Monday: Orientation Team
The orientation team is comprised of students who are typically student leaders in their designated locations. They all come together and welcome freshman as well as help sell the meal plan. Their main purpose is to create awareness for the meal plan and really sell it because UGA Food Services is self operated and students are not required to sign up for the meal plan. There are two different options: 5 day unlimited or 7 day unlimited. The 7 day is only about $100 more and will pay for itself if a student stays on campus three weekends out of the semester. In the morning we gathered around and welcomed/offered direction to the students and parents and made sure they had everything ready for the rest of the day. I forgot how young and scary an orientation can be as a freshman, I couldn't help but reminisce all day. Once the parents and students were off we put together packets of information to hand out later. Throughout the day we were set up in various locations greeting parents or students until dinner... that is when it got fun. They all sit in an auditorium together and when their meeting is over the student orientation team leads them into their "tailgate dinner" with different UGA cheers altered with Food Service Lingo. Then the students were taught to "call the dawgs" and headed to dinner. All the parents were so excited for this! The orientation team is typically done around 7 when all the freshman have left for their other evening activities. The second day of orientation is more relaxed and is when most of the meal plan selling is done at the resource fair. The team has a less hectic schedule, but then repeat this cycle starting Wednesday.
One of the stations where the orientation teams sets up and answers questions
Helping put together packets
Practicing the cheers in OHouse
The chocolate fountain for dessert!!!!
TUESDAY: Catering/Retail
We stared our day off with catering where we helped them set up for the parent orientation breakfast. The manager, Wayne, gave us a tour of the facility and later on we even learned how to enter an event to their scheduling system. We had already learned a bit about catering when we worked with Chef Paul for the wedding. In the afternoon we worked with Susan who manages the retail side of UGA Food-Services. I have only ever seen food-service from the dining hall side so I really appreciated learning and seeing another side of things. We learned about Susan's duties which include but are not limited to, catering, retail locations, and the training table (athletes). She meets once a week until December with one of the sports nutritionist to discuss the different meals or snack bags for the teams. It is really busy when the football team is in season and things can be very unpredictable. Today we were fortunate enough to attend a meeting about ordering new items for the athletes re-fueling station. The NCAA just revised a rule about items hat were allowed to be at refueling stations, which is comprised of food that is always available to these athletes. We met with their US FOOD rep and listened about what types of food they are looking for, are they in bulk, and how available they are.
After the meeting with the nutritionist we headed to a franchise meeting with Susan and her staff that works in the Tate Center. I was VERY interested in this discussion because I have never heard about what happens behind the scenes when working with a franchise and the process along with it. Susan told us that they deal with a range of franchisors--some are really hands on and others are very hands off. Chick-Fil-A is extremely structured and has strict guidelines. Barberitos (Athens based TexMex chain) is very hands on and will come in and work side by side with employees. The meeting with the managers was about a franchise location, Larry's Subs. Topics that were discussed ranged from the switching of brands of a certain condiment to where to purchase their goods. The most difficult topic discussed was a gluten-free option. This is because it is already a small area and they need to have room to be able to put together a gluten-free sandwich without cross contamination. There are so many little things that affect it such as having back-up condiments because they need to be fresh, or using a different type of oven because a fan will cause contamination in the type of oven they use. One of the most interesting things I learned in that meeting was how high the food cost is for Larry's Subs. It was a great learning experience to sit through the meeting especially on the management side because you have to know when to put your foot down and what type of words to use. I loved the fact that I understood a lot of the terms and phrases used during this meeting from things I learned in my classes. The whole idea of working with a franchisor really intrigued me this day.
One of the retail locations: Chick-Fil-A is located here
Wednesday:Retail/Pizzas
On Wednesday we got to work in the actual retail locations. There are 8 locations and there is going to be 9 when they open up one ate the new vet school. I got to work at "Tween The Pages" in the library. This location was recently renovated and has been featured in a magazine and has been receiving a lot of attention. Since the renovation they have skyrocketed in sales which has a lot to do with their new made to order sandwiches. Regina taught me about their opening procedures and how to use their turbo chef (which will be used at The Niche which is a new dining facility). I learned that all of the units do their own inventory and ordering of supplies which get delivered later in the day. Each unit gets the hot entree item of the day and some different facilities with many repeat customers will get special event days, such as a smoothie day. It made me wonder how the Penn State retail locations work. UGA has kiosks in many of their dining locations which helps with the flow and it is something I believe Penn State could use, especially at The Mix.
