Foodservice is much as a business as a service

Week 2 has come and gone already.  I had many more great experiences this week.  On Friday, I decided to see downtown Grand Forks.  So, I rode my bike down there (it takes only 13 minutes on bike).  I walked around for a bit and explored.  On Saturday, I returned downtown twice: once for the annual art fest and the other to see a movie. The art fest was really cool.  many vendors came from around he area to showcase their works.  When I was downtown, I took a few pictures:  This memorial pillar shows the years that the Red River of the North has flooded the town.  The top tier is from when it flooded and closed down the whole city in 1997.  The other picture is the sign going into Minnesota.  The city is situated right on the border, so all you have to do is cross the bridge and you're in Minnesota!  Saturday night, I rode back into East Grand Forks, MN and saw Men in Black 3. It was pretty good.  Sunday, I courageously rode my bike to mass at St. Michael Parish downtown in the pouring rain.I was pretty miserable, but I felt I had no excuse to miss mass.

Monday, I worked the morning vegetable prep shift.  The dining center I am working in has its own vegetable prep chef.  She gets to work at 5:30 AM and prepares salads for the whole day.  I made a few salads and peeled a ton of onions.  Thank goodness I don't cry from them!  Later that day, I worked with Dustin, the dietitian on putting UND's fall menu and planning an annual summer picnic that will happen in July.

Tuesday through Friday in the mornings, I worked at one of UND's retail operations called the Old Main Marketplace.  It is basically a food court in the school's union.  They have a Sbarro and A&W and serve grab and go foods and deli sandwiches similar to a Subway. The staff was short all week, so I helped make salads and serve the customers pizza from Sbarro. I also spoke with the managers for awhile.  They discussed with me how they basically run a business through this area.  They have to keep track of sales, franchising regulations, and inventory.  They showed all of this to me firsthand too.

In the afternoons, I worked with Dustin to update the menu and update nutritional information on the computer system.

The hilight of my week was meeting with several food brokers.  Twice, salesmen came to talk with my supervisors.  They spoke about their products and what they could do to help our operation.  I was really interested to see how business and foodservice mix. I realized that foodservice does not just do food.  Logisitcs and relationships are important as well.