Purdue: Week 8 - The Grand Finale!

All good things must come to an end. We finished off our final week at Purdue with some exciting activities and showcased all that we’ve been working on this summer!

Throughout the week, Bianca and I perfected our Sustainability powerpoint that will be played during the No Impact Meal for the Purdue freshmen in September. Our goal is to educate the students about Purdue’s current sustainable efforts and to provide them with national statistics that will hopefully inspire them to live a little greener. 

Between the planning and prep for our final presentation, we had the chance to accompany Mary Ann to the Cumberland Park Zoo! Mary Ann had booked the traveling zoo to come visit campus last Tuesday for the Housing and Food Service (HFS) Summer Fun Event, so we made a trip to the zoo to sort out logistics. It was strictly business, of course ;) We just couldn’t pass up a quick visit to see the wallabies, emus, goats, llama, and pony! For being a local zoo that is free to the public, I was surprised by the wide variety of animals. The traveling zoo was a bit smaller, but the HFS staff was still entertained by some portable reptiles, a hedgehog, and 3-banded armadillos.

  

 

On the day of the Summer Fun event, all of the HFS staff was welcome to come by for an afternoon break for some friendly competition, karaoke, and snacks provided by the dining halls. Bianca’s and my main responsibility was to record the scores for the tournament events and determine the overall winner. After work, we also decided to take one last trip down Main Street, and we even stumbled upon some shops that we'd never seen before!

Mid-week pinball break at Main Street Amusements!

8 free games?! Thank you very much!

Finally, presentation day came, and Bianca and I were ready to go! We spent our morning in Hillenbrand Dining Court preparing our Hidden Harvest Pasta Bake. The rest of the Hillenbrand staff, as well as some workers from the Central Production Kitchen, were nice enough to help us prepare the rest of the menu items for our presentation. The afternoon definitely snuck away from us, and Bianca and I were busy decorating and directing right up until presentation time. Delegating tasks to so many people was a new experience for both of us, but it was a final reminder about how important clear communication is in managerial positions.

Duck Pizza

Cheese and Apple tasting bar

Veggie sculptures! One of the chefs made flowers for us out of onions, tomatoes, and turnips!

 Sustainable Artwork

All created from repurposed, forgotten items we found around campus.

After speaking to many of the people we have had the pleasure of working with this summer, Mary Ann presented us with farewell gifts – our certificate of completion and Purdue gear to take back to our home universities. Some of our favorite experiences were working on nutrition education posters, cooking with catering Chef Brian, touring the athletic training facilities with the Athletic Dining Services workers, and learning about each other and ourselves along the way :)

 It was a great summer to be a Boilermaker! 

Farewell, Purdue!

Purdue: Week 6 & 7

I am back! Here is a recap of the past 2 weeks :)

Week 6

Throughout week 6 we spent more time working on our final project and putting together more artwork. We made some new memories throughout the week as well… One day on our way back from our lunch break, we got caught in a rain storm and arrived back at the office sopping wet. Earlier in the week I had been bringing my umbrella every day, so it figures that it would downpour on the day I decided to be “optimistic.” 

Bianca and I also did some more recipe testing! In theme with our seasonal urban farmers market event, we decided to try Butternut Squash and Kale Mac and Cheese (which turned out fabulously!) Being dietetics majors, we thought it would be fun to hide some vegetables in this tasty dish – with its vibrant orange color, the mashed butternut squash blended right in. We ran into one minor dilemma while preparing this dish. After sautéing the squash, we either had to mash or puree it; however, the food processor and masher were nowhere to be found, so Bianca resorted to the combined efforts of a whisk, fork, and egg slicer to get the job done! We didn’t have a camera handy to get a picture of our final product, but this is essentially what it looked like.

Hidden Harvest Pasta Bake

We stopped on our drive to the farm to
take pictures of the wind turbines.
Driving with the swirling all around
is like being in another land.

Now for the highlight of week 6 – Fair Oaks Farm! Ever since Mary Ann had mentioned the possibility of visiting the dairy farm earlier in the summer, we had not been able to contain our excitement. We got to tour the dairy operation and went on the Pig Adventure :) Fair Oaks – boasting 20,000 acres with over 32,000 cows – is one of the largest dairy farms in the United States. With an operation this large, about 80-100 calves are born per day, so Fair Oaks can pretty much guarantee that visitors will see a live cow birth. It was pretty funny to hear little kids’ reactions when a calf was being born. We also took a tour of the milking parlor. The process is extremely sanitary and very efficient, so all the cows can be milked 3 times a day with 500 going through each carousel per hour.

