Final Week at UNI

 Monday, July 22

Today I went on a tour to the University of Iowa. I spent time talking with Jill, IU's foodservice director, and she took us on a tour of some of the food service facilities. We also had lunch there, and they had some really great options like salmon and cheese enchiladas-the food was delicious!

Tuesday, July 23

Today I went to Farner-Bocken, which services many gas stores, convenience stores, and college and university c-stores with food and beverages. It was impressive to see their expansive warehouse and the process of filling orders and shipping them out to customers. A fun part of the day was when I got to take home a bag full of Farner-Bocken new products samples-I definitely did not waste any time trying the samples when I get home!

Wednesday, July 24

Today was a work day at my desk, where I worked a little bit on my nutritional information project and getting things ready for my special event lunch (which was on Thursday and I was getting nervous today!)

Thursday, July 25

Today was my special event lunch! I spent the morning preparing and decorating, and service was from 11:30-1:00. Most of the guests were high school football players there for camp-and there were a lot of them! Everything went really smoothly, mostly because I had a lot of great staff helping me out, and luckily I had someone working the lemonade machine so that was a major relief! Since it was a wild west theme, the menu including hamburgers and hotdogs,onion straws, BBQ pork sandwiches, baked beans and green beans, a taco bar, assorted pizzas and taco pizza, Texas sheet cake, oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, and John wayne casserole. 

Friday, July 26

Today I finished up all the projects I was working on! It was crazy to think that this was my last day at my desk doing work for the summer!

Monday, July 29

Today I went on two ours: one to Burke Meats which produces a lot of pizza toppings, and the other to Iowa State. Burke Meats was really interesting and they were huge on safety and sanitation-we had to wear boots, long coats, goggles, hard hats, and ear plugs during the tour. At the end of the tour, we could to sample a bunch of pizzas and some other products, which were all delicious! At Iowa State, we were taken on a tour by Nancy, their director. We had a great lunch and it was cool to see their campus-especially because it is so huge! They have a lot of great dining options there. 

This program has meant so much to me, and I feel privileged to have been part of the NACUFS internship program. In past years, Miami students who have been NACUFS interns have praised the program, and I am glad that I now get to go back to school and tell other nutrition students about my great experience. This program really made me step out of my comfort zone and learn so many new things and meet a lot of new people. I feel that because of this experience, I have not only gained vast knowledge of college food service operations, but I have grown as a person and become more well-rounded in the field of nutrition.

Week 7 at UNI

Tuesday, July 16th 

Today I got the opportunity to work with Rachel Woebter at UNI's community garden. Even though it was very hot outside, it was still a lot of fun and a great experience! After a tour of the garden, Rachel and I harvested some vegetables and herbs from the garden, and then did a little bit of hoing in some parts of the garden. in the afternoon, Rachel talked to me a little about what she does as a local foods purchaser. The best part of the day was definitely when I got to take home a bunch of vegetables from the garden! 

Wednesday, July 17th 

Today I went on a tour to Grinell college-a small, private college that is about an hour and a half away from UNI. Their dining service is on a much smaller scale than UNI's, but it was really interesting to see and compare how they operated. I loved that they had special areas for Gluten Free and Vegan options in their dining hall After a tour in the morning, the cooks had prepared lunch as part of recipe testing, so we got to eat lunch with some of the staff.

                                     

Thursday, July 18th and Friday, July 19th

On Thursday and Friday I worked a lot on my projects. Thursday, I got to go on a catering run and drop off some food at two different places. Later that day, I got out the machine that is used to make fresh squeezed lemonade, which I am having at my special event. I did a couple test trials just to make sure it worked and to get the recipe right.

University of Northern Iowa Week 6

Wow! I can't believe that there is only two weeks left of my internship-it's crazy how fast time has gone by! Here are some of the things I have been up to for the past week:

Monday, July 8th 2013
            Besides getting things together for my special event, today I got the opportunity to sit in on an interview for a catering planning position that the university is looking to fill. I got to ask ask some questions and it was really interesting (and nice!) to be on the other side of an interview for once. It really helped me too because I was able to thing about what my answers would have been to some of the questions, and I think that it definitely will be a help in the future. 

