University of California at Berkeley, Week #1

Greetings from sunny Berkeley, California! Ever since arriving, Ashley and I have taken countless walks around the town, trying to get acquainted with our surroundings. There are a lot more hills here, than there are in Michigan, which I really felt during the run that Ashley and I went on! Over the weekend, we went to one of the pools on campus to lay out in the California sunshine and swim. We also went on a 9-mile hike in Strawberry Canyon. The hike went up a mountain, and gave us a beautiful view of the Bay Area. The day was warm in the sunshine, cool in the shade, and not humid at all.

Kristen & Ashley overlooking the San Fransisco Bay

Our first week of work was great! We met a lot of people, toured various dining facilities, filled out paperwork, helped Renee Simpson (Registered Dietitian for Cal Dining) audit the food temperature logs, hosted a booth at a few CalSo dinners (UC Berkeley's freshman orientation program), and brainstormed ideas to improve UC Berkeley's "Chews to Reuse" program.

Working at Foothills Dining Facility

Cal Dining is the name of UC Berkeley's Culinary Service department. There are four main dining facilities on campus: Crossroads, Cafe 3, Foothills and CK. Cal Dining is also responsible for the Golden Bear Bakery, Concessions, Catering, and 12 coffee shop/convenient store locations. Cal Dining has around 750 employees, with about 55% of them being students.

Ashley and I have also begun planning our special event! Each year, the NACUFS Summer interns host a special event dinner in the cafeteria. This year, ours will be hosted in Crossroads, which is the largest dining facility on campus. There are 9 food stations in which we will be planning the menu, working with the budget, decorating and marketing for. It's too early in the process to release too many details about this event, but I'm very excited about our theme! Originally we wanted to put on a seafood feast called "Under the Sea" but seafood accounts for 2 of the 8 main food allergens (fish and shellfish), so we decided against it. Cal Dining is very serious about food allergens. Ashley and I have received Food Allergy training and discussed it in detail Renee.  Last semester, a few students expressed nut allergys so all menu options containing nuts were taken out of Crossroads completely. On Wednesday we had a meeting with two chefs, a kitchen supervisor, and the marketing team to discuss details and plan the menu for our event. So far, we are off to a great start and I am excited to continue working in the weeks to come.