Wyoming Week 1!

My name is Lee Stowers and I am currently a student at University of Alabama pursuing a degree in Nutrition.  An internship of our choice, or personal study as they call it, is required for our degree.  Our teachers mentioned the NACUFS internship in class the first week of the semester and I knew it was something I would be interested in applying too.  I wanted to get out of my comfort zone and go somewhere completely new so I am very excited to be spending the summer in Wyoming as a NACFUS intern!


It's been a great first week here in Laramie, Wyoming!  In the weeks before my internship began, I was getting a lot of questions about what I was going to be doing this summer.  Everyone I told that I was spending my summer in the beautiful state of Wyoming had almost the same reaction.  Everyone kept telling me how beautiful the state was, how much fun I was going to have, and how jealous they were that I was going there all summer.  Then, I was given a list of all of places I need to visit while I am out here!  I can definitely say that everyone was right!  Wyoming is such a beautiful place!  I am very excited for this experience!

Day 1

After the long drive from Alabama and getting settled in my room on campus over the Memorial day weekend, I was ready for our first day!  On our first day, Olivia (the other NACUFS intern) and I met with Amy Bey, our internship director, who gave us a very warm welcome to Laramie!  One of the very first things we did was attend a dining meeting with all of the staff!  I really liked how we have been included in everything here and have really gotten to see how everything runs.  After the dining meeting, we got to meet with Roxy, who is with Human Resources.  We got all of our paperwork done and she told us about how her job works.  After getting through with all of our paperwork, we went with Amy for a tour of the beautiful campus!


Day 2

On our second day, we got to meet with the health inspector for the town of Laramie!  Her name is Mary and she stayed in the office and answered as many questions as we could ask her for about 2 hours.  She was so helpful and you could tell that she really enjoyed her job.  I appreciated her approach to her job.  She really wants her restaurants to learn from their issues during their inspections.  She also encourages all of her restaurants, pools and spas, and tattoo parlors (Yes! She even does the tattoo parlors) to contact her if they have any questions at any time.  She is always willing to come out to the establishment to help prevent any future violations!  I also found that there were some differences between the way they inspect in Wyoming and in Alabama.  In Wyoming, they do not use the 100 point grading system for their health inspections.  In Alabama, you get a grade out of 100 and it is hung on the wall in every food establishment.  In Wyoming, they are considered public record, but you have to ask to see them or look them up online.

Day 3/4

On our third day, we got to work with David and the boys who work in receiving!  We came in at 6 am to help unload the U.S. Foods truck, which is the primary vendor for the University.  We got a tour of the store room and the freezer (SO cold!).  After getting a run down of how the receiving and requisitions take place we met with Doug.  Doug is the purchasing manager.  He showed us all about ordering in CBOARD.  CBOARD is Wyoming's operations system they use for the dining facilities.  After meeting with Doug, we went to eat at Washakie dining hall.  I have been so amazed at how allergen friendly everything is here at Washakie (the main dining hall on campus).  I was diagnosed with Celiac disease when I was in high school so it has been so nice having so many options to eat at dinner!  All of the chefs know who I am and that I am gluten free.  They all change their gloves and prepare the food in a separate area.  It really makes you feel comfortable eating there when you know they pay really close attention to making your food.    It's also made it difficult to decide what I want for dinner every night!  I am not used to having so many tasty options to choose from!

                            Chef Charlie made this delicious gluten free bread pudding one night!

View on the drive to Fort Collins!

Over the weekend, Olivia and I went to Fort Collins Colorado to explore.  It is only an hour away from Laramie.  It was such a cute town!  I was once again shocked at how many restaurants had so many gluten free options!  We ended up, after searching through a really long list of great restaurants and their reviews, eating at a place called Beau Jo's!  I highly recommend it!  It's mainly a pizza place with pages of different types of pizza to choose from on the menu.  I got the Little Italy and Olivia got the Hawaiian Sriracha.

Our pizzas!