 Tuesday, July 9th 2013
            Today my decorations arrived for my special event which is a Wild West theme lunch. Everything came in and was correct so that was a major relief! I also worked on a marketing promotional plan for the retail stores here on campus. One of the things at Miami University that I love are our soft pretzels with different dipping sauces (bad for you, but so good!). I thought it might be fun to introduce that concept to UNI and see what the students thought of it.

Wednesday, July 10th 2013
         I spent time today with Carol Fletcher, who works a lot with conference planning, human resources, and budgeting. She talked with me a little about what she does and I never knew how much goes into the things that she does. Besides that, I worked a little more on various projects such as a floor plan analysis for one of the dining centers.

Thursday, July 11th 2013
         Today I was down in the dish room of Rialto, doing a waste audit of the tray returns. I know that it is really hard to reduce the amount of waste from students, especially at an all you can eat dining center. One thing that UNI does is offer half portions of many of their sandwiches. I think that this is one great step in reducing the amount of food waste, and it also benefits students by offering them smaller portions. 

Friday, July 12th 2013
        Today I typed up my waste audit report, and began to work on one of my big projects, which is adding to the nutrition information of Prexy's, one of the other dining halls. At Prexy's there are a lot of bar concepts-burrito bar, quesedilla bar, potato bar, etc, and I am working on getting the nutrition information together for that, which is a lot of work but I really enjoy doing it!

Week Four at University of Northern Iowa

Monday, June 24th
Day 14

Today I was at Prexy's, UNI's retail dining center located in Maucker Union. In the morning, I spent time with Sara talking about the process of hiring and training student employees. I also assisted in some of the cashiering responsibilities such as counting money and making deposits. Next, I spent time at Essentials, which is a retail store at Maucker Union that sells food, gifts, school supplies, apparel, etc. For the lunch shift, I worked at Flare's, making burgers, chicken, and fries which was fast paced and really fun! In the afternoon, I talked with Sara again about how products are order and how the amount of the product needed is determined.

Tuesday, June 25th 

Day 15

Today I was back at Maucker Union early in the morning. I spent a few hours working at Chat's, which sells coffee, smoothies, and some grab and go items like muffins and donuts. I thought it was really fun learning how to make all the different coffee drinks, and I picked up on how to make most of them pretty quickly. For lunch, I worked at Wasabi. That day, there was a a mongolian grill concept, where people could chose their meat, veggies, and sauce and it was prepared in front of them. The mongolian grill was a little difficult to use, but the students who had done it enough times didn't seem to have a problem with it. I also helped cook the chicken and beef in big woks for the fajita bar that was also open. I tried the fajitas for lunch and they were delicious! The fajita bar is definitely a concept that I would be excited to try back at my school.

Wednesday, June 26th 

Day 16

In the morning, I was back at Rialto for my dish room/sanitation rotation where I learned the basics of the dish room. It wasn't too exciting but it is definitely an essential part of the dining center running smoothly. In the afternoon, I worked a lot on one of my big projects for the summer. I am getting Prexy's nutrition information into the right format so that it can be viewed by students online. If time allows, I may even also work on putting together the nutrition information for the coffee drinks at Chat's, which I am really excited about possibly doing.

Thursday, June 27th 

Day 16 and Friday, June 28th Day 17

On Thursday and Friday I worked a lot on some of my projects for the summer. I made a lot of progress on them which was awesome! On Thursday, a sales rep from King and Prince, a seafood company, visited. He talked a lot about the company's new sushi concept, where they provide the rice and seafood and then the university adds the veggies and sauce they want for the sushi rolls. Sushi is really big at my school, and is definitely increasing in popularity among the college age crowd. It will be interesting to see if UNI does anything with this concept in the future.

Week Three at University of Northern Iowa

WOW! I can't believe my third week at UNI is over. This past week has been full of a lot of fun things and I have definitely been keeping busy!