We're just kids at heart

The milking parlor

Baby Cow!

And I can’t forget the piggies! The Pig Adventure tours are a new attraction at the farm. You can see that they’ve got that operation down to a science as well. After our visit, we enjoyed fresh grilled cheese sandwiches from the on-site cheese factory and homemade ice cream. I can’t think of a better way to support such a wonderful local operation!

Grilled Cheddar and Ham

Fair Oaks vegetable garden and birthing barn

Over the weekend we ventured into Indianapolis for the second time.  We had a good time taking pictures on the grounds of the Indianapolis Art Museum and wandered through the historic districts downtown.

Wandering through the garden trails

How to get to the other side??

 Just like this :)

Nopalitos =  sliced cactus leaves.
They tasted like green beans

White River State Park was beautiful!

Week 7

Last week, we realized that our time here at Purdue will be coming to an end very shortly, so it was time to kick it into high gear! We finished up another poster for nutrition education focused on managing stress and emotional eating. Bianca also assembled some cute “stress relievers,” which was essentially a small sheet of bubble wrap with a little note attached: “To reduce stress, please pop 3 capsules every 4 hours (as needed).” These were a hit around the office, so hopefully the students enjoy them in November!

We also spent some more time helping out in Hillenbrand Dining Hall. A conference group of abut 6000 people came to the Purdue campus from Tuesday through Saturday morning for the Presbyterian Youth Triennium (PYT), so the dining halls needed all hands on deck. We also braved the 100-degree heat on Friday afternoon to help out with the PYT picnic and concluded our shift by running through one of Purdue’s fountains. The walk home was a little wet, but we were content and ready for a relaxing weekend.

This next Friday we will present everything we’ve done this summer. Wish us luck!

Holly

Shadows of Light

The mourning ensemble casts a shadow on the given day. When a loved one passes on to the other side wearing black is a statement to show respect. At this going home celebration the ensemble casts a light on the day, which shined out of the stained glass windows that faced north and east to the streets of Fountain Park. Somehow we managed to smile, eat and celebrate.

Entering the atrium the banquet set in shadow and light Yuchen thought it was prepped for a funeral and entered hesitantly, unsure of the décor. In Chinese culture the room may be dressed in flowers and bright colors of red for a celebration. The food was themed to the homeland of another, the speaker of the evening, which requested the event’s theme to be Poland. The elders sat around in comfort of one another knowing that the end of their stay was approaching. They barked orders to all the servers including Yuchen asking for water, tea and only hot coffee, sending her back for a fresh batch if cooled by the slightest. Giggling to one another, the servers managed to make the night go by smoothly. The hour of folding cloth napkins into wonton shapes was not the only fun. It was also enjoyable to see the white haired folk pleased with the food and the seeing the Chef receive positive reviews of his ginger cake. It was a good service.

R.I.P. Lois Potts

Purdue ~ Week 4 & 5

The weeks are flying by here at Purdue. Week 4 was one of our busiest weeks yet! We had the chance to tour Piazza Produce, one of Purdue’s largest suppliers of fresh produce located in Indianapolis, IN. After touring the facilities and learning about Piazza’s sustainability efforts, we also toured Piazza’s Garden Cut division, where fresh fruits, vegetables and specialty items are processed. Throughout the day we learned about so many aspects of processing and storage - we saw machines that could peel a cantaloupe in less than 10 seconds, held a 26 pound block of chocolate, and learned the science behind banana ripening from Garden Cut’s very own Banana Ripening Specialist (what a fun job title!) Our field trip was then deliciously concluded with lunch at R Bistro.

Starting off our tour day with some fresh fruit!

The conveyer belt that helps Garden Cut recycle scrap waste for composting

Banana Ripening Lesson :)

Zucchini and Pea Soup & Bacon avocado panini with tomato chutney

Bianca and I spent the remainder of week 4 at the Purdue Memorial Union (PMU). One of the unique aspects of Purdue’s MU is that it houses multiple stand-alone food venues (check them out!), ranging from an organic convenience market to specialty pizzas, fine dining, and an ice cream parlor. On Thursday we shadowed the manager of Pappy’s Sweet Shop, which still sells ice cream made from the original Purdue Creamery recipe. We even got to try some homemade fudge and shakes to top off the day!

