University of Oklahoma: End of Week 1

Thursday (6/4)

Today Jenica and I spent a lot of time talking to Rayanna, who is the liaison between housing and food service.

Her main duties: Rayanna sees what students want and modifies the catering menu accordingly. She also works with the chef to make sure things are accurate, such as pricing.

Athletic Menus and Catering:   All teams are provided $30 per athlete in food per week, when it comes to catering for the entire team. The catering menu includes veggie sandwiches, a yogurt parfait bar, an oatmeal bar, and breakfast sandwiches to choose from. Recently, the women's gymnastics team has even requested that all their food to be organic. I asked Rayanna how they make this possible and she said they have trucks make trips up to Whole Foods. It seems like the food service department makes a vast effort to satisfy each and every person.

How the Sports Dietitian likes the athletic dining hall set up:

So, I said "athletic dining hall," but it is actually not limited to only the athletes (that would be against NCAA rules). Wagner Dining Hall is open to other students that live in the hall, as well as other students that request to extend their meal plan there. What's different about this dining hall is that Tiffany Byrd, the sports dietitian, has meal planning requirements for football. Here are a few examples:
-No fried foods
-Whole wheat breads
-Brown rice
-Wipe off extra oil on vegetables
She also request that peanut butter, jelly, ketchup, and honey be individually packaged so the athletes can control their nutrition. She also requests that the buffet be set up in this order: Veggies, Meats, and Carbs last.







After work: We hit the gym and watched Ocean's Eleven

Friday (6/5)

10:30AM: Danna Todd
Jenica and I met up with Danna, who is the Purchasing Manager at OU. She told us a little about herself. To make it short and sweet, she raises cattle, has two kids, and she makes homemade ice cream.

Purchasing: Danna purchases anything ranging from office supplies to facility supplies.

Operation: I asked Danna what makes her job run smoothly and she said that communication is key. She communicates a lot with Matt, the Purchasing Director. They both CC each other through email so that they know which tasks are getting done and which one of them is doing that specific task.

Budgeting: Summer is her busiest time of the year because this is when she tries to get all things prepared for the new fiscal year.







2PM: Nancy De Groff
Job title: Assistant Director of Food Services & Director of Customer Relations



Being Assistant Director of Food Services, Nancy takes care of meal plans. She explained to Jenica and I the meal plan price breakdown.
            I asked Nancy what she especially likes about her duties and she said she likes working with numbers, which is important when inputting reports into excel sheets.

Nancy also works closely with catering and she helps out with the buffets at football games in the suites. She showed us pictures of the food presentations and ice sculptors that are presented in the lobby of the suites. Fun fact: Toby Keith has his own suite at University of Oklahoma!



After work: Jenica and I laid out by the pool and biked around town.

Saturday: We went paddle boarding at the Boat District in Bricktown