Sunday, June 16th-Monday, June 17th
Day 9

Today I worked an overnight shift in the bakery, which lasted from 9:30 PM-3:30 AM. I thought there was no way I was going to be able to stay up all night, but I had a lot to do which kept me wide awake. For the first part of the night, Alex (a student employee) and I made some of the desserts for the following day like Rice Krispie treats, victory bars, and m&m bars. We then iced all of the donuts for the following morning, and put all the cookie dough on trays so that they could be cooked later. Once the cookies had been cooked, we put them on trays according to where they were going to be sent out the next day. 

                                                Some of the donuts and cookies made overnight!

Tuesday, June 18th
Day 10
Today I came in at 5:00 AM and worked in the Commissary. I did various jobs like chopping up fruits and vegetables and weighing them out and bagging them according to where they were going to be needed that day. I also got to use the big Grote slicer to cut meats and cheeses. The last part of my shift consisted of putting together kits of peanut butter and apples or celery and a few other combinations.

Wednesday, June 19th
Day 11
I came in today and worked on my main project, which is planning a special event for the end of July. It is going to be a Wild West themed lunch, with a bunch of bbq and tex mex foods. The lunch is for 800 people, which is alot, and most of them are high school football players here for camp! I spent the day deciding on which foods would be good for the event and what kind of decorations I would need. I also decided on a few other projects that I wanted to work on for the summer, which I am really excited about. I also got to go into Piazza/Redeker, the dining center that is being remodeled this summer. There was a ton of construction going on but I think that it's going to look great! Hopefully I will be able to get in again at the end of the summer to see the progress.

                                                     Some pictures of the construction at Redeker.
 
Thursday, June 20th
Day 12

Today I came in to test one of my recipes for my special event. The recipe was for John Wayne casserole, which is taco meat, cheese, sour cream, peppers, onions, and tomatoes on biscuit mix. I thought it turned out really well and I think I am going to use it for my special event.

 Friday, June 21st
Day 13
 Today was a tour day!! I went with three other people to two sites that were about an hour away from the university. The first was a place called Rolling Hills, which is a greenhouse run by a Mennonite family. They grow lettuce and various spices that they sell to the university, local grocery stores, and various others places. It was incredible to see how hard these people work. Everything in the green house was so fresh and green.

                                                    Pictures from Rolling Hill Greenhouse

Next, we went to CountryView Dairy, which makes strictly yogurt. The owners explained the process of making yogurt, and we got to try some samples including their original yogurt, Greek yogurt, and soft serve frozen yogurt which was some of the best frozen yogurt I have ever had.

                                                           Inside Country View Dairy

University of Northern Iowa Week 2

Monday, June 10, 2013
Day 4

Today I worked at Rialto, one of the main dining centers on campus. Within Rialto, there are several different stations including Formaggio (pizzas and breadsticks), Colby's (sandwiches and soup), Pasta Cucina (pasta and salad bar), S'more (desserts), Sparks (grilled items), and Emiliano's and Cornucopia (taco bar, home-style entrees). I worked in these different areas for the lunch and dinner shifts. Making the pizzas was definitely my favorite part! Between meals I helped prepare some of the food that was going to be served. I had a great time working with all the different student employees, and I really learned a lot about each of the different stations at Rialto.

Tuesday, June 11, 2013
Day 5

Today I was back at Rialto. While I worked a little at the different stations, I mostly helped gather ingredients and prepare test recipes for the recipe book that UNI is creating. A few of the items I made were turkey tetrazinni and a pasta salad with tomatoes and feta cheese. UNI focuses a lot on recipe development and testing over the summer, when they have a little more free time to do so. The staff often comes down after lunch and tests the various items that were prepared through out the day. Today I also followed Mike, a manager at Rialto, while he took inventory. This was a very long process and I can't imagine having to do it all the time.

 Wednesday, June 12, 2013
Day 6

Today was an early day for me! I was at Rialto at 6:00 AM in order to receive an inventory shipment. I worked with another student to check in the items that were delivered and put them away. It was actually fun minus having to go in the freezing cooler. After the inventory was put away, I shadowed Susan, who showed me precosting and foreshadowing in the Food Pro system. This really helped me understand a lot of what goes on behind the scenes that helps make a food service operation run smoothly. I then shadowed Deb, who is a clerk at UNI and in charge of inputting invoices into Food Pro, paying bills, and various other tasks. 

