Week 3
Week 3 at a glance seemed to be an easy going week with plenty of time to work on recipes. Our menu for our special event is almost complete! A few more things need to be added then I make a post about what we will be serving.
Monday
We had a meeting with Chef Shelly and Chef Jorge to go over our final recipes for our special event. Lexie and I met up before the meeting to see if we needed to add anything and to organize our ideas and recipes to formally present to the chefs. Being a dietetic major, I found this as my opportunity to showcase how good tasting food can also be healthy. Jorge and Shelly both loved our ideas and thought they would be a great addition to their usual menu during the school year. Some adjustments were made and few extra items were added to the menu. I can't wait to see this all come together in July. Don't worry, there will be pictures! This meeting was all we had on our agenda for the day so Lexie and I found a few desserts to add to the menu then packed up to go to the pool.
Tuesday
Craig is back! Whoop! Whoop! We all get breakfast together and talked about how things have been going so far. After breakfast, we made our way back to the office to meet with Stuart Hammond, the FoodPro manager. For those of you reading this who do not know what FoodPro is, it is a very very complex system that keeps track of the menus for the various dining halls on campus, it holds the recipes used for EVERYTHING on campus, it is also an inventory tool to help managers keep track of how much the order every week. Oh my goodness, this system does so much when it comes to food management. The tasks I just mentioned are only a few things this system can do and Stuart knows how to work it all. He is the pro at FoodPro.
Stuart explained the various functions and why they are important to use. He emphasized the importance of accuracy because the system has formulas for everything which means the smallest detail will affect something else down the road. There was quite a bit of information to absorb all at once but once I get some time to play around with it I'm sure I'll get the hang of it.
By this time of the day, it's only 12:30pm and we still had the other half of the day to go! Off we went to Panda Express to meet with Chris Fagan. Similar to the other retail places we have been, we watched videos that helped explain what the company stands for. He explained Panda invests in its employees because part of their mission statement is "building an organization where people are inspired to better their lives." They believe if you have individuals who are striving for greatness in their life, the giving aspect will be incorporated into their work life, making the company successful. One of the videos we watched was an auction of an iPad in which the money would go to their charity, Panda Cares. The man with the highest bid went up to the stage and donated the iPad back to be auctioned again. This one act of kindness led to a chain reaction of other acts. People kept donating money then giving back the iPad. Soon enough it was apparent the iPad was no longer in the picture, people just wanted to donate to the good cause. Panda Express supports its ever giving employees.
Following the videos, we put on our Panda aprons and hats and went to the kitchen. Chris needed help preparing green onions to be used later on in the week. Finally another opportunity to get my hands on food! Taped to the wall were sheets with different vegetables with the sizing of the different cuts. Pretty smart to help keep the look consistent while various employees may be preparing the food throughout the day. We were given an entire box full of green onions to thinly slice. Again, like the chicken at Chick-fil-A, I was in the zone yet so relaxed.
During our time with Chris, he told us blame and credit are things passed throughout the line of management. It is important to give credit when it needs to be given. For example, if sales drastically increased, if Chris would give all the credit to his team because they are the ones working hard to make a difference in their customers' lives. On the other hand, if something bad were to happen, Chris would take the blame because he is the leader of that business. Other managers may point out an employee for making a mistake but Chris is a true leader and acts as a role model for the employees who work for him.
Wednesday
Today we were able to sleep in a little, started at 11am!
We had brunch with Craig and went over our schedule for the upcoming week. Then we went back to the office to sit in on a "Portion Control" presentation. Dining Services is looking to better advertise portion control methods in the dining halls. They came up with decals to put on the glass in front of stations showing the various portions they can put in the dish. They were also thinking of making signs to help students keep in mind what is healthy and eat all the time compared to items to eat only once in a while. These two ideas can go a long way in a dining hall that offers all-access to food. Triggering the students to become more conscious of what they are fueling their body with. Trifold posters will be tabled by Peer Nutrition Educators, dietetic students that work for Katherine and Lindsay, will offer diverse combinations of breakfast, lunch, and dinner ideas using the portion dishes. Sometimes students need to see these different ideas to help formulate their own.
