Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Week 7 in Wyoming

Day 43:
                To start off with, we went to the managers’ meeting.  This was really interesting because we talked about working on a Fire/Pandemic Menu.  This is because there are a lot of fires in Colorado and Wyoming and we wanted to be ready in case we needed to house and feed the firefighters.  This was a really cool task to be a part of and to hear the planning that went on.  After the meeting we were able to help enter the menu into the computer so that the food could be ordered.  Then, we met with the dietitian to hear about what she does for the university.  We talked with her about how to go through the website to utilize all the nutrition information on the food on campus.  This is a helpful system for those who have food allergies, as all the information is supposed to be up to date on the ingredients that are used in all of the recipes. 

Day 44:
                We worked a little bit more on the pandemic menu and understanding what happens to the menus after we enter them into the computer.  We looked at different reports and talked about what they meant to different people in the operation.  Then we worked on editing recipes that were given to us with corrections.  This was a little difficult because most of the edits were a little incomplete and we could not tell what they wanted us to do to them.  Sometimes we could use the information in the computer to decipher what they meant, but that was not always the case.  Then we worked on their “no Frills” program and updating it.  These were items that the students could purchase, such as cheese and wings trays, which were not too expensive because they were simple.  The book had been a little out of date so we updated some of the recipes.  Then we helped the dietitian to set up for her allergen training presentation.  She was presenting to the cooks and anyone who worked in the dining hall about the importance of allergy awareness.  This was to make sure they didn’t substitute ingredients without checking the labels, and also to know how to help a student who has food allergies.  We then were able to work on our projects some more to wrap them up.  We also started our new nutrition project.  This was to be an event to raise awareness of a health issue today.

Day 45: OFF

Day 46:
                We had more opportunity to work on editing our projects to be ready to turn in.  Then we worked on a marketing matrix assignment.  With this, we looked at what the on campus convenient store sold, how much, and at what profit.  These were the goods that they made on campus, such as sushi and sandwiches; we did not look at the whole store.  That would have been crazy.   We used excel to help us graph the products.  We then drew lines based on what profits they like to make and made a marketing matrix.  We looked to see which were the cash cows, stars, dogs, and problem child.  This was a really interesting tool to see what they should do with the products in order to make more money.  We also did this for their Beer Gardens operation.  I think this project drove poor Sara insane, but I kind of enjoyed it.  Then we worked with the dietitian again in the afternoon.  She showed us how she managed the nutrition site.  This was a really complicated process and we felt sorry for her.  Good thing she loves her job so much!  After that was more project time.  We decided to do our nutrition project on caffeine and energy drinks.  This seemed relevant to college students with such a large number consuming so many energy drinks. 

Day 47:
                The curse of the Friday continues.  Our boss called in sick that day so poor Amy, the dietitian, was stuck with us all day.  After working on our projects, we took a little tour around campus to see the things that they plant.  They have started planting some foods and herbs plants on campus to use in the dining halls.  Then we helped her to make the gluten free menu for the day care kids that they serve.  We had to go through each menu item to make sure that we had some gluten free choices.  Then we were able to work on our projects more.  This was good because we still had a lot to do.  After that was when the real adventure came in.  We went down to the farmers’ market downtown.  It was a nice day so we walked.  We went there to see if we could get some local foods for the dining hall to use to help with campus sustainability.  This was a lot of fun.  But then, on our way back, it started to rain.  We had to walk back the whole fifteen blocks in the rain!  This really wasn’t all that bad, but it was a little chilly.  We finally got back and started to work on more of our project stuff until it was time to go home.

Day 48:
                Saturday.  We had gotten the Fourth of July off, so we had to work on Saturday.  Since no one else was in the offices, we worked at the tables outside of the office.  We finished our nutrition project.  We had decided to make slides bringing awareness to the effects of energy drinks and to place those slides in the napkin holders in the dining hall.  This was so that while the students were eating, they could have something to read and talk about with their friends.  After we finished those, we worked on putting the final touches on our first two projects.

Day 49: OFF

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