Week 2 at UC Berkeley!

I cannot believe we have completed week 2 of working with Cal Dining! Last Friday we started working in Foothills Dining Facility to help brainstorm ideas for the Chews to Reuse program. Chews to Reuse is a meal-to-go program which launched in August of 2012. This option allows students to use a container to take their meals out of the cafeteria. Check out how it works here: http://caldining.berkeley.edu/chew.html. Currently Cal Dining offers a disposable to-go container for a fee of $0.75 and a reusable container for a fee of $3. Cal Dining wants to reduce unnecessary waste by eliminating the disposable containers and offer only the reusable to-go containers. For this program Kristen and I researched similar programs offered at other Universities, contacted vendors, and proposed our ideas to management. We met with Brian, the General Manager of Foothills, to discuss our ideas and how we can implement them into this program. Kristen and I will be working on this project throughout the summer and will keep you updated!

 

 Me, Kristen, Michelle, Patrice and Sean C. working at the CalSo orientation dinner

Since arriving in California, we have realized how environmentally friendly California is, especially here at UC Berkeley. When arriving to our dorms we were curious to know why the walls were concrete, which Kristen has learned does not provide excellent cell phone service. The walls are concrete to maintain a cool temperature within the building, which means there is no need for air conditioners! The lights in many of the buildings, including our dorms, have motion sensors built inside them. The motion sensors automatically turn off the lights if there is no movement in the room! In the dining facilities the waste is placed into a compost machine and picked up by a company where it is made into fertilizer.  Kristen and I commend  UC Berkeley and California on their effort of making the campus and state eco-friendly.
 

 

 Kristen and the composting machine at Foothills! 

On Friday we had the opportunity to work with the Foothills staff preparing dinner for the football camps. Foothills was expecting a large number of customers, so Kristen and I helped the chefs prepare pizzas and serve the football teams hot dogs. We visited San Francisco on Saturday where we attended a Bay Area Dietetics Association (BADA) meeting. The board members discussed budgeting and ways they could attract members into the association. We had the opportunity to meet Registered Dietitians from the Bay Area and discuss internship opportunities with them! Kristen and I also visited the UC Berkeley Botanical gardens over the weekend, where we explored several gardens and encountered numerous plants.

 

Kristen, Clarence, me, and Carissa after cooking pizzas

  

Hard at work preparing pizzas!

 

Working on my photography skills at the UC Berkeley California Memorial Stadium

 

View from the Berkeley clock tower

 

Photography lesson at the football stadium!

 

The little strawberry I found while exploring UC Berkeley Botanical Gardens!

Over the past couple days Kristen and I have been working with the marketing team on our advertisement for our event and also revamping the nutrition portion of the Cal Dining website. We worked closely with Patrice in marketing, which has given us a different outlook on the amount of effort that is involved in event planning. We also met with Mike who is the associate director in dining administration. His position focuses on overseeing the various Cal Dining locations are within their labor costs.

This week we have learned a tremendous amount of information from the Cal Dining staff. They have been very helpful with any questions we have had, and we are looking forward to see what they have in store for us throughout the next 6 weeks!