next week we can't wait to go visit them at MSU.
Here we are as a group, MSU and FSU interns, on the Ferris State University basketball court.
Until Next Time,
Rachel & Annabella
No comments:
Post a Comment