Following the presentation, we met with the Dietitian, Katherine Ingerson. I was very excited about this meeting because I knew it would be more geared toward what I am studying. She told us much has changed from the time she took over the position, small yet significant changes. One example she mentioned was having pop tarts in the dining halls. Katherine knew in order to win this battle she would others to support her from a different standpoint than nutrition. She wanted to make sure it didn't come off as attacking so she explained they could be sold in retail or other places to get money from the pop tarts instead of students having free reign over them. The little battles are huge victories when it comes to nutrition because each student now has a better opportunity to make a healthier choice due to the absence of a pop tart. This is just one example. I'm not trying to hate too hard on pop tarts, I used to eat them for breakfast every once in a while....
There were other instances Katherine mentioned but the key point to take away is that you don't want it to seem like you're attacking them about their food choices or the policies they have in place. It's tricky to find a way to seem suggestive yet assertive with your point/argument. I thought it was funny she mentioned she would eat a cookie in front of management to show them she's human, too. She enjoys sweets but she always stresses "everything in moderation", a popular phrase in the nutrition world.
"Why do you think we only label certain thing in the dining halls," Katherine asked us referring the nutrition labels. Items that are available every day have the nutrition label accessible on the product or the container it is in. A few examples include the bread for toasting, cereal, bagels, and salad dressings. So why not for everything else? Seeing the fat and caloric amount can be very dangerous for those with an eating disorder or recovering from one. There is so much more psychology surrounding food than people usually think. It's important to eliminate the troubling factors of eating to help those who may be struggling with it. After this conversation with Katherine, I decided to take this type food psychology into account. This may be when I'm conversing with my friend or strangers or presenting a project. I don't know everyone's background and what they go through on a daily basis.
Following our meeting with Katherine, we went down the hall to meet with Lindsay, the Dietetic Assistant, to go over what she does in Dining Services. She works with a team of six Dietetic students to go through the inventory of the various dining halls to make sure the ingredients are up-to-date and the proper allergens are accounted for. All this data is kept in FoodPro which is linked to the Build My Plate program students can access. Their system is very complex but I think it would be very cool to partake in the process, be a part of the impact students are able to use on a daily basis.
To end the day at work, we met with Brittany to go over how payroll works. UGA uses Kronos which was very familiar to me since it's what we used at Ball State. She showed us different situations managers may encounter as they go over the timecards for the week. Full-time employees need between 37.5-40 hours a week to receive the benefits UGA offers. The tricky part comes in when people need to take time off. Some employees are a part of a special medical program and have so many hours they can use towards the program in addition to the hours they have worked to receive off. It was kind of confusing at first but there is paperwork to help make sure everything is documented. Brittany explained how important is was to check the timecards early on in the day before the pay period ends in case someone was going to be working overtime and needed to leave early/come in late.
Thursday
Field trip day! Craig, Lexie, the Food Safety Intern, and I took a university van to the Jittery Joe's Roaster. Charlie gave us a tour of the building and explained the functions of the machines that make the coffee that is seen all around Athens. It just so happened that Charlie was roasting coffee beans when we arrived so we got to see the process and the different stages the beans go through. The temperature of the roaster plays a major role in the taste of the beans. You want the moisture from the bean to be released at the right time and in the right amount. Charlie pulled out beans at the various stages for us to smell the difference. The most popular one was the cinnamon stage because, well, the beans smelled like cinnamon. The coolest part of the roasting was hearing the crackling of the beans while they were releasing carbon dioxide. After a few more minutes, the beans were ready to be taken out to be cooled, aged, and packaged later.
