DAY
32: PROJECT/TOUR DAY: PICTURES, OLYMPIC RINGS, EXTRA EQUIPMENT, ETC.
Monday,
July 23 2012
University
of Northern Iowa
Two days from my event, tomorrow I
am going to Ames, IA, so today is my last full day to prep for the event. There are only minor details that I need to
attend to. Sunday, I prepared the
pictures, and captions that I needed to print, so I spent most of my morning
doing this.
Afterwards, I had to go around UNI
to collect some items that I needed for my event, such as a projector, projection
screen, and the international flags display set. Afterwards, I went Wal-Mart to pick up some
spray paint. Then, I went back to my
apartment to start cutting out some of the pictures that I reprinted and the
captions.
I bought spray paint, because I
spent two hours on Sunday trying to get my balloon Olympic Rings to look
right. I eventually gave up after
blowing up forty balloons, which turned out to be a huge waste of time. Now, I have a new idea, spray-painting the
hula-hoops to match the Olympic Rings.
Have you ever spray painted in 102-degree heat with tons of
humidity? It does not really work. I had to spray the hoops outside, leave them
sit for an hour (I do not know what that actually did), and then bring them
back in to dry. I could hear my neighbor
when they walked by my door, “Geez, it really smells like spray paint.” Whoops!
After lunch, I taped the pictures to
their captions. I hope someone reads
them, because it took forever. My
favorite one is a picture of St. Louis, and it says a metropolitan city in the
United States located in the state of Missouri and home of the best baseball
team in the world. Go Cardinals!
I organized all my decorations into
bags with their venue names. I feel like
I am ready to go. The only thing I have
left is to assemble the hula-hoops into the Olympic Rings formation and make
some more tissue paper torches.
DAY 33: ISU AMES, IA
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
University of Northern
Iowa
Today, my internship director and I toured Iowa State
University. She told me that this
college is a land grant school, which is awesome because I have never
heard/paid attention to that term outside of my classrooms! The campus is very spread out, but it does
not feel separated. They have many
convenience stores, cafés, and restaurants located around campus In addition
they have three dining centers that have buffet style dining. Their purchasing for food service is unique
compared to the purchasing at UNI.
We walked into a large warehouse for food. It looked like a Sam’s Club grocery
store. It even had bar codes where items
were placed to easily keep track of inventory electronically. They do not have a contract with a prime
vendor like UNI. UNI’s prime vendor is
Martin Brothers. ISU bids for their pricing on almost every item. It seems very time consuming, but I guarantee
they probably get the best price. The
large warehouse may pose a problem since they must maintain a space that can
house all that food including freezer/refrigeration items. Why not order directly from a food company
like Martin Brothers? Managers can
utilize the space for other things.
However, they may not receive the best prices and/or have to
predetermine the counts and amounts needed for recipes more accurately, since
the access of food would no longer be on site.
Next, the Iowa State intern took us on a tour of the
campus. We walked to one of the campus
cafés the Hub Grill & Café. It has a
central location near the library that serves meals and snacks including kits
and bakery items. Caribou Coffee is
located inside the Hub that offers customers a wider variety of items to chose
from.
We met the food director at the Hub, and she took us to
the library where they have a small café.
The library was very beautiful.
On the first floor there is a hidden café that does really well. Bookends Café offers Roasterie coffees,
espressos, Jet Tea smoothies, hot cocoa, and fresh bakery items. In addition, they sell kits. If you are deep into your studies and want to
grab a quick bite or need some coffee to wake you up this hidden café in the
library is the perfect place to go.
We toured other c-stores on campus and the dining halls
including the Memorial Union Food Court, Union Drive Marketplace, and Memorial
Union Market and Café. In addition, we
saw the Sports Club restaurant, which is a neat concept to have at the college
level where so many people are interested in the big name sports games without
the chaos of the local bars. For lunch we ate at the Marketplace. Today the soy company was coming, so there
were many soy featured items on today’s menu.
I tried a stir-fry made with tofu.
