This was my first week here in Columbia, MO and it was a busy one! The day I arrived our internship coordinator Debbie and her husband helped me move my stuff in and took Anna, the other intern, and I out for dinner. Debbie also gave us big bags full of dorm room food like microwavable easy mac and candy! Our first few days were mostly meetings and getting to know all the different people who work for Campus Dining Services. Our first morning they had a reception for us so we could introduce ourselves and meet many of the employees. We then had the opportunity to sit down with Steve Simpson, the Associate Director of Campus Dining to discuss the history of dining here at Mizzou along with some of the aspects of his job. That afternoon we went on a campus scavenger hunt so we could see the many sites famous to Mizzou such as the tiger and the pillars along with most of the dining facilities and retail locations. Something interesting about Mizzou is that they got rid of all the retail locations they had to contract, except Starbucks, and established their own locations such as Mort's for burgers or Kate and Emma's for sandwiches and wraps.
On Tuesday we had many more meetings and went through the same orientation all new employees do with the orientation director Kim. This orientation helped us to understand the goals of Campus Dining along with their focuses. One of their acronyms is PRIDE- Practices Resulting In Department Excellence, and the whole department tries to live by this along with by their mission statement which is simple and concise: Nourishing the Mizzou Spirit through good food-happy people-comfortable places. After our morning orientation we got to drive over to meet with the sanitarian Dick Fancher. He is one busy man, being in charge of sanitation not only for food services but also all the athletic buildings and pools on campus! Part of his job is going to the dining facilities and taking samples of their plates and glasses. He showed us some of his testing swabs, how he tests them, and explained that the bacterial level on the swabs has to be under a certain amount to know the dishes are sanitary. Our final meeting was with the Marketing Director Mike Wuest and he showed us some of the marketing things going on currently as well as some past promotions that have been successful.
Wednesday was two more meetings, one to go over CBORD, the system used for recipes, with Susan Dayton, and the other to meet Executive Chef Eric Cartwright and discuss his job along with what our project will be! Finally on Wednesday afternoon we started our work at the dining facilities. I am at Plaza 900 and Anna is at Rollins. The first two days we worked in the dishrooms and learned all that job entails. I found it to be kind of fun but we were only dealing with about 300 people while during the school year they usually see anywhere from about 1200 to 1900! I can only imagine the amount of work that would be. After dishroom I was a stock clerk on Friday and helped to check in all the food deliveries and put all the boxes away. There are different coolers for each item and I learned it is important to look ahead at the menu to know how early frozen items need to be pulled to thaw in time to be used the day it's needed.
During the summer we will be working on three separate projects. We each get to plan a themed meal to be served at the Plaza 900 dining commons and get to test recipes for this as well as decorate and come up with a poster with the help of the marketing team. Our major project is creating a business plan of how Plaza 900 and specifically The Emporium (a little convenience store in Plaza 900) could be remodeled. The building is starting an expansion this coming fall so this project fits in perfectly! And lastly we will be creating 6 months worth of safety tips to be presented every morning in what they call the morning lineup. Busy busy busy!
Besides all the working we did this week we also have been going to their fabulous rec center! It is across the street from our dorm and is an amazing complex with even an outdoor pool and lazy river! We also explored downtown and I ran the MKT Trail, which circles around all of Columbia. After only a week I am already loving this internship, the people, and the town so cannot wait to see what week two brings! Good luck to everyone this week!
Pictures of the week:
My fancy name tag!
Me at the tiger!
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