Summer 2013... NACUFS Intern Style!: Wyoming Week 2

Hello everyone!

Week two seemed to fly by and definitely kept Emily and I on our toes. We got to work with a lot of catering and learning how purchasing/receiving/storing worked. The heat also picked up here which kept us nice and toasty... not so fun if you are working in the catering kitchen though.

Day 6

Rise and shine! We were up bright and early for the 6 am shift with the dock crew. We got to see how the process worked once they receive items from a shipment and how they check everything. We got to help store and label the new items. We also went on a little delivery to the student union. After our little adventure we met with Dave to learn the receiving process and how they use CBORD to coordinate everything. It was a little hard to follow along since we weren't actually using the system but it was beneficial to learn what every one's roles are. We met with Doug as well and learned how the purchasing process worked. Everyone is on a deadline to have their orders into them by a certain time, then Doug has a deadline to enter in the orders to the vendors. It was a very interesting process but it was so organized! I am sucker for organizing :P. The rest of the day Emily and brainstormed some Washakie recipes.

Day 7

Today we got to sleep in a little bit more which was wonderful. We attended the morning meeting to see what everyone was up to. We got to help brainstorm some ideas for a concept they had which I thought was a really good idea. Since the RA's are on tighter schedules Res life wanted to create a to-go box/tray RA's could get at Washakie and then take their food back to the dorm. The problem in the plan was figuring out a way to keep track of the trays and how to get them back from the RA's instead of them piling up in their rooms. I thought this was a really concept. After the meeting, we had a change of plans. We were supposed to continue on learning about purchasing and have an opportunity to write our own bid but Janet, who is in charge of this, was sick. So off we went to catering to learn from David the catering chef to learn how the retail process was run.

Mike was very genuine and very fun to work with. I loved how his staff showed up excited and ready to work. Emily and I then helped Nick and Morgan make to-go sandwiches for retail. They were super helpful and it was really cool to do some hands on work. David the catering chef showed around the kitchen and taught us how everything worked. We were then given free range on creating our own retail sandwich/wrap recipes in the kitchen. It was pretty intimidating but after a while we just went with it and got into the zone trying our recipes and perfecting them. Emily made some delicious chicken wraps and I worked on making a salty/sweet turkey & apple wrap.

Emily checking the temp on her chicken!

Day 8
We had the morning off until 3 to do what ever we wanted to do which was a nice change of pace. So I spent my day exploring campus some more and researching some sushi recipes for retail. That afternoon we met with Mike the catering manager. Mike was very genuine and very fun to work with. I loved how his staff showed up excited and ready to work. We assisted in the set up for an event that evening and got to see the set-up and break down process. It was nice to interact with the students and learn more about them. Everyone was really friendly and welcoming. :)

Day 9
Up and early again to learn to make sushi! Emily and I have been waiting for this day all week. We got work with Mo one of the sushi chefs. He demonstrated how to roll the sushi and taught us the different types of rolls and then we had a chance to roll our own. Emily was really good at it! We nibbled on our sushi (which was hard for me to do at 8 am :P) and then met with Brittany the Co- manager for catering. Brittany showed us the process of creating event and how she keeps everything organized so everyone knows what is going on. We got to see how Event Master worked which was neat. Again, I loved all the organization involved. The rest of the afternoon we recreated our wrap recipes and created our sushi recipes for a taste testing that afternoon with the dining staff. I created a turkey, Swiss, apple & jimaca wrap, a mexi-vegetarian wrap which was tasty but messy! For my sushi I went a different route and created a fruit roll made with the rice paper, mango, granny delicious apple, strawberry, and cream cheese. It was all very yummy and we had some good critiques from the dining managers. We were exhausted by the end of the day but it looks like our hard work paid off.

Sushi! :)

Day 10
Friday at last! That week flew! We had a 9 am meeting with Janet from purchasing and she taught us how the bid process worked. There is a lot of research involved and it really helps knowing the right people who can tell you what the best products are to buy. Emily and I had a chance to create a bid so we decided to create a bid for a new soft serve machine. The managers thought we had a good start on the bid and recommended we tighten it up and we could send it to Janet to make it an actual bid which was pretty exciting. The rest of the afternoon Emily and I talked with Amy and Tom to check in on how everything was going.

This weekend: I went to Denver city park to help with a Crohns and Colitis 5k which was really cool. Since I am Miami University's Udi's Ambassador I had a chance to work with my ambassador coordinator and help pass out gluten free products. This was really fun and we had great whether. We met a lot of people with food allergies and intolerance's so I felt like a really fit in with my IBS. I am really passionate in helping people with food allergies. My life has been surrounded by them and has affected those close to me and myself. One of my goals is to help people familiarize themselves with food allergies and educate them that a gluten free diet is not a weight loss diet but a diet that some have to have in order to go about their day to day life without any GI problems. There's a lot of myths and facts out there, many I still have to educate myself on.