I suppose I'll start with a little introduction -- my name is Hannah Meier, I will be a senior in the fall at the University of Wisconsin - Madison, and I'm double majoring in Dietetics and Psychology. This summer, I'm serving as the NACUFS intern at the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks, ND. I'm originally from a suburb of Minneapolis in Minnesota, so the 5 hour drive up here wasn't worse than what I'm used to driving to Madison. I'm definitely grateful to have a car up here, too, especially since there seems to be a lot to explore in the Grand Forks area.
Outside of the internship, my main interests include cooking and exploring food culture (eating!), running (I'll be training for my first half marathon as well this summer), listening to music and going to wishing I could afford to go to concerts, yoga, and lots of other things most people enjoy -- like watching hours of netflix at a time.
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The weekend I moved in, I was able to get settled into my dorm. Since I'm the only intern here, I don't have a roommate, and so far, no one else is sharing the suite with me, so I've enjoyed being able to make the place feel a bit more like home. Sunday, I spent the morning walking around the gorgeous campus. It's a lot different than Madison, but in a good way! It was hard not to take a million pictures.
As a happy coincidence, one of my friends from High School who I haven't seen in 3 years goes to UND and is here over the summer! We met up for lunch on Sunday and she showed me around campus and downtown, and I feel a lot more comfortable with my new home. It's a huge relief to know someone here, and I'm looking forward to exploring the city with her, a fellow foodie (she plans to go to culinary school!).
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Day One
I was very excited to get started and had an idea of what to expect from talking with Dustin, one of my main supervisors and internship coordinator here at UND, prior to my arrival. After finalizing some paperwork at the beginning of the day, I was able to meet many of the people I'll be working with throughout the summer at the various departments within UND's dining services. Everyone I met was very friendly and welcoming. It was easy to see that everyone enjoyed working for dining and with each other. I'm happy to be a part of such a fun group of employees.
While meeting everyone and piecing together relationships between various departments within the system, I realized the dining service at UND is pretty different from what I'm used to at UW-Madison. For example, at UW-Madison, the service of the university's union is a separate entity from housing, while at UND dining oversees all food locations at the university.
After getting a tour of the various dining locations on campus, I was able to sit in on a menu planning meeting with chefs and managers of one of the main residential cafeterias that is closed for the summer for their fall menu. Since I didn't knowtoo much anything about FoodPro (the menu database utilized by UND) or what recipes were already in use, I pretty much kept my mouth shut and observed the process. It was very interesting, and so far, one of my favorite activities to be a part of! The team would first discuss any recipes that were unsuccessful/very successful in the fall and then we'd look further into the specific item's acceptability using FoodPro. If a menu item was unsuccessful, the team would discuss other options and base their choices on what other recipes were planned for that week, taking into consideration availability of ingredients, ease of preparation, and whether or not there would be equipment available (or equipment that needed to be used) to prepare it. The team is also looking to get more healthy options on the menu every day. (I'll talk more about the Guiding Stars rating program later!) It was very cool to see content I'd read about in my foodservice management textbook at school come to life before my eyes. I look forward to being a part of more menu planning meetings as the summer moves along!
Later in the day, I sat in on a meeting with a distributor rep from Foodservice America (FSA) and Dustin. The representative was very helpful and explained to me exactly what a foodservice distribution company does. FSA is the main food and product distributor used by UND, and Dustin meets with the representative every Monday to discuss any issues or explore alternative products. It was great to be able to see the collaborative business relationship between the distribution company and the foodservice at UND. Since UND is the biggest buyer for FSA from the branch in Fargo, ND, it seemed that if there was a need for a product at UND, FSA would stock it for their use. Very nice!
The last hours of the day were spent orientating me more to FoodPro and learning about Guiding Stars and the FoodPro conference UND is hosting later in July. Guiding Stars is a program (which I think is just awesome) that rates recipes for UND based on nutrient density. Dining submits recipes to Guiding Stars, an external company, and they will tell UND whether or not the recipe earns one, two, three, or no "stars" based on an algorithm of nutrient data per 100 kcals. Vitamin, mineral and fiber content give the recipe positive points, and saturated/trans fat, sodium, and added sugars (for example) give the recipe negative points. I was really impressed with the complexity of analysis used to rate the recipes and how that coordinated with a very simple-to-understand rating system for consumers.
Day One
I was very excited to get started and had an idea of what to expect from talking with Dustin, one of my main supervisors and internship coordinator here at UND, prior to my arrival. After finalizing some paperwork at the beginning of the day, I was able to meet many of the people I'll be working with throughout the summer at the various departments within UND's dining services. Everyone I met was very friendly and welcoming. It was easy to see that everyone enjoyed working for dining and with each other. I'm happy to be a part of such a fun group of employees.
