UW - Madison Week One! (June 8th - 14th)

My name is Miranda Kashian, and I just finished my sophomore year at Michigan State University as a Dietetics major. I am doing the NACUFS internship at the University of Wisconsin – Madison!

Monday

That's me on the left!

Our first day at UW – Madison involved lots of introductions and lots of walking! Kaylene (the other NACUFS Intern) and I began the day by some housekeeping things: finishing up paperwork, getting our ID’s and meal cards, etc. Then, led by Sue Olson (manager of Newell’s Deli), we proceeded to tour each of the dining units on UW – Madison’s campus, including Four Lakes Market in Dejope Hall, Carson’s Market in Carson Gulley Center, Newell’s Deli in Smith Residence Hall, Rheta’s Market in Chadborne Residence Hall, and finally Gordon Dining and Events Center. We also met lots of the personnel that are essential to each unit, including various chefs, unit managers, some student supervisors, and office personnel. Along the way, Sue pointed out features on UW – Madison’s campus, and we were able to walk through the Allen Centennial Garden, which was beautiful! We had lunch at Gordon Dining and Events Center with Denise Bolduc, who is the UW Housing Dining and Culinary Services’ Dietitian.

In the afternoon, we were able to attend a Recipe Review Meeting, in which all the Unit Chefs or Unit Managers from each dining unit and the dietitian Denise came together to go through the recipes in their recipe system (CBORD). They have thousands of recipes, and have spent the past few months reviewing each of the recipes and either correcting or deleting ones they have not used in years, have problems with, or just generally dislike. This meeting in particular was reviewing fish recipes, and it was fun watching chefs debate on the perfect Friday Fish Fry recipe!

Tuesday and Wednesday

Tuesday and Wednesday, Kaylene and I met with all the Gordon Central Office personnel and learned about their duties for Dining and Culinary Services. Tuesday morning, we met with Julie Luke, the Associate director of Dining & Culinary Services. After learning about her duties and projects as Associate director (including message TVs, budget development, and marketing), she explained to us how the management system works at UW- Madison, even giving us a flowchart explaining the hierarchy of employees! She also introduced us to one of our main NACUFS Internship projects: working with her to develop a marketing plan for the Healthier Campus Initiative that UW – Madison signed up to be a part of. Among other duties, we will be providing a student’s perspective on ways to encourage UW – Madison’s students to make healthier choices at mealtime and help develop ways the Dining and Culinary services can market the changes they have made from this initiative.

After our meeting with Julie, we met with Angie Erickson, the Assistant Director of Dining and Culinary Services. She is also a Registered Dietitian and fills in when Denise is gone! Her main duties, though, are systems (such as CBORD) and purchasing. Angie explained to us how the dining services purchase food through a distributor and multiple back-up distributors. She also explained the application process UW – Madison uses to select the company they buy food from, including bidding, an application that is rated, interviews, and what aspects the company must have in order to be hired by the university. The process is very extensive to be sure they get the best deal possible! She also explained how they utilize their software CBORD for purchasing among its many other uses.

After discussing purchasing with Angie, we met with Jodi Bodnar, who is in charge of Point of Sale & Reports. She also oversees the truck drivers who transport food between the units on campus! Jodi explained the Point of Sales system and what it takes to be a cashier for the University. She also explained how the cashiers’ ring up customers through the a-la-carte system the University uses in its dining halls. Lastly, she showed us the report of the day’s sales managers use to reconcile the drawer and make deposits.

Next, we met with Denise Bolduc again and she explained to us in more detail the CBORD system and its use for recipes, nutrition, and allergen information. She explained her project, NetNutrition, which is available on UW – Madison’s website. NetNutrition displays each station’s menu within each dining unit on campus. However, the user is able to check boxes that list common allergies. When you check the box, any menu items containing that allergen will not be displayed, allowing the user to figure out exactly what they are able to eat within each dining hall!

Our last meeting of the day was with Carleen Smith and Amanda Bedessem, who are in charge of submitting food orders to Martin Bros (their main distributor) or their backup distributors. They have a rather extensive job, as they submit orders for all the dining units on campus! They also check the invoices received for deliveries from both the distributor and accounting after it has been paid. They often find discrepancies, which they must deal with accordingly!

Tuesday afternoon we were able to attend a Recipe Testing for cheese curds! The chefs brought in about 7 different kinds of cheese curds and we were able to sample each one and fill out an evaluation form rating appearance, texture, flavor, etc! 

