Kennesaw State WEEK 1 :)

I (Adriane Welcker) arrived this week to Kennesaw State University (KSU) right outside of Atlanta. fun fact: KSU is the third largest university in Georgia and their mascot is an owl (in case you were wondering). I settled in to University Place II feeling super spoiled with my own room and bathroom, a full kitchen and living area, and a balcony (check out the view to the right)… not to mention we (Natalie, the other intern, and I) are the first people to ever live here since the building was just built! I cannot believe that these are the campus ‘dorms.’

On our first day we got a tour of campus and The Commons (the dining court where we will spend most of our time and what I am standing in front of in the pic below) from Rob, the Manager of Culinary & Hospitality Services at KSU. We learned that KSU was named 2013 Innovator of the Year by the National Restaurant Association (NRA), the nation's top food industry professional organization. KSU is the first higher education institution ever to receive this award AND they beat out Disney and Taco Bell in their category which earns them major bragging rights during new student orientations. 

In the words of the NRA, KSU's "dining operation incorporates a comprehensive, closed-loop waste management program through a variety of efforts, including a robust organic "Farm-to-Campus-to-Farm" program, water reclamation, aerobic digestion, composting/recycling programs, oil-to-biodiesel conversion and more to significantly reduce costs, minimize environmental impact and qualify the facility for a LEED Gold certification." Rob showed us the hydroponics (growing plants with added nutrients and without soil) system that supplies 40% of the lettuce served in The Commons.  They produce 600 heads of lettuce every three weeks and 9,600 heads of lettuce per year literally inside of the dining hall!  A Farm-to-Campus program launched in 2010 provides more than 3,000 lb of produce and 30 lb of honey per year, and a campus garden features herbs and shiitaki mushrooms used directly by the chefs. I was most fascinated by the biocomposter which turns plate waste into nutrient rich water used directly on the campus farms. A new bachelor’s degree in Culinary Sustainability and Hospitality will be offered at KSU in the fall (the first time this degree will be offered in the country!) based on the success of The Commons sustainability efforts. 

We are the first NACUFS interns at KSU so this will definitely be a learning experience for the staff as well as Natalie and I. The first week was mostly just getting our feet wet and learning about the way The Commons operates as well as the meal plan system at KSU. We looked at the website and drafted recommendations for improvement and reviewed resumes to find the best candidate for an open position. One of our ‘projects’ for the week was reviewing existing menu labeling at the on campus dining venues including Delancey’s Deli, Chick-Fil-A, PJ’s coffee, Jazzman’s, The Hoot (currently under repair), The Commons, and the new Freshens and sushi place (both will open in August). We created a labeling format that will allow consistent labeling across campus but will leave room for individual brands to have their own identity. Our second project was creating a ‘secret shopper’ survey for students to evaluate customer service and product quality at KSU. We created a budget for compensation, an agreement form, instructions for the ‘secret shoppers,’ the survey, and a way to evaluate the data.We got 4 new polos (I love polos :)) and our new KSU IDs (=>) OFFICIAL

We were able to attend a meeting with other Commons staff which was surprisingly brief and productive (I have not been to many meetings like this ;)). We learned we will not be able to plan a Black & Gold (colors like PURDUE boiler up!) dinner because there are not enough people here during the summer to make it beneficial which is a bummer. On the bright side, there will be a dinner to benefit Moore, Oklahoma which was hit hard by the tornadoes, and we will get to help out with that next week. On Friday we watched Rob speak at the new student and parent orientations. We also answered questions at the Culinary & Hospitality services table for the parent resource fair. We ended the week trying out different ice cream samples from Jeni's ice cream (which originated in my home state of Ohio)!