While meeting everyone and piecing together relationships between various departments within the system, I realized the dining service at UND is pretty different from what I'm used to at UW-Madison. For example, at UW-Madison, the service of the university's union is a separate entity from housing, while at UND dining oversees all food locations at the university.
After getting a tour of the various dining locations on campus, I was able to sit in on a menu planning meeting with chefs and managers of one of the main residential cafeterias that is closed for the summer for their fall menu. Since I didn't know
Later in the day, I sat in on a meeting with a distributor rep from Foodservice America (FSA) and Dustin. The representative was very helpful and explained to me exactly what a foodservice distribution company does. FSA is the main food and product distributor used by UND, and Dustin meets with the representative every Monday to discuss any issues or explore alternative products. It was great to be able to see the collaborative business relationship between the distribution company and the foodservice at UND. Since UND is the biggest buyer for FSA from the branch in Fargo, ND, it seemed that if there was a need for a product at UND, FSA would stock it for their use. Very nice!
The last hours of the day were spent orientating me more to FoodPro and learning about Guiding Stars and the FoodPro conference UND is hosting later in July. Guiding Stars is a program (which I think is just awesome) that rates recipes for UND based on nutrient density. Dining submits recipes to Guiding Stars, an external company, and they will tell UND whether or not the recipe earns one, two, three, or no "stars" based on an algorithm of nutrient data per 100 kcals. Vitamin, mineral and fiber content give the recipe positive points, and saturated/trans fat, sodium, and added sugars (for example) give the recipe negative points. I was really impressed with the complexity of analysis used to rate the recipes and how that coordinated with a very simple-to-understand rating system for consumers.
I left the first day of my internship both exhausted and energized. I am very much looking forward to all of the projects I'll be a part of and it seems like I'll be working with an absolutely great team of people.
Day two was a lot like day one -- lots of sitting in on meetings and laying low, observing how things work at UND and getting the feel of the operation. I met a few more people and learned about some more processes, some a bit more complicated than others!
I started the day in FoodPro, fixing some errors with jello recipes and entering data for a cheese product that was missing nutritional information.
I was able to sit in on two meetings on day two -- the first was with the leaders in residence services and dining, including marketing, accounting, finance, etc., and each leader will update everyone on past and upcoming events, issues or other concerns. It was great to see the intradepartmental communication and hear about some of the major updates within the department itself. The second meeting I attended later in the day, which was a management team meeting for managers at the two main dining locations for residents. I met a few new faces that I'll be working with and, as was the trend, everyone was very friendly and welcoming. I enjoyed listening to the discussion between managers about concerns in the operation and how they were working on resolving them.
There is a definite trend here of constant monitoring and improvement of issues -- no one really seems to be afraid to bring up concerns, and when they are brought up, they are resolved as soon as possible. So far, UND dining seems to be a very healthy operation that I feel lucky to be a part of!
Some of the more complicated processes we went through today included processing the Production Report in FoodPro, which cross-analyzed actual inventory with projected inventory to give us information about possible issues, and to serve as a report of the current state-of-affairs of inventory. There was an entire binder dedicated to describing the steps of the process, and I'll admit I was a bit lost watching Dustin go through every step -- of course he knew how to do it with his eyes closed.
After this was completed, I worked with one of the Sous Chefs in the main dining facility on "Shorts," which was also a bit confusing, though not as complex as Production Reporting! Basically, we went through a list of items that the kitchen was projected as being short of in the next weeks. If it was necessary to order more of something for a demand that FoodPro wouldn't automatically recognize, we simply had to send an email to the purchaser and he would get the order processed and the product would arrive with the next shipment. The idea wasn't too hard to grasp, but it was a bit challenging to use the information from the chart to decide whether or not ordering extra would be necessary.
I ended day two by sitting in on a meeting with Dustin and a summer resident with severe food allergies. I listened as they discussed options available for her so she could take full advantage of the meal plan safely. Accommodations for individuals with food allergies are taken very seriously here. There is a whole section of the dining center committed to being completely free of the top-8 allergens plus gluten. Additionally, UND offers online ordering forms for students to request menu items that are made separately from those on the line.
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If the first two days of my internship are any indication, I will be learning a TON this summer. After spending these two days observing, asking questions, and wrapping my mind around how UND dining services operates, I'm really looking forward to taking a more active role in my projects later on this summer, and can't wait to keep learning more about the world of foodservice management.
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