After lunch, we went to Hawthorn Market & Café. It was a nice cozy atmosphere with couches,
fireplaces, and large televisions. The
café prepares made to order meals such as grilled burgers, toasted deli
sandwiches, pizzas, etc. The cool thing
about this location is you order from a kiosk.
In addition to the full menu, this is the only place on campus that you can
purchase Starbucks coffee. On the market
side of things, this place offers convenience items and fresh produce.
Lastly, we toured State Gym including the Froots
venue. Froots is a franchise brand that
sells healthy grab and go meals and all-natural smoothies. The gym was amazing. There was something for everyone in that gym. A person could sit in the 25-person hot tub
and watch TV or cross-train on the aerobics machines. There is so many things that you could do at
this gym, it made me want to enroll at Iowa State just to have access. I mean seriously there was a boxing arena!
Here is the catch of the day; someone called me at 8:30
AM to tell me that my special event day got changed to Thursday!!!! It did not
really bother me, but now I can’t go on one of my tours L
DAY 34: SPECIAL EVENT DAY…NOT PREP DAY!
Wednesday, July 25, 2012
University of Northern Iowa
Today
was supposed to be my special event day; however, there was a mix up with the
days and the 600+ football players will not be showing up until Thursday. At least now, I get to prep the food for my
special event.
First,
we started by making Cuban sandwiches.
Cuban sandwiches have ham, salami, roasted pork, Swiss cheese, pickles,
and mustard on a hoagie bun. These will
be placed in the oven tomorrow.
Next, I
watched one of the cooks prepare the ziti Alfredo bake for tomorrow’s
production. We taste tested a portion of
the recipe, and it was delicious!
Onto
the romaine lettuce for the Greek salad, there was so many lettuce heads to
chop! I don’t know how we will go
through all this lettuce, but the cooks assure me that we will.
For a
day’s hard work, we were treated to pork fritters, fries, and fruit salad. Afterwards, we had a lot of dishes to
do. My hands may still be raw tomorrow.
One of
the managers and I decided that we should prepare the soft serve ice cream for
tomorrow. First, we cleaned out the
chocolate ice cream. We definitely could
not save the ice cream, since we put it in a cleaned out pickle bucket. Can you ever get the smell of pickle out of a
pickle bucket? Afterwards, we prepared
the new product of ice cream. They have
never used a product like this one.
There was a dry mix and you mix it with water to create a dairy-free ice
cream. In addition, you can add
flavoring to it. We decided to add
sherbet flavoring, so the ice cream would be orange. Lastly, we dyed the vanilla ice cream
yellow. Whenever you get a
sherbet-vanilla twist cone, it looks like an Olympic torch!
DAY
35: SPECIAL EVENT: RialtOlympics
Thursday,
July 26, 2012
University
of Northern Iowa
Up and ready to be at Rialto at
7am! I walked in to find the 600
football players eating breakfast. It
was unbelievable how many people were in.
What a nice way to settle my nerves for the event! Every day starts with a balanced breakfast;
it was bacon, eggs, and fruit for me.
After breakfast, I started loading
in my materials/decorations. Next, I
started to hang up my decorations. I
placed the small banners on the greeter stations. Then, I went to S’mores and began taping the
pictures and their captions on the glass at the venue. Talk about taking forever to roll the
tape. I am glad I had three other people
to help me do this to every venue. I
finished the venue by taping the international flags banner to the counter
top. It looked awesome with all the
Olympian pictures and cool places to visit around the world. We served red, white, and blue iced chocolate
and vanilla cupcakes and Olympic torch ice cream out of this venue for the
event.
Moving onto Cornucopia, where Great
Britain, the official location of the Olympics, was being represented. Cornucopia had pictures plastered all over
the glass and tables, my favorite picture was Queen Elizabeth II. We served Shepherd’s Pie and pea pods and
carrots out of the venue today. One of
the managers came over to see if I needed help, and I told him to grab a ladder
and hang up all my flags. I hate
ladders, and he did it 100x better than I ever could have done.
A student worker began helping me at
this point, and she decorated Emiliano’s for me. We represented China
here. For lunch, there were spring
rolls, rice, and sweet and sour chicken with stir-fry. My favorite decoration at this venue was the
paper fans that we bought from Oriental Trading.