In the afternoon Meg and I headed over to Snelling to help Gregg and Chris who will be the new managers at The Niche. We were helping them perfect the pizza which they will be serving at their hearth oven location. We tried to simulate the process which will take place at The Niche, but we didn't have a dough presser or the right spice mix (but we made the best of it). We encountered a big learning curve which is good that we caught the problem now so it can be fixed for when the location is open. When we went to transfer the dough to the oven it all crunched up so we had to quickly work together and get new pizzas prepared, and we did! We then got to sit in the meeting with the Food-Services staff about Scott Hall. There are so many things that go into a new building that I would have never known, and especially because this location is away from campus. We went over health code inspection dates, soft openings, transporting goods, daily routines, budget and finances, maintenance, logos/advertisements, and food quality. I get so much out of sitting in on the meetings and learning from experienced managers.
Working at 'Tween the Pages'
THE PIZZA PROCESS!!
THURSDAY: Retail/Construction
Meghan and I switched roles on Thursday morning. I got to follow around Tamala (she manages retail stores) and learn about what goes into her job. First, we were reviewing the security camera because there was $10 deficiency and we needed to figure out what was the problem. She said it is very hard to typically find out the problem, but it helps to go through all of the journal entries entered system. It use to happen a lot more when they had another computer system. Next, we checked hours for the pay period (Wednesday-Thrusday) to makes sure no students went over the 20 hr. limit and full-time employees got a minimum of 37.5. Tamala can add vacation hours for those who did not reach that limit. They need these hours so they can have health insurance without having to pay for it. I learned about inventory and that she has to enter all the new products and their codes so they will scan at all of the stores. She also taught me that Coke and Frito Lay do their own inventory and decide what they need to bring. Since Coke and Frito Lay bring them a quantity of their companies discretion items which have been sent out and expired can get credit for a rebate. One thing that is very important is to make sure it is the right product, there was a mix up with Orbit gum the day before. Finally, I went over to work a special event at the vet school. They were selling burgers because they typically have the same customers and want to spice it up for them.
The Burger Station
In the afternoon we met up with with Jeanne Fry, the Executive Direction, and learned about her job as well as received advice. She told us about her personal management philosophy which included set goals (write down), strive for excellence, not perfection, listen, and value your best assets; your employees. I liked hearing this from her because she has a lot of experience and has gotten to where she is today by following this philosophy. One that she mentioned that I will always remember is examine your motives. You may think you are doing something for the right reason until you sit down to think about it. After this we headed off to the construction meeting for the new Bolton dining commons (opening in Fall 2014). I felt like I was sitting through a meeting where everyone was talking GREEK! When the project managers was speaking about the construction part and different issues I was so confused, but it was eye-opening as well. Some things that stuck out to me were the huge numbers (aka their budget) and teamwork and communication skills. There are so many little details that all need to come together to make this project work.
Friday: Quality Assurance/Health
Bright and early we started in the stock room at Bolton to help unload the items for the weekend. We made sure to FIFO all the items. In the stock room they have to order their weekend food from central storage on Wednesday to get it by Friday. That means that they need to order their Tuesday food on Friday to get it by Monday.
After breakfast we did a quality assurance review of Bolton with Art (manager). They do them once a month to make sure all is going smooth and they are holding themselves to a standard. One manager does it for their unit and then also goes and reviews another unit. Some things we did was inspect the freezers, see if employees were knowledgeable and practicing proper skills, and temp the food. If you score and 85% or lower you have to do a corrective action plan. One reason they do this is because they really care about the quality they are giving to their customer. Their students get to choose if they want to be on the meal plan so they need to offer top notch service and food.
We then met with Katherine Ingerson who is thier Registered Dietitian. She helps plan the menu and makes sure that students are able to eat the foods even if they are on a specialized diet. Katherine also works with students who have special diets and need her to plan meals. Some other things she does is the build your plate online program, food symbols, teach eating smart course, and nutrition analysis. Her services are free for any student on the meal plan, which is an added bonus for many students whether they are trying to eat healthy or are struggling with a disorder. Some things that she teaches in her eating smart class are; eat fruits and vegetables with every meal, the food is not going anywhere- you don't have to eat it all today, and their is a time for treats. Her job was not always a common position in university food services, but is becoming much more common with all the concentration on health and restricted diets.
Finally, we wrapped up our week with Kris doing a mock health inspection. We went to Snelling and Kris pointed out things that they would get docked points for. The biggest issue we had was with the temperatures. One thing I found interesting is that if you miss one thing in a category you get docked the same amount of points as if you missed all 3 things in that category . They also pay a lot of attention to the "nine pointers". They are on their quality assurance form as well because these would be really bad things to miss. They do the mock health inspections twice a semester and I think that is a really good way to stay on top of your unit and make sure you are following all rules.
WEEKEND:
Meghan and I were lucky enough to check out a little of ATHFEST (music festival) on Saturday and then got to go tubing with Jeanne, Susan, Kris, and Nicole. We went to a Helen which is in the mountains and we had such a good time. The weather was perfect, the only thing that went bad is we all got bumped around a lot by the rocks nd Paul saw a snake!! The town is really cute and has German roots!
The town of Helen
Beautiful Drive
COOL RIVER TUBING!
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