June 11th

Today we learned the technical skill of the dishpit.  If there is one part of food service that NEEDS to be a well-oiled machine....well it is the dishpit.  And let me tell you all something about UGA, it is very well oiled machine!  There is a conveyer belt that is in the dining hall where the customers and students put their trays.  That belt leads to the back of the kitchen where there are six people lined up.  One on bowls, one on plates, one of silverware....so on and so forth.  I am looking at it thinking, this can't be that bad.  Oh it got crazy!  Summer time is when UGA hosts a lot of camps and this morning they had a camp for 700 kids.  Imagine 700 plates, bowls, knives, and forks flying at you at one time!  That is how this happens.  It was fun to work in there, a little hot, but the time flew by.

The next several hours were spent doing interviews with different members of the food service team.  The first person we interviewed was Katherine.  She is an RD at UGA and is involved in helping the students learn how to eat healthy on the meal plan.  She also plans a very small part of the menu, does the food analysis for a lot of the food with foodpro, and many many other things.  I was very intrigued by her job I would like to learn more about a day in the life of Katherine.  We then met with Allison who does marketing.  I didn't realize how much marketing goes into EVERYTHING!!!  She is involved in just about anything that has to do with.....well marketing the meal plan.  The one thing I found most interesting was a program called Taste of Home.  It is a program where parents submit some of the kids favorite recipes and it has the chance of getting on the menu.  This year is the 25th anniversary, and they have a cafe with some of the past items on the fifth floor of the student center.  Pretty neat.  

Susan the assisntant director was our next victim ;].  We got to see some of her managerial skills put right to work.  When we went to the Tate Cafe there were people everywhere.  They had a cheerleading camp that was not expected to eat there, but she called three people and cleared that line out.  It was great to see the team work people have.  We then finished the day with Michael Floyd the executive director and Dan "the meal plan man."  Mr. Floyd had a lot of insightful things to say about choosing the highest quality products and getting the 7 day meal plan instead of the 5 day.  We will be spending a 12 hour day with him, I look forward to seeing what a day is like with him.  Dan was just cute, made us smile and answered any questions we had about buying the meal plan.  It was a very informational day!



This morning 6 AM, Rain Rain Rain.  Samantha used a trash bag as a poncho.  Pure genius.