I'm not an avid coffee drinker but I have had more coffee down here than I ever have before. It's hard for me to decipher the different roasts and added flavors in the coffee but Charlie tested our olfactory senses instead. Farms have two ways to process their beans, wet or dry. Wet processing removes all the outer layers from the coffee bean, such as the cherry, pulp, and skin. The beans are then "washed" and set out to dry. Dry processing is the more natural way because the bean is dried still inside the cherry then after about four weeks, the raisin-like cherry is removed from the bean. There are several other steps in both processes but that is the gist of each process.
Yes, we did get to take some coffee while we were there.
The rest of the day was spent with Erin Bridgman at the Village Summit. We learned about how about her position and the cooperation with the student employees. Only being there a few months, Erin has revamped several things about her position to make it more efficient for her and the students she will help train. She helped create a document the students can access at any time to help them better their knowledge about working at the Summit. Through the same document, they are able to submit "request off" forms and other important forms. She told us that students make up a quite a bit of their workforce during the year because they can work after the full-timers go home and during the weekends. Being so young in her position, she is able to better relate to the students since it was just a few years ago she was a student as well.
Friday
It was interesting to see the building I toured during my quick spring break stop to be back up and functioning at full capacity. Ok, maybe not quite full capacity but more than the emptiness I saw previously. Oglethorpe (O-House) was only open for campers during the summertime, to relieve some stress from Bolton and the Village Summit. When we arrived, they were busy serving breakfast to a football camp, Duke Tip camp, and a ballet camp. It was very loud to only be 8:30 in the morning but they did just get their morning sugar for the day. Adam Rainville welcomed us and told us to hop behind the line to help finish serving the campers. Marlo, a Student Station Leader, showed me where all the important things were if I needed to restock a pan or clean something up. The rush was dying down so we didn't really have to worry about anything.
Finally, another rare occasion occurred, someone knew and had heard of Ball State! I take great pride in the school that has helped shaped who I am today and guided me to this amazing experience so when someone has at least heard of it, it makes my heart warm. Marlo's mother went to Indiana University, our rival, and lived in Central Michigan for a good portion of her life before she moved down here to Georgia. We talked a little more before we had to clean up and have breakfast with the rest of the staff.
Adam walked us through the steps of scheduling and what has worked best for him. He showed us one of his fancy color-coded grids he used. WOW! Talk about organization, the grid was sectioned out by area/station, time, and who was working. When it comes to scheduling students, he sends the times he needs to be filled to Rachel in the Dining Services office in Bolton and she puzzles in what students' schedules work best for O-House's schedule. The nice thing about O-house is that is a five-day operation, meaning it's only open during the weekdays. This allows Adam to create a concrete schedule that the employees can count on working every week, no rotating shifts. When scheduling, he takes into consideration who he is serving. For example, during the summer, campers don't usually want a breakfast burrito or a fancy coffee drink in the morning. The extra workers in those stations are allowed to leave their stations to lend a hand where it's needed. Having employees trained in multiple positions allows the rotating in staff at different times of the day.
Adam is the coach and his staff is his super-powered athletic team. He explained at the beginning of the year when they are short staffed (not as many students), the whole team works on the preparation of the meals. When the time comes, the whole team then comes to the front line to serve and cleans when all is finished. While having breakfast with the staff, it definitely brought back memories to high school eating a quick dinner with the soccer team before or after a game. We all had our jobs but were willing to cover for each other when it mattered the most. Adam not only managed his staff but developed an efficient, family-oriented team.
This afternoon I received a very exciting email stating I had passed my ServSafe exam! What better way to test my knowledge than to help with a mock inspection. Kris Ingmundson, Food Safety Coordinator, along with her intern Katelynn went through a mock health inspection on practically the whole inside of the building. We tested temperatures, proper cooling techniques, looked for chemical placement, expired food, and much more. We wanted to go through the whole house and find everything we could to help prepare them for a real health inspection. We did find quite a few things that needed to be fixed, some immediately and some could wait for a little. All in all, it was a neat experience to apply what we were tested on in a real world situation.