The next venue is Sparks where USA
was represented. We served hamburgers,
hotdogs, and French fries. There were
streamers, flags, garland, and window clings to show our American spirit. In addition to that food, we served Cuban
sandwiches. Originally, I wanted to
serve the Cubans out of Colby’s, but they needed to be grilled. It was easier to keep them at Sparks.
The next venue that we decorated was
Colby’s. Colby’s had three countries
that it represented: India, Cuba, and Jamaica.
All of the venues had flag banners and pictures with captions from their
countries. At the first table, we served
an Indian Cran-Raspberry Glazed Chicken Salad on a Croissant Roll. The next table we served made to order
sandwiches. At the soup station, we
served Jamaican Tortilla Soup.
I decorated Pasta Cucina with
Italian pictures and symbols. We chose
to serve a Baked Ziti Alfredo with Italian garlic bread. The pasta went really well at lunch, so well
in fact, we ran out. We decorated the
other half of the venue, the salad bar, as Greece. We placed pictures of landmarks in Greece on
the tables. In addition, we put a
green-leafed table runner on the shelves at the venue with fake grapes sitting
on top of the runner. There was a Greek
salad served at this venue along with vegetable and fruit trays.
The last venue was Formaggio. We served Mexican taco pizza and Greek
pizza. The food went really well, we had
to make more pizzas than we originally planned, but this was much easier to
accomplish than the ziti bake. There
were pictures of places in Mexico placed at this venue along with a
piñata.
After decorating the venues, I
needed to set up for my games. The
vertical jump game was not staying attached to the wall, so we decided to take
it down. The discus throw required us to
move the outdoor tables, which were bolted to the ground (I guess I should have
looked more carefully at those details).
We decided to incorporate both the discus throw and the javelin throw
into the same game. Throw the objects
through the Olympic rings (hula-hoops) for a certain amount of points. Two boys set up the tables in the meeting
room for Jeopardy! I was not impressed
with the turn out of the people who played games. I think that I should have advertised it
better. We would have had a better turn
out with the games if they were inside.
There was so much going on at once that it did not bother me that the
games had not went as planned.
There were just here and there
decorations that we added before service began.
I had two of the student workers make small nametags for the food items,
since I had forgotten to do this. Others
hung up a large sign and hung a replica of the Olympic Rings on the back
wall. Someone said, “Ready to get
slammed?” Then an hour and a half later,
we were taking down the decorations and cleaning up the place.
Wow! The meal was great. It went as planned. The football team enjoyed the food. They were standing in line, and I tried to
get them to disperse, but it never worked for more than five minutes. If I could change one thing about the event
is to advertise more about the games. I
spent a lot of time preparing for the games, and only a few people played
them. Overall, the event was a success.
DAY
36: PURCHASING AND ACTING
Friday,
July 27, 2012
University
of Northern Iowa
Today, I worked with my internship
director on finishing the nutrition module and purchasing module. In addition, I was casted for a training
video at Fresh Beginnings. My internship
director is both the purchasing manager and the dietitian at UNI, so she has a
large role here at the university.
The first thing that we did was
reviewed recipes for updates and ingredient statement information needed. Sometimes items change ingredients or Martin
Brothers discontinues a product and begins selling a similar product. These items need to be updated in FoodPro and
Food Processor in order to display the proper ingredients. Martin Brothers will notify my director about
the changes, and she will copy and paste the ingredients list from the internet
into FoodPro and/or Food Processor.
After she explained how to update the ingredients, we entered an
ingredient statement from the distributor.
Next, we discussed her role as a
purchasing manager at UNI. There are two
different ways a food service can purchase food, through prime vending as UNI
does with Martin Bros or by bidding each item and purchasing them in bulk. Purchasing in bulk may create cheaper
pricing, but the college or university must turn their storage spaces into food
warehouses. Food Store Areas must be as
large as what they are wanting to store.
UNI only stocks the necessities for what they will need in the near
future. Iowa State purchases their items
in bulk; it may be an entire year before they use an item in their warehouse if
it is extremely nonperishable.
