UW Madison Week #6

Monday:

We met with Bob Slusher today to talk about employee scheduling. They use a system called Kronos to schedule all of the employees and it is also connected to the time clock. It is supposed to transmit a signal to the ipad in the unit when employees clock in early or late. There are still some glitches in the system that need to be worked out. It allows students to input their availability and preferences for work. It works on a two week cycle because employees work every other weekend.

We were also introduced to how the C store operates. The items are similar to those found in a gas station store. They do inventory once a week to keep everything stocked. There are a few C stores around campus and they carry almost all of the same products at each store.

Tuesday:

I have found out that the best way to start my day is with a run down lakeshore path. The sunrise on the lake is probably one of the things I'll miss most when I leave Madison.

 I shadowed Morgan today at Gordon and learned how front house management works. After following her around at breakfast, she put me in charge at lunch. I went around and checked all the line signs and helped in any stations that needed it. I kept in contact with the student supervisors so I knew what was going on at all times on the floor. It was pretty fun being in charge for a while but I definitely need some practice. I went to a planning meeting for student training in the afternoon and sat in on the manager meeting for a while.

Wednesday:

I got to put my skills to the test today and work as the floor manager at Rheta’s. It was a little different than working at Gordon. There was a lead student who did most of the work shifting employees and checking line signs. I was pretty much there to make sure everything ran smoothly.

At lunch I finally got to try out the Mongolian grill and the food was delicious. I was happy with my choice.

There was another pizza testing after lunch at Rheta’s to get more opinions on the grilled crust versus the current one. Looking at the results, it seemed pretty split between the two. Some people had strong feelings about which pizza should be used which will probably be taken into consideration. They are still going to test the pizzas at Gordon before making a final decision.

Thursday:

Today I learned more about the ordering process with Todd Christopherson who is the ordering manager at Four Lakes. We started the morning by looking at which orders were due that day. His inventory control coordinator brought in the current inventory forms pretty early in the morning which allowed Todd to accurately assess what needed to be ordered for the next few days. The orders done on Thursday are mainly for items that will come in on Saturday which means the order needs to contain any items needed for Sunday or Monday as well. They generally don’t get deliveries on Sundays.

Because today was a busy day at Four Lakes, Todd went out on the floor during the rushes. He acted as a floor manager helping with the flow of traffic for most of breakfast. After breakfast he had me input some numbers from the serving line worksheets into CBORD. He had a system to approximate the amount needed if the item ran out at some point during service. This is important so the next time the item is served they will not run out again.

I also got to work with Claire who is the ordering manager at Liz Waters. Liz is closed for the summer so she is working in Four Lakes as their Catering Manager for the summer. Claire deals with a lot of the requests for catering during the summer. She also showed me some of the plans for the renovation at Liz Waters. When it reopens in spring 2015, it will be the allergen free unit meaning none of the top 8 allergens will be served there.

Friday:

Miranda and I toured Babcock Dairy on campus. Rebecca the ordering manager at Carson’s joined us for the tour. The dairy is not temperature controlled so it was about 85 degrees in the area. This is because the whole operation is basically run by steam. They process the milk served in all the dining halls on campus. They start each type of milk as nonfat and add cream back in to increase the fat content.

They also make cheese and ice cream. The ice cream is packed by hand into each container. While we were there, they were in the process of

process of making butter pecan ice cream. They provided us with a sample of it while we were on the tour and it was delicious. I have never had such fresh ice cream in my life. Once the ice cream has been packaged it gets put into the blast freezer until it reaches the desired temperature. 

After the dairy tour, we met with Monica Theis who is a professor in the department of food science. She teaches a couple classes for the dietetics program. She had some questions for us about our theme meal as one of the assignments she gives is a high volume theme meal. I asked her a lot of questions regarding the application for dietetic internships and she gave me some much needed advice.

She gave a tour of their foods lab which is very nice. They have all of the culinary equipment along with some equipment used for high volume cooking which was like the stuff used in the dining halls.

She also gets involved in a lot of community efforts to promote nutrition and sustainability. She has been providing the local police department with cooking and nutrition classes over the last year and they have been very successful. She also teamed up with a local food pantry to teach gardening skills. They provide the members with fresh vegetables and some of them even get to have their own plant where they grow specialty items.

We ended the day earlier than expected so Miranda and I got some time to work on our projects. We have almost completed our marketing plan for the Healthier America initiative and are finalizing the details for our theme dinner.