I didn't take as many pictures this week but it was full of experiences pictures wouldn't be able to describe. Stay tuned for another grate week!
Monday
We had a meeting with Chef Shelly and Chef Jorge to go over our final recipes for our special event. Lexie and I met up before the meeting to see if we needed to add anything and to organize our ideas and recipes to formally present to the chefs. Being a dietetic major, I found this as my opportunity to showcase how good tasting food can also be healthy. Jorge and Shelly both loved our ideas and thought they would be a great addition to their usual menu during the school year. Some adjustments were made and few extra items were added to the menu. I can't wait to see this all come together in July. Don't worry, there will be pictures! This meeting was all we had on our agenda for the day so Lexie and I found a few desserts to add to the menu then packed up to go to the pool.
Tuesday
Craig is back! Whoop! Whoop! We all get breakfast together and talked about how things have been going so far. After breakfast, we made our way back to the office to meet with Stuart Hammond, the FoodPro manager. For those of you reading this who do not know what FoodPro is, it is a very very complex system that keeps track of the menus for the various dining halls on campus, it holds the recipes used for EVERYTHING on campus, it is also an inventory tool to help managers keep track of how much the order every week. Oh my goodness, this system does so much when it comes to food management. The tasks I just mentioned are only a few things this system can do and Stuart knows how to work it all. He is the pro at FoodPro.
Stuart explained the various functions and why they are important to use. He emphasized the importance of accuracy because the system has formulas for everything which means the smallest detail will affect something else down the road. There was quite a bit of information to absorb all at once but once I get some time to play around with it I'm sure I'll get the hang of it.
By this time of the day, it's only 12:30pm and we still had the other half of the day to go! Off we went to Panda Express to meet with Chris Fagan. Similar to the other retail places we have been, we watched videos that helped explain what the company stands for. He explained Panda invests in its employees because part of their mission statement is "building an organization where people are inspired to better their lives." They believe if you have individuals who are striving for greatness in their life, the giving aspect will be incorporated into their work life, making the company successful. One of the videos we watched was an auction of an iPad in which the money would go to their charity, Panda Cares. The man with the highest bid went up to the stage and donated the iPad back to be auctioned again. This one act of kindness led to a chain reaction of other acts. People kept donating money then giving back the iPad. Soon enough it was apparent the iPad was no longer in the picture, people just wanted to donate to the good cause. Panda Express supports its ever giving employees.
Following the videos, we put on our Panda aprons and hats and went to the kitchen. Chris needed help preparing green onions to be used later on in the week. Finally another opportunity to get my hands on food! Taped to the wall were sheets with different vegetables with the sizing of the different cuts. Pretty smart to help keep the look consistent while various employees may be preparing the food throughout the day. We were given an entire box full of green onions to thinly slice. Again, like the chicken at Chick-fil-A, I was in the zone yet so relaxed.
During our time with Chris, he told us blame and credit are things passed throughout the line of management. It is important to give credit when it needs to be given. For example, if sales drastically increased, if Chris would give all the credit to his team because they are the ones working hard to make a difference in their customers' lives. On the other hand, if something bad were to happen, Chris would take the blame because he is the leader of that business. Other managers may point out an employee for making a mistake but Chris is a true leader and acts as a role model for the employees who work for him.
Wednesday
Today we were able to sleep in a little, started at 11am!
We had brunch with Craig and went over our schedule for the upcoming week. Then we went back to the office to sit in on a "Portion Control" presentation. Dining Services is looking to better advertise portion control methods in the dining halls. They came up with decals to put on the glass in front of stations showing the various portions they can put in the dish. They were also thinking of making signs to help students keep in mind what is healthy and eat all the time compared to items to eat only once in a while. These two ideas can go a long way in a dining hall that offers all-access to food. Triggering the students to become more conscious of what they are fueling their body with. Trifold posters will be tabled by Peer Nutrition Educators, dietetic students that work for Katherine and Lindsay, will offer diverse combinations of breakfast, lunch, and dinner ideas using the portion dishes. Sometimes students need to see these different ideas to help formulate their own.