The purchasing procedures determine
the need of the product. The purchasing
manager created a policy on adding new items.
Food shows, manufacturer visits, customer requests, etc. are just a few
ways that items are identified. Sampling
of the product may or may not be necessary for its purchase; however, it would
aid in the process of selecting new products.
Factors and/or specifications are considered and developed when
selecting a new product. The cost,
delivery, standards, nutritional values, and locality are a few factors the
purchasing manager will consider.
Specifications of products are the
standards that someone creates to establish the type of quality, in which they
are looking for. Sometimes products are
not meeting to the specifications or standards that are set. If this is true, the purchasing manager can
e-mail the company with their issues and concerns about their products or
services.
Next, we discussed the
considerations when determining whether or not to make or buy a product. There are many factors to consider. The biggest and most obvious is the labor
cost versus the purchased cost. For
example, it may be more cost efficient to purchase broccoli florets since you
end up throwing away the stem, it takes time, and time is money to cut the
broccoli, and having the additional attached stems is more storage space.
Afterwards, we discussed the
different types of bids. As I stated
before, there can be prime vendors or a person can bid on items
individually. In addition, bids can be
consolidated with other organizations to obtain better pricing on the item. However, bids are not just about the pricing
of the item; they have criteria based on quality, delivery, negotiation,
locality, business ethics, etc.
Locality at UNI is a largely awarded
criteria on bids. There are three types
of local purchasing at UNI: 1) within the county, 2) within the six surrounding
counties, and 3) in a 250-mile radius.
UNI purchases honey, dairy, meats, etc. locally, but cannot purchase
items such as oranges since they do not grow well in Iowa’s climate. My director said that she would purchase a
local item up to 33% higher than the nonlocal competitor item.
Right now, UNI is bidding on
uniforms, so it was interesting to see how this falls into line with what my
director and I were discussing.
Before I finished my day, I had to
act in a training video. I demonstrated
the single bucket method of mopping. In
addition, I was casted as the commentator for the information that will be used
in the video. There is additional
footage that will be shot later next week.
DAY
37: TOUR DAY TO MARTIN BROS DISTRIBUTING AND GRINNELL COLLEGE
Monday,
July 30, 2012
University
of Northern Iowa
Today, my internship director, a
kitchen helper from Fresh Beginnings, and I toured Martin Brothers distributing
plant and Grinnell College. Martin
Brothers is UNI prime vendor for their foodservices. We toured Grinnell College to compare and
contrast our foodservice facilities.
Martin Brothers is a family-owned
and operated distributor that delivers items to foodservice operations. The person giving us the tour said that they
were a Midwest distributor that served Iowa along with seven of its surrounding
states. Martin Bros. has a large
warehouse that is subdivided into dry, refrigerated, and freezer compartments. The operation is run 24/7, and they use
energy efficient loaders in their company.
Martin Bros. created an alpha-numerical system that allows the employees
to find the products quickly and without confusion. The plant looked like Lowes Department store
with boxes of food stacked up to the extremely high ceilings. It would take a large forklift to retrieve
some of the items on the top shelves. It
was a very fast tour, and I wish that I would have brought a coat. We walked into the largest refrigeration
compartment of the building that I have ever seen, and it was freezing. I opted not to go into the coolers.
Afterwards, we headed to Grinnell,
Iowa, to visit the Grinnell College. We
were early to Grinnell, so we went into two grocery stores in town to pass the
time. The first was a health store. It sold many specialty products. My internship director purchased a strange
item that I have never heard of that had quinoa in it (I have heard of quinoa,
but that was the only ingredient that I remember). Next, we went to a local grocery store. We looked at the local wines, there is not a
lot of wines that come out of Iowa.
Now, it was time to head to Grinnell
College. Grinnell College is a private
liberal arts and sciences four-year residential institute where students build
their own major/emphasis. This school is
very small; they only have 1600 students.
The person giving the tour said that this school competes with Harvard
for their students, so it is a pretty prestigious school. I probably would not have been accepted had I
applied during my senior year of high school.