We also worked with Purdue Catering to assist with food preparation and serving on Friday and Saturday. We helped prep and plate food for a banquet on Friday, and Chef Bryan took us under his wing in the PMU production kitchen to teach us some cooking techniques involving tofu. Saturday’s focus was on service as we helped decorate the PMU ballrooms for two wedding receptions and assisted with meal service throughout the evening. I really enjoyed seeing all of the details come together – who doesn’t love a good wedding?!

Week 5 then came and went in the blink of an eye. We spent most of our time tying up loose ends on various projects and “junk sculpture crafting” for our themed meal. We utilized some of our finest crafting resources throughout the week - hot glue and Mod Podge, of course! You’ll have to wait for pictures of our masterpiece reveal at our concluding presentation! Also, the most delicious part of the week was recipe testing Cinnamon Apple Oatmeal cookies for our menu. To ensure that the dining halls could reproduce our product, we took great care in documenting our procedures and measurements along the way to create a standardized recipe - definitely a fun and tasty task :)

Nutrition module display for Portion Control

Until next week...

~ Holly

Week 3: the Purdue Adventures Continue

Done with week 3 and halfway through week 4 – Whoa! Each week brings so many new projects, and it all just flies by. During week 3 at Purdue, Bianca and I experienced everything from event planning to petting farm animals to filming videos.

During week three, we began brainstorming and developing plans for Purdue’s “No Impact Meal,” to occur this fall. The direction and inspiration for this meal is coming from the University-selected common read book for all incoming freshman, No Impact Man.  This book - focused on sustainability, eating locally and seasonally, and enjoying living in the moment rather than cutting corners – has sent us on our way to planning an urban farmers market-themed meal, complete with repurposed trash sculpture art and a focus on mindful eating. Just beginning this process has already shown us how important interdepartmental collaboration is in a university food setting. Meeting with staff members from Marketing, Dining, Sustainability, and Residential Life has sent us off running with new ideas – now we just need to pull it all together!

Remember this photo? Our artful inspiration

Related to our sustainable meal planning, we visited the Purdue Student Farm, complete with vegetables, herbs, and friendly farm animals. The amount of fresh produce and herbs was very cool to see, and the animals brought a little personality to our visit. The runner ducks squabbled like little old men and the red wobble hogs rolled around by the fence, just waiting to be pet and scratched with stray twigs. We are hoping to partner with the farm in the fall to utilize some of their fresh produce for the No Impact Meal. That means it is time to start developing some tasty recipes with kale and potatoes. We are happy to report that our fuzzy and feathered friends below will not be part of the meal.

                                      

We also switched gears a bit and had opportunities to do some work in nutrition-focused environments. Bianca and I met with Carrie Anderson (a dining court supervisor, nutritionist and food allergy specialist at Purdue) and her nutrition committee to develop nutrition modules that will be presented throughout the fall semester.  For the months of October and November, we have begun planning programs for portion control and coping with stress eating. Who doesn’t love a good comfort snack when school projects are kicking our butts? Carrie also taught us about the safety measures in place for students with food allergies. To differentiate between normal cookware and cookware used for special diet needs, special utensils and pans are colored purple as an easy indicator to show that food are being prepared properly without cross contact.  To bring awareness to proper food handling and preparation in the dining facilities, we helped Carrie create a storyboard and shoot a video that will be available as a training resource for faculty, staff, and students.

One of my favorite days of week 3 was touring the athletic training facilities and athlete dining room. A lot goes into making sure that the athletes are provided with nutrient-dense foods to meet their energy needs. After helping deliver crates on crates on crates of chocolate milk and yogurt to the training facilities, we helped pack snacks that are delivered to the athletes throughout the week. Lots of nuts, peanut butter, apples, granola bars, and bagels for protein and energy for those Purdue athletes!

Mackey Arena - Go Boilermakers!

Indoor practice field at Mollenkopf Athletic Center

With a wonderful 3-day weekend, Bianca and I both had the chance to travel home and spend a little time with our families. My wild and crazy Saturday was spent with none other than my adorable nephew :)

Holly