Monday: Retail Fun!
Talia and I spent Monday together, working in two of the retail locations on campus. We began our morning at The Market, a food court of sorts located in the student union. The Market features a myriad of popular dining options, though not all are open during the slow summer months. When campus is in full swing the students have the option to select food from any of the six dining concepts available at The Market. These eateries vary from self branded concepts such as Serrano's Latin Cuisine to franchised eateries like Pizza Hut. Keith Lake, The Market's Manager took us through the flow of service at The Market and also discussed the staffing process. We were also able to discuss our ideas for our Food Truck project with Keith and gained a great deal of input from him, which was very helpful.
During the second portion of our day, Talia and I headed over to
The Underground another food court styled retail dining location. The Underground boasts some of the most frequented retail locations on campus. The Underground also offers and assortment of dining options for students, and like The Market, features both self branded concepts and franchised storefronts. The most popular of which, we learned is Chick-Fil-A. We spent the afternoon working alongside John Whittington, Manager of The Underground. With John, we learned the various requirements of staffing and running franchised operations in comparison to self branded concepts, and also the demands of managing one of the busiest retail locations on campus.
Tuesday: Satellite Operations, Crimson Cafe, and Sports Nutrition
On Tuesday Talia and I spent the day all over campus. We began our morning bright and early with Chris Johnston, the Manager of satellite operations. I truly had no idea what to expect going into this shift because I didn't have a clear understanding of what satellite operations was. After spending the morning with Chris, my understanding of satellite operations became crystal clear. Consisting of multiple small retail locations, Chris is in charge and responsible for quite a bit of different tasks; from staffing, to food prep, to deliveries, Chris seems to stay very busy with his work. Although the majority of Chris's retail locations are closed for the summer, he did take us on a tour of campus and showed us all the various locations scattered throughout campus.Also, as the most likely inheritor of the KU dining services food truck, Chris offered Talia and I a great deal of guidance on our food truck project.
During the second part of our day Talia and I headed over to The Burge student union, home of The Crimson Cafe and a Roasterie Coffeehouse location. We sat down with Kamay Plunkett, Coordinator and Supervisor for The Roasterie Coffeehouse locations on campus. After working at The Studio location it was interesting to hear about the behind the scenes operations. We discussed staffing, training, Roasterie relations, and the concepts history. After speaking with Kamay we headed over to the Crimson Cafe and ran a couple of errands with one of the supervisors. We then had the opportunity to meet with the athletics department sports dietitian and got a tour of the numerous athletics facilities. As a recent nutrition and dietetics graduate, it was very interesting to hear about the role of the athletics dietitian.
Wednesday: Field Trip to the Farm
It was a long 4 hour bus ride to Ashland, NE but once we arrived we enjoyed a beautiful tour of Heldt Farm. Watermelons, sweet corn, rye, summer squash and winter squash, are just some of the crops grown at the Heldt family farm. After a quick drive through the fields we enjoyed a wonderful cookout for lunch.
Thursday: Procurement and Retail Wrap Up
In the morning we met with Craig Josling to discuss the process of procurement and ordering. The differences among retail and residential ordering and the handling of accounts. We spent the latter half of our morning in the basement with the head of the storeroom for the union location. There she explained the process of receiving shipment and dispersing the orders to the many units. We then spent our afternoon with Alecia Stultz, discussing our experience working in the various retail operations on campus and also discussing our food truck project.
Friday: Supervison at Mrs. E's
Friday marked the day for my first supervisor shift. I worked the AM shift alongside the morning supervisior Brian. It was an eventful morning, when I first arrived I walked into quite the event. One of the staff had collapsed while vacuuming and I was greeted by an ambulance and policeman. The paramedics arrived just as I began my shift and left shortly after with the employee on a stretcher. An unfortunate learning experience thankfully the employee arrived at the hospital and reported back that all tests came back all right. I was afforded the opportunity to see how to fill out an incident report and how to follow up with human resources. Brian taught me how to fill out the daily work assignments and also complete the daily sanitation report. Beyond daily reports and paperwork there is a required amount of checking in with employees and maintaining smooth running service. On Monday I will complete my supervisor shifts with a closing shift in which I will observe the closing procedures associated with the supervisor position.
So, until next time!
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