Grinnell College has two dining
facilities. Marketplace is there
residential dining hall and Spencer Grill is the retail dining center. They accommodate to several students
including having a gluten-free and vegan venue in their dining hall. In addition, they prepare meals that are
culturally acceptable for many religions.
Grinnell College offers catering
services within their dining centers.
Their culinary staff consists of certified chefs, sous chefs, executive
chefs, chef de cuisine, and chef de partie.
The quality of the food increases; however, the labor increases
substantially.
At the Marketplace, there are
several venues available. There is a Wok
station, pizza station, grill station, vegan station, pasta station, eggs to
order, “at home” station, salad/soup bar, deli bar, dessert bar, cereal/bread,
and Belgian waffle station. In addition, Grinnell College does not contract
their pop/soda, so they could have every kind of soda to mankind. I loved being able to drink Diet Dr. Pepper
at lunch.
We saw many of the back of house
production areas including the commissary, bakery, and ovens. They had this neat piece of equipment called
a sous-vide. It is a method of cooking that
cooks airtight food in a water bath creating tender and juicy meats. My favorite piece of equipment was there dish
machine. There was hardly ever a need
for lifting. With a push of a button the
cups entered the dish machine. In addition,
they never had to lift the soiled plates from the original tray line, since
this is the same line that goes directly to the dishwasher. Lastly, I noticed they had a large salad
spinner. I wish that Rialto would have
had one of those for my special event!
DAY
38: HYVEE DIETITIAN AND CATCH UP
Tuesday,
July 31, 2012
University
of Northern Iowa
Today, I met with the Cedar Falls,
Iowa Hy-Vee dietitian named Dean. This
was a tour day that really focused on my interests. Hy-Vee grocery stores hire dietitians at both
the cooperate levels and store levels. There
are no grocery stores in the St. Louis area that hire dietitians onsite. In order for Dierbergs and Schnucks to
compete with stores like Hy-Vee, I think they should hire dietitians, but I may
have a skewed opinion J.
Dean Schillinger, RD, discussed his
role at Hy-Vee. He conducts several
screenings for his customers such as cholesterol, blood pressure, personal
metabolism screening, etc. In addition, he
offers private consultations and group program.
Dean provides tours to his customers that are interested in weight-loss,
diabetes, cholesterol, and personal shoppers. Lastly, he conducts programs at
the stores mainly sampling, cooking classes, community presentations, and lunch
‘n’ learn sessions.
Hy-Vee offers Healthybites weekly
menus that can be tailored to a weight-loss, diabetic, or heart healthy
lifestyle. There are shopping lists that
you can print for these weekly menus. Throughout
the store, you can find recipes to sample chosen by the dietitians.
Hy-Vee offers a weight-loss program
called the Begin Program. It is a
ten-week long program that shows customers a new way of life, understanding,
and gaining control. The Begin Program
teaches its members what to eat and how to exercise. It has a before and after biometric
screening, 2 hours of one-on-one consultation with a Registered Dietitian, and
7 interactive group classes.
This supermarket has point of
purchase nutrition values called NuVal.
NuVal scoring is a scientific algorithm based on 30 nutrient and
nutrition factors. The numerator is good
nutrients such as fiber, water and fat-soluble vitamins, and minerals, whereas
the denominator is poor nutrients such as trans-fat, cholesterol, saturated
fat, sodium, and sugar. The NuVal scores
can be anywhere from 1-100. The higher
the number the more nutritious it is for you.
As you can guess fresh fruit such as blueberries have a high NuVal score
of 100, whereas a highly processed full of sodium pizza has a NuVall score of
8.
We toured the store, and he pointed
out some very interesting things. I am
completely jealous of the Hy-Vees! I
want one in my area! I really would
appreciate what it would do for my community and my career. If not, can some of the grocery stores around
me start hiring dietitians?
Today was my last day (not official)
of my internship besides my evaluation, so I have some catching up to do on
some last minute projects. I hope that I
get done :/ I will be working on Rotation Evaluations, Nutrition Marketing, and
Cost analysis this evening, no Olympics for me!
