Penn State-Week 7

These last few weeks have continued the theme of learning things we had no idea we didn't even know! We have been observing different managers at different dining halls and a C store. A C store on PSU's campus is a convenience store that provides snacks, some to go foods and necessities like shampoo, toilet paper and the like. Aimme and I were able to shadow Kevin, who manages the Mix downstairs in Pollock dining commons. It was actually very cool to see the 'retail' side of food service. The Mix also has food made to order similar to say a Wawa or a Sheetz, screen ordering included! 

Also at the Mix they actually carry a decent amount of healthy to go foods, or at least the healthiest version of a heat up meal, Amys! I was very pleasantly surprised to also find gardein protein in the form of sliders and spicy black bean burgers! A win for healthier eating everywhere! :)

This past week I was able to spend some time with the RD's that work within food service, Meghan and Melissa. It was fun to see what they did and how they help kids with allergies navigate eating safely on campus. They also have 3 Student Nutrition Assistants that work for the year helping code the menu for allergies, do interactive tabling at the dining halls offering help and many other things! I definitely wish my campus had something like this. They also label almost everything in the dinning hall so that people are able to see what allergens might be in the food. Below is what the allergy label looks like-another thing I wish my campus had! 

Throughout the summer we have been able to go to tastings that are put on by Chef Mark. They include such things as pizza cheese, sausage links, barley stuffed zucchini and many others. This has been fun to see the different products that Penn State might serve next year and see how they come to some of these decisions. They also ask each person tasting to fill out a form based on the number the product is and what it tastes like etc. Below are photos of pizza cheese tasting day, black bean burger wrap and the form tasters are asked to fill out 

I was able to shadow Geno this past Friday at Pollock and it was a great learning experience! I did not know just how much food they are able to repurpose (safely) and thereby reduce waste and cost! I really enjoyed seeing more about how Pollock worked as it is one of the most varied dining halls on campus. There are two sides to the dining area and this past Sunday the second side opened up which was great in the sense of just how much more variety there really is now! They really do have something for everyone to eat and every meal I am excited to see what they are serving! While shadowing Geno I also got to see a bit about how they hire what they call Grade 10's, which are union employees that work in the kitchen. They have a centralized type of hiring process in that they work closing with HR in screening candidates and a lot of it is now online and through excel so that everyone can view the process as it moves along. I didn't realize it but I enjoy the office side of things of food service as well! 

As the internship nears its end I simply cannot believe how much I have learned and how it is has changed the way I look at where I eat and just how hard it is to have it all come together and serve people in a healthy and cost effective way!