Following the presentation, we met with the Dietitian, Katherine Ingerson. I was very excited about this meeting because I knew it would be more geared toward what I am studying. She told us much has changed from the time she took over the position, small yet significant changes. One example she mentioned was having pop tarts in the dining halls. Katherine knew in order to win this battle she would others to support her from a different standpoint than nutrition. She wanted to make sure it didn't come off as attacking so she explained they could be sold in retail or other places to get money from the pop tarts instead of students having free reign over them. The little battles are huge victories when it comes to nutrition because each student now has a better opportunity to make a healthier choice due to the absence of a pop tart. This is just one example. I'm not trying to hate too hard on pop tarts, I used to eat them for breakfast every once in a while....
There were other instances Katherine mentioned but the key point to take away is that you don't want it to seem like you're attacking them about their food choices or the policies they have in place. It's tricky to find a way to seem suggestive yet assertive with your point/argument. I thought it was funny she mentioned she would eat a cookie in front of management to show them she's human, too. She enjoys sweets but she always stresses "everything in moderation", a popular phrase in the nutrition world.
"Why do you think we only label certain thing in the dining halls," Katherine asked us referring the nutrition labels. Items that are available every day have the nutrition label accessible on the product or the container it is in. A few examples include the bread for toasting, cereal, bagels, and salad dressings. So why not for everything else? Seeing the fat and caloric amount can be very dangerous for those with an eating disorder or recovering from one. There is so much more psychology surrounding food than people usually think. It's important to eliminate the troubling factors of eating to help those who may be struggling with it. After this conversation with Katherine, I decided to take this type food psychology into account. This may be when I'm conversing with my friend or strangers or presenting a project. I don't know everyone's background and what they go through on a daily basis.
Following our meeting with Katherine, we went down the hall to meet with Lindsay, the Dietetic Assistant, to go over what she does in Dining Services. She works with a team of six Dietetic students to go through the inventory of the various dining halls to make sure the ingredients are up-to-date and the proper allergens are accounted for. All this data is kept in FoodPro which is linked to the Build My Plate program students can access. Their system is very complex but I think it would be very cool to partake in the process, be a part of the impact students are able to use on a daily basis.
To end the day at work, we met with Brittany to go over how payroll works. UGA uses Kronos which was very familiar to me since it's what we used at Ball State. She showed us different situations managers may encounter as they go over the timecards for the week. Full-time employees need between 37.5-40 hours a week to receive the benefits UGA offers. The tricky part comes in when people need to take time off. Some employees are a part of a special medical program and have so many hours they can use towards the program in addition to the hours they have worked to receive off. It was kind of confusing at first but there is paperwork to help make sure everything is documented. Brittany explained how important is was to check the timecards early on in the day before the pay period ends in case someone was going to be working overtime and needed to leave early/come in late.
ThursdayField trip day! Craig, Lexie, the Food Safety Intern, and I took a university van to the Jittery Joe's Roaster. Charlie gave us a tour of the building and explained the functions of the machines that make the coffee that is seen all around Athens. It just so happened that Charlie was roasting coffee beans when we arrived so we got to see the process and the different stages the beans go through. The temperature of the roaster plays a major role in the taste of the beans. You want the moisture from the bean to be released at the right time and in the right amount. Charlie pulled out beans at the various stages for us to smell the difference. The most popular one was the cinnamon stage because, well, the beans smelled like cinnamon. The coolest part of the roasting was hearing the crackling of the beans while they were releasing carbon dioxide. After a few more minutes, the beans were ready to be taken out to be cooled, aged, and packaged later.
