Welcome back!
With only two more weeks to go, it’s crunch time! On top of
our scheduled work hours, Mallory and I completed a lot of work for our
projects this week. Everything is starting to come together!
Monday
On Monday, Mallory and I spend half of our day with Keith
Lake at The Market in the Kansas Union and the other half with John Whittington
at The Underground in Wescoe Hall. Both retail operations had similar food
concepts, including Brellas, Garden Complements, Pizza Hut, and Sushi with
Gusto, so there were a lot of similarities between the two locations. Keith and
John shared some great insight on the challenges of managing retail operations.
It was interesting to learn about how they dealt with those challenges in their
own way!
Tuesday
Tuesday began bright and early with Chris Johnston, who
deals with satellite operations; these include the various Grab n’ Go retail
locations on campus, as well as the café at Mortar & Pestle. We got to
travel around campus with Chris and learn how he manages them. I think of all
the managers on campus, he definitely has the hardest time taking inventory – the
products he sells are spread all across campus, so keeping track of what’s in
stock is definitely a team effort! He seems to have built up a great team of
workers across campus that he can rely on to keep things running smoothly.
Since he knows a lot
about the logistics of campus, Chris was also great resource for our food truck
project. Mallory and I were happy to
fill in a more of the gaps on our business plan!
Our afternoon was spent learning more about the relationship
between KU athletics and dining. We spent some time at the Crimson Café, where
many of the sports teams at KU eat their meals and where food is prepped to
serve to the athletes on game day. Nate, one of the managers at Crimson, spent
some time talking to Mallory and I about how those meals are executed. He also
drove us to the football building to see where the players eat on game day –
quite the set up!
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| BASKETBALL |
We finished our day by meeting with the sports dietitian,
Aaron Carbuhn. It was a different learning experience than what Mallory and I
have been exposed to thus far. In addition to showing us the athletic training
facilities, he also spoke to us about the nutrition education that he does with
the athletes. In addition to counseling athletes individually, he also creates
education materials, food plans, videos, and does cooking demonstrations to
help the athletes eat right so that they can fuel their bodies to perform at
their sport. Since I am planning on becoming a dietitian after finishing my
undergraduate degree, it was interesting to hear about the counseling he does
with the athletes. The athletic facilities were beautiful, as well! As a huge college
basketball fan, I was delighted to check out Allen Field House.
Wednesday
Wednesday was another early start – we departed for our
field trip at 7 am to a farm in Nebraska that supplies produce for Sysco. Luckily,
the 3.5-hour bus ride allowed for some time to catch up on sleep!
Once we arrived at the farm, we hopped onto a trailer for a
ride through the crop fields, which included cantaloupe, cucumbers, zucchini,
yellow squash, and tomatoes. During the tour, the farm owner explained to us
the different challenges he faces with labor, food safety, and crop yield. One
of his challenges this year was the difficulty planting and harvesting crops
due to the heavy amount of rain in May. It pushed back much of his planting, so
his harvest times will be later than usual. This was something Mallory and I
were unfortunately very aware of, since much of the produce we wanted to get
locally for our theme dinner won’t be ready for harvesting before our event. Nonetheless,
it was amazing to learn about everything that goes into operating a farm. It
requires a lot of hard work, coordination, and dedication, which made me all
the more appreciative of the produce I can conveniently purchase at the
supermarket!
After the tour, we were treated to a cookout lunch of
hamburgers, hotdogs, fruit, and salad (topped with farm-fresh cucumbers and
tomatoes). The tomatoes were some of the most flavorful I’ve tasted, and the
tour was definitely worth the trip!
Thursday
Mallory and I spent Thursday in the Kansas Union, beginning
with a meeting with Craig Josling, one of the procurement managers. He talked
to us about the different factors he considers when choosing suppliers. The
process for creating a contract with a company begins in the early fall, even
though the contract isn’t finalized until late spring. Craig has a lot of work
to do in between, which mostly revolves around finding the best prices and
customer service. In addition to the contracts, he also has to stay on top of the
invoices from each unit on campus. His job obviously requires a lot of
organization, which he seemed to have a good handle on!
Mallory and I got to see another side of procurement by
heading down to the storeroom in the Kansas Union with one of the receiving
employees, Andi. She walked us around the various storage areas and explained
to us the process of receiving orders and distributing the products to the
different units in the Union. We also heard some interesting stories about
store runs that she and the other receivers have to make when an order doesn’t
arrive on time – she really works hard to assure the units have what they need
to be successful!
After a lunch break, Mallory and I met with Alecia for a
retail operations wrap-up session. We discussed the similarities and
differences that we observed between retail and residential operations and also
got to ask her a few last-minute questions about the food truck project. Before
heading out, we grabbed some left over prizes from Mindy to use for a nutrition
education game during our theme dinner.
Friday
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| Back in familiar territory :) |
On Friday, Mallory and I were back at Mrs. E’s. I acted as
PM supervisor, so I shadowed Mike and Jason, the PM supervisors on the latter
end of the week. Since I had worked all of the different areas in E’s during my
first week here, I was already aware of the different factors that go into
running each station; with Jason and Mike, I got to see the other end of it. On
top of assuring food quality and safety, supervisors also have to work with
employees to make a welcoming and cohesive environment. Additionally, they do a
lot of behind the scenes work to assure that the operation remains in tip-top
shape, such as switching the menu signage, scheduling the employees at the
stations, handling maintenance of the equipment, and updating menu items in the
CBORD system. I had fun learning from both Mike and Jason and hearing different
perspectives on how to handle situations.
Lazy Weekend
Mallory and I spent our weekend relaxing and working on
projects. With only two more weeks, we’re spending as much of our free time as
we can tying up loose ends with our projects. We made a lot of progress this
week, and I’m excited to see the end result!
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