Week 4 at Bloomington Indiana

Monday, I worked closely with Rachel, RD. I entered the 2015 Fall 1 4 weeks-cycle menu for Classic Comforts at Gresham into the system. We highlight the vegan, vegetarian, and heart-health options on the menu to inform students!  

Menu Sample for Fall 2015

Tuesday, I helped with staffs in McNutt to prepare food for kids in the daycare centers on Campus. We have a total of three daycare centers on IUB campus and a truck driver picking up from the the McNutt's kitchen every noon to serve food for kids there. Some kids have special diets, such as vegetarian, vegan, food allergies, etc. In order to meet theirs special requirements, staffs there need to  prepare special foods for them. They printed out an Excel sheet with the number of special diet and the kinds of diet weekly. 

                                                                    Kids' weekly menu 

Wednesday, this is how we cook food in McNutt!

Big pot at McNutt!

You have to be strong enough to cook food and clean the equipments there or you may build some muscle while working there!

Thursday, we did a tour to Hilltop Garden. Hilltop Garden plants fresh produce such as tomato, mint, green onion, kale, etc. We actually will hold a harvest dinner this coming Fall at Collins and Hilltop Garden will provides fresh produce for the dinner!

Hilltop Garden

Another big function that Hilltop Garden has is composting. It's time to be sustainable! Observing composting process in the Hilltop Garden was something new to me. Even though I am really interested in the food waste reduction topic, I didn’t have chance to see composting. The composting process I learned today was more time-consuming than I expected. The composting process takes more than 2 months to finish and this characteristic may have some influence on the capability of the amount of food wastes that the Hilltop Garden can take on.

Also, I learned something new from this experience. Foods like oranges and eggshells are two most difficult and time-consuming food to be digested by bacterias. So we should definitely separate them from other composting foods!

Composting process at Hilltop Garden

Thursday, I also had a chance to sit down with Bob, the associate Director, to discussing the current meal plan system. I was a little bit confused by the meal plan system at the beginning. After talking with Bob, I had a deeper understanding in regards to the history of meal plan, the current I-bucks system, menu structuring, and Net Nutrition.