I'm not an avid coffee drinker but I have had more coffee down here than I ever have before. It's hard for me to decipher the different roasts and added flavors in the coffee but Charlie tested our olfactory senses instead. Farms have two ways to process their beans, wet or dry. Wet processing removes all the outer layers from the coffee bean, such as the cherry, pulp, and skin. The beans are then "washed" and set out to dry. Dry processing is the more natural way because the bean is dried still inside the cherry then after about four weeks, the raisin-like cherry is removed from the bean. There are several other steps in both processes but that is the gist of each process.
Yes, we did get to take some coffee while we were there.
The rest of the day was spent with Erin Bridgman at the Village Summit. We learned about how about her position and the cooperation with the student employees. Only being there a few months, Erin has revamped several things about her position to make it more efficient for her and the students she will help train. She helped create a document the students can access at any time to help them better their knowledge about working at the Summit. Through the same document, they are able to submit "request off" forms and other important forms. She told us that students make up a quite a bit of their workforce during the year because they can work after the full-timers go home and during the weekends. Being so young in her position, she is able to better relate to the students since it was just a few years ago she was a student as well.
Friday
It was interesting to see the building I toured during my quick spring break stop to be back up and functioning at full capacity. Ok, maybe not quite full capacity but more than the emptiness I saw previously. Oglethorpe (O-House) was only open for campers during the summertime, to relieve some stress from Bolton and the Village Summit. When we arrived, they were busy serving breakfast to a football camp, Duke Tip camp, and a ballet camp. It was very loud to only be 8:30 in the morning but they did just get their morning sugar for the day. Adam Rainville welcomed us and told us to hop behind the line to help finish serving the campers. Marlo, a Student Station Leader, showed me where all the important things were if I needed to restock a pan or clean something up. The rush was dying down so we didn't really have to worry about anything.
Finally, another rare occasion occurred, someone knew and had heard of Ball State! I take great pride in the school that has helped shaped who I am today and guided me to this amazing experience so when someone has at least heard of it, it makes my heart warm. Marlo's mother went to Indiana University, our rival, and lived in Central Michigan for a good portion of her life before she moved down here to Georgia. We talked a little more before we had to clean up and have breakfast with the rest of the staff.
Adam walked us through the steps of scheduling and what has worked best for him. He showed us one of his fancy color-coded grids he used. WOW! Talk about organization, the grid was sectioned out by area/station, time, and who was working. When it comes to scheduling students, he sends the times he needs to be filled to Rachel in the Dining Services office in Bolton and she puzzles in what students' schedules work best for O-House's schedule. The nice thing about O-house is that is a five-day operation, meaning it's only open during the weekdays. This allows Adam to create a concrete schedule that the employees can count on working every week, no rotating shifts. When scheduling, he takes into consideration who he is serving. For example, during the summer, campers don't usually want a breakfast burrito or a fancy coffee drink in the morning. The extra workers in those stations are allowed to leave their stations to lend a hand where it's needed. Having employees trained in multiple positions allows the rotating in staff at different times of the day.
Adam is the coach and his staff is his super-powered athletic team. He explained at the beginning of the year when they are short staffed (not as many students), the whole team works on the preparation of the meals. When the time comes, the whole team then comes to the front line to serve and cleans when all is finished. While having breakfast with the staff, it definitely brought back memories to high school eating a quick dinner with the soccer team before or after a game. We all had our jobs but were willing to cover for each other when it mattered the most. Adam not only managed his staff but developed an efficient, family-oriented team.
This afternoon I received a very exciting email stating I had passed my ServSafe exam! What better way to test my knowledge than to help with a mock inspection. Kris Ingmundson, Food Safety Coordinator, along with her intern Katelynn went through a mock health inspection on practically the whole inside of the building. We tested temperatures, proper cooling techniques, looked for chemical placement, expired food, and much more. We wanted to go through the whole house and find everything we could to help prepare them for a real health inspection. We did find quite a few things that needed to be fixed, some immediately and some could wait for a little. All in all, it was a neat experience to apply what we were tested on in a real world situation.
I didn't take as many pictures this week but it was full of experiences pictures wouldn't be able to describe. Stay tuned for another grate week!
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