Day 8: Monday, June 15
This morning we worked on a MyZone informational handout for parents and students to become aware of the facility and learn about the basics. It’s important that parents understand this perk of choosing to attend RPI and how it will make their child’s food allergy more manageable during the transition to college life. We ate lunch at McNeil’s Room and the curry people were back from vacation. I got sweet lemongrass coconut rice with daal (lentils) and veggies. After lunch we went shopping with Kim at Trader Joe’s to get ingredients for our peanut butter balls!! We can’t wait to make them next week. After work we went to a Barre Bootcamp class together. We’re really enjoying this new yoga studio!
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| Lunch from Thunder Mountain Curry |
Day 9: Tuesday, June 16 (Caroline’s 21st Birthday)
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| Cupcakes at the manager meeting! |
This morning Kim brought in cupcakes to the manager meeting for my 21st birthday and also bought me a plant! Karen and I gave an overview of our sugar project to all the managers (still ate the cupcakes despite probable sugar content).
After the meeting the 3 us of went downstairs to Father’s to set up our baking area and made hundreds of peanut butter balls. It was so much fun to get paid to bake healthy goodies! We ate lunch at McNeil’s Room, then finished up final touches on the sugar project.
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| Setting up all the ingredients |
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| Stirring in the honey |
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| Halfway done! |
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| Happy interns! |
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| The final product |
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| Wine at Lucas Confectionary |
That night Karen and I went to Lucas Confectionary, a wine bar, for a glass of wine each and a small appetizer. After tasting the incredible local wines here in Troy we are determined to become wine connoisseurs by the end of the summer.
After that we ventured around Troy for more birthday festivities, ending at Brown’s Brewing Company for dinner. I’m so thankful to Kim and all the managers for making my birthday so special, and of course to Karen for going out on the town with me to celebrate!
Day 10: Wednesday, June 17
This morning we worked more on the MyZone informational handout, and also a handout about pesticides on produce for the managers. We learned which types of produce are the highest risk for heavy pesticide use, which produce to always buy organic, and which produce can be bought from specific countries in order to drastically reduce the risk of pesticide use. We thought this would be great for people to know, especially if we can make an index card sized shopping guide for people to take with them when they go to the supermarket. We’re even going to keep one for ourselves when we go shopping!
We ate lunch at Evelyn’s for BBQ on the patio and both got veggie burgers while eating outside with the beautiful weather of summertime in upstate New York. The staff here at RPI are incredibly friendly no matter where we go. We are so lucky to be able to experience a company like Sodexo and see what a family they are.
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| Delicious veggie burgers |
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| Lunch on the patio |
Afterwards we went to a meeting with Kim, the executive chef Darren, and the manager of Commons dining hall Tony to discuss how to make the summer menu healthier in the dining halls, as well as issues with MyZone for the upcoming year. We suggested making vegetable-rich things like chickpea masala or omelette bars.
Day 11: Thursday, June 18
This morning we drove 35 minutes to the GE Global Research campus for the Health & Safety fair with Kim. We displayed our sugar information poster board and handed out the no-bake peanut butter balls as a sample. Our booth got a lot of attention and word spread quickly about how good our peanut butter balls were - many came back for seconds! I think our table was the most popular :). The funny thing was, Coca-Cola was assigned to the booth right next to us, but luckily they didn’t show up because they wouldn’t have been pleased being next to us! It was a lot of fun to be able to answer people’s questions about sugar. We hope our display made people think twice about grabbing a soda at lunch and encouraged them to always read nutrition labels on their food products from now on. Knowledge is power!
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| Our Booth: samples, handouts, and poster board display |
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| Handing out samples to hungry people |
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| Proud of our work! |
When we returned from the GE fair, Darren (the executive chef who we met with the day before) made chickpea masala for the dining hall like we suggested!!! He saved us all a bowl for a late lunch. It was delicious, nutritious, and cost-effective for everyone!
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| Chickpea masala with shrimp |
Day 12: Friday, June 19
We finalized our pesticides handout to bring to the manager meeting, and brainstormed monthly nutrition topics for articles to be published in the campus newsletter, as well as handouts for the wellness center. It’s exciting to have the freedom to choose topics that are of interest to us, just like with the sugar project. By lunch time we almost had too many ideas and will struggle to narrow them down!
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| Colorful handout on produce and pesticides |
After lunch we tested a nut-free variation of the peanut butter balls by using sunflower butter instead of peanut butter. The nut-free version could be a potential snack for nutrition events and booths, to allow everyone, including those with nut allergies, to partake. From the batter they tasted excellent, but the managers will be the judge on Tuesday after they have been properly refrigerated. We can’t wait for everyone to try our two recipes!
Day 13/14: Saturday, June 20 and Sunday, June 21
Caroline: This weekend I took the Greyhound to NYC which took just under 3 hours and was very cheap. I visited some friends who had studied abroad last semester so it was great to see them again after so long! I also visited my older brother who will be moving to London at the end of the summer, so I had to take advantage of his prime location in Brooklyn while he is still on this side of the world. I had so much fun this weekend, but I sure was glad to see Karen picking me up from the bus stop and to come home to clean, quiet, and beautiful Troy, NY.
Karen: My parents visited for father’s day weekend and we attended the Troy River Fest along the waterfront. There were vendors, live music, art displays, and shops open along several blocks and we had a great time. My parent’s hotel was just outside the biggest mall in the area so naturally we went shopping both Saturday and Sunday! We ate out at Sweet Basil, an authentic Thai restaurant, and to my dad’s surprise he found a new favorite Pad Thai dish to beat his #1 favorite back home. We ate at Muza, the cute Polish place, and the Whistling Kettle for Sunday brunch. I also showed them the EMPAC building on campus and they were stunned at how beautifully designed it is.
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