Friday, June 14, 2013Day 7

Today I worked at the Commons, where most of the university's catering is based out of. I helped assemble the ingredients for the recipes that were to be prepared the next day. I helped put together some coffee packs (creamer, sugar, stirrers, etc) for the month and also gathered utensils and other various items for catering's to go meals. I then helped assemble sandwiches with one of the cooks for the arts festival that was taking place on campus. Today was pretty laid back, but I got a pretty good idea of the different aspects that take place in the catering kitchen. 

Saturday, June 15, 2013

Day 8

 Today I got to see what happens at an actual catered event. The event was a wedding that took place in one of the rooms at the Commons. I got to work with student staff to set up and prep food for the wedding, watch a restock the appetizer, buffet, and dessert tables, and tear everything down at the end. I really realized how important organization and good management is at catering events like this, especially because everything had to be done by a specific time and if it wasn't, the whole schedule of the wedding could be thrown off.

End of Week 1 at University of Northern Iowa

          Before I tell you all about the end of my first week at the University of Northern Iowa, I will tell you a little more about myself! I attend Miami University which is located in Oxford, Ohio, but I am from Columbus, Ohio. At Miami, I am a nutrition major with a focus in dietetics, and I absolutely love it! We have a wonderful program with some of the best professors there are. This fall I will be a senior (I can't believe it!) and will have to begin looking at where I want to do my dietetic internship after graduation. Anyway, here is what I have been up to the past few days as a NACUFS intern at UNI:

Thursday, June 6, 2013
Day 2

            Today I worked with Cathy Wylam, who is the Dining Technology Coordinator. She showed me the university's Food Pro system and C-board system. We talked about the different meal plan options that students have on campus, and there are a lot more than what I'm used to at Miami! Cathy showed me how to look at specific student's record of their meal plan usage, and how to make any adjustments to individual's meal plans. I also got to see the Empower system, which is how the university keeps track of it's employees and the hours they work. I then learned about UNI's ID card system, including how to make these cards. It was amazing to see how much really went in to making these cards. In the afternoon, Lisa talked to me a little about her position as administrative dietitian and purchasing manager. We looked more at the Food Pro system, specifically at the nutritional analysis of different menu items. I though it was really neat that a student can click on a menu item and not only is he nutritional information shown, but so is the food label and ingredients list. Lisa also works closely with students who have special diets, and she showed me how she creates individualized menus for some of them. Lisa also showed me a bid for grease pick up at UNI and we looked at the responses to the bid from some companies.

Thursday, June 7, 2013
Day 3

            In the morning, I talked more with Lisa about nutrition and her job on campus. She gave me a project to do, which was to plan a nutrition topic for each week that school was in session this upcoming year, with the information on these topics being displayed around campus on a weekly basis. Then I went to a training session that was led by Cathy Wylam. She was training four students on how to take ID pictures for new students who would be coming to UNI's orientation sessions all throughout the summer. After the training session, I got to go to recipe testing for lunch, which was awesome! The university is putting together a cookbook that contains many of the recipes they serve in the dining halls or at catered events, so the cooks were testing these recipes which had been modified so that people would be able to cook them at home in their kitchens. In the afternoon, I got to help take the pictures for the IDs at an orientation session for transfer students. It was really fun to be able to work with student employees and it was nice to see the transfer student and how excited they were to be at UNI!

First Few Days at UNI!

Wednesday, June 5th, 2013

Hi Everyone!


I'm Libby and I am the NACUFS intern at the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls, Iowa. I got here on Monday the 3rd, and got settled into my apartment that evening. Tuesday I met with Lisa Krausman, and we went to lunch at one of the main dining locations on campus. After that I attended a staff meeting where I got to meet some of the people I would be working with this summer. Today was my first official day interning. I met with Lisa at 9 for my orientation and tour around campus, where I got to see the different locations  where I would be working as well as some of the main attractions on campus. For lunch I got to try one of Lisa's favorite food items at UNI, which were the create your own quesadillas. They were delicious and it was a really cool dining concept! I finished the day with a tour around the Cedar Falls community. I am starting to figure out where different things are now, so hopefully I will stop getting lost so much soon. This summer is off to a great start and I can't wait to see what else is has in store!