June 1
Today we started off our Monday with customer service with Susan. She really made an impression on me that we are in the business of serving people and that our interactions with guests mean everything! From a bright smile to keeping things positive, the small gestures matter. She showed us a touching video of Johnny the bagger, this employee who transformed a local grocery store by putting inspirational quotes into his guests' bags. It brought a tear to my eye and reminded me of just how much our actions can make an uplifting impact on others.
Watch the short video here for a dose of daily inspiration!
We also had a very lovely lunch with Gail Hurley, the Associate VP for Auxiliary & Business Services at the Nittany Lion Inn.
My delicious vegan burger, along with roasted cauliflower and Fuji apple soup. So delightful!
Throughout our lunch, we got to speak with Gail and ask her questions. Gail was incredibly kind and down-to-earth, she provided us with so many nuggets of wisdom and a glimpse into her typically very busy days!
Next, we moved on to a tour of the sensory tasting lab. I loved this and we got to do a taste test of two Lancaster caramels. I found it awesome that Penn State teams up with corporations such as Walt Disney and restaurants like Olive Garden to do sensory taste testing for them. It is a very scientific process! Students can also participate in these research studies for gift cards and monetary rewards, which is great :)
The final activity of the day was touring the Pegula ice rink! Even though I'm not a huge fan of ice hockey, it was really impressive
to see just how big the facility was and to learn about its history.
June 2
The day everyone was anxiously waiting for... the Creamery tour!! It was so great to tour where all the amazingly delicious ice cream was made. From the complicated machinery to the transport system that resembles a mini roller coaster, there are many steps to making the ice cream from milk. Each step is tightly regulated and we even got to taste some of the freshly churned vanilla ice cream- it was just dreamy!
We also learned about the special liquid chocolate used in certain ice creams that have chocolate chunks- the chocolate has a very low melting point and immediately fractures into solid flecks when mixed with the ice cream base. Because of the low MP, the chocolate pieces melt instantaneously in your mouth upon eating.
Afterwards, we had a meeting with the campus dining director, Jim Richards. He explained to us that the top mission at Penn State was providing excellent customer service and that this is done cooperation through the housing, foodservice, and residence life departments on campus.
Then was a brief introduction to FoodPro by Karen Jackson, the FoodPro coordinator. It is the system that we will use to purchase food for our final luncheon! FoodPro is used at many universities and it is 32 years old. Items should be listed very specifically in the system as soon as possible so it can be purchased and bought for usage! There is also a nutritional analysis component which is very necessary.
June 3
Our off day! Since it was rainy, we resorted to a fun shopping trip and adventures at the post office- a photo of all of us meeting the famous Mike the Mailman on campus coming up shortly! "Like" Mike on Facebook here, he is so funny, sarcastic, and forever young at heart.
June 4
We completed a training for Child Abuse as well as Food Safety today. Woohoo for two new certificates!
In the afternoon, we met with Stacy, the dietitian here that works for health services. It was a great learning experience and I found it very enlightening, listening to her past work history. Stacy completed her Dietetic Internship in Kentucky and then worked in a clinical hospital setting for a few years. Her specialty was the ketogenic diet for epileptics, which is something I was curious about. Stacy said she loves interacting with a diverse range of patients in university setting and counseling, particularly those with eating disorders. Since that was a passion of mine, it was really interesting to pick her mind about working with those individuals as part of a medical team (HEALS) and tracking their progress.
Here is the link to the HEALS page, which stands for "Healthy Eating and Living Support).
June 5-6
Back to the kitchen at Findlay for the Special Olympics event!!
On Friday, Marisa and I made thousands of French toast and grilled cheese sandwiches with Chef Terry. He loved us so much that he ended up wanting to keep us the next morning for making pancakes, but we ended up serving instead and then working the dish belt. New experiences!
See below: so.much.bread!!
It was a real joy to see the genuine kindness and politeness of the children that were here. They always said "please" and "thank you," some of them were just filled with excitement at the thought of freshly made pancakes or sausages!
The lines were incredibly long and there were more people here this weekend than for Happy Volley, everything from cooking to serving to cleaning just zoomed by at the speed of rapid fire. It was a experience I will never forget!
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