Our first meeting on Wednesday was with the Director of Dining and Culinary Services, Joie Schoonover! She talked to us about her general duties, and how she got where she is today. Joie was also a NACUFS intern! She also talked to us about her role in renovating the dining halls on campus from single-serving lines to the market place style they are today. In addition, she explained to us in depth the budget system on UW – Madison, and showed us several reports to illustrate what she was explaining.

After Joie, we met with one of the two individuals who run the main desk in the central office, Jenn. She explained the multitude of activities she accomplishes, including updating the daily point of sale system to reflect what is on the menu, answering calls, making deposits onto students’ campus ID cards, running Dining & Culinary Services’ Facebook and Twitter pages, distributing mail, running the Dining and Culinary Services’ care package system, and any other miscellaneous tasks needed by the various staff members!

Next, we had the opportunity to meet with the Executive Chef of Dining and Culinary Services, Paul Sprunger! I really enjoyed hearing about all his adventures as a chef and how he ended up at UW – Madison. He told us about his philosophy as a chef and leader, and even gave us some really great advice for our time at UW – Madison. He was personally my favorite individual we were fortunate enough to meet with over the past few days.

After lunch, we met with Denise once again to go through some training we needed to use the software CBORD. We were able to look up some recipes for our second NACFUS project, a theme dinner! We will be able to input ingredients to form a recipe, which will allow us to see nutrient info, pricing, weight, etc for each special dinner menu item!

Our last meeting was with Joe Mehring and Ted Scott, the catering managers! They explained to us how their catering system works, the menu they offer, and the events they typically do. They only do events for the University, unfortunately meaning we won’t be catering any weddings or things of the like. However I am still excited to learn how to cater an event and gain experience to what that entails!

Thursday and Friday

Thursday, I was in the dishroom in the Gordon Dining Events Center.

I’ve never worked in a dish room before so this was a new experience for me! It was very interesting to see the amount food waste from uneaten food that was thrown away by customers! To be more sustainable, the University pulps all food waste and paper products, and the pulp is recycled by the city of Madison. It is available for the public to buy for use in gardens and such! I also learned the techniques of the scrape line, plus loading and unloading into the dishwasher. I assisted in one of 3 or 4 typically daily cleanings in which we pulled out compartments of the dishwasher to clean them. I also assisted with typically daily chores of the dishroom, including bringing clean dishes around to all the stations before lunch and putting away clean dishes that are not going to be used right away. We also cleaned the general area of the dishroom, which was later inspected by the manager.

Thursday afternoon, Kaylene and I sat in on a Student Supervisor Planning Committee meeting, in which the Head Student Supervisors from each dining unit met to discuss how things were going and to develop a tentative agenda for the student supervisor training happening in August.  

Friday, I was in the dishroom in Four Lakes Market.

I worked the breakfast rush and solidified what I had learned Thursday in Gordon. After the breakfast rush was over and the dishes were cleaned and put away, I assisted with miscellaneous chores such as cleaning dining room tables. As lunch grew nearer, the manager decided I would be most needed at a station, so I was able to actually make food for the first time! I worked in the station Deli-cious, which is basically sandwiches, sides, and dessert. I was able to assemble some lovely cream puffs before lunch started, and load desserts onto the dessert display. Once the lunch period began, I made sandwiches, wraps, and paninis with the other employees. This was my first time ever working in a station so I was very excited! I really enjoyed waiting on customers and helping them customize their sandwiches! After the lunch rush was over, I returned to the dishroom to assist the scrape line and load the dishwasher.

Once the dish room was under control, I was able to grab a quick lunch before heading to a meeting. As I was sitting down to eat, the Director of Dining & Culinary services, Joie, was sitting down to eat lunch too! I was able to sit and chat with her in a more casual setting and tell her about my week so far and our ideas for our theme dinner, which was really nice.

After my impromptu lunch with Joie, I headed to my meeting with Carson’s Unit Chef Kevin Kotney. Kaylene and I explained to him our idea for our theme dinner, Rock n Roll, and he seemed to love it! We talked specifics and he gave us feedback on where we need to improve. We will finalize the menu this weekend and submit it to him by Tuesday!

The Weekend

Saturday, Kaylene and I went to a HUGE Farmer’s Market. The tents were set up in a circle around the Capitol building in Madison, and also down a few side streets!

Even though the skies were overcast and it even started drizzling a bit, the streets were PACKED!

We got some Spicy Cheese Bread that everyone has been recommending to us all week, and it DID NOT disappoint! It was delicious, and they even served it warm!

As we walked, we munched on our cheese bread and some free samples offered by the vendors. We will definitely be coming back to this huge weekly event before our internship is over!