Week 4: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Although we are sad that our time with Kim is over, we are very excited to see what the rest of the summer has in store for us. This week we worked with Maria in the Marketing department and had so much fun!

At the manager meeting on Tuesday we learned that there will be an upcoming chicken and egg shortage due to the avian flu. It was interesting to hear the managers discuss how this would affect each of their departments within food service management on a college campus. The dining halls, caterers, and retail operations will all be affected by this. Luckily they were given a heads up and can come up with a plan for the future. We also learned about a possible renovation that could be happening with the Commons Dining Hall, as well as a new proposal by the president of the university. The president is considering increasing the number of incoming freshmen while also giving junior year students the chance to study abroad for a semester that year as long as they take summer classes. This is important to the food service management team because they have to make sure they can handle a higher capacity of freshmen students, as well as an increase in students during the summer holiday. This would affect which retail and dining locations remain open, how many employees they must retain, and more. The food service team is involved in so much more than we expected.

Maria’s office is where the magic happens! The marketing materials - posters, handouts, napkin dispenser announcements, signs, and more - are how students see all the wonderful options Sodexo has to offer. We looked over Maria’s shoulder to see how she designs the displays that go into the retail location television screens. It’s amazing to see what computer programs can do to create these displays, and how easily Maria navigates them. We also got to see how she makes promo videos for meal plan advertisements, and how she designs large posters to promote new menu items. After materials were printed, we trimmed them with the paper cutter, and delivered them to their appropriate locations. We filled napkin dispensers with ads for new “limited time offer” items and meal plans, as well as replaced old posters with newer ones to keep them up to date with the monthly changes.

Cutting cardstock designs for the napkin dispensers.

Marketing is a lot of work, but is such a key piece for a good business! Maria’s skills and creativity are indispensable to the success of so many aspects of Sodexo. For Kim, the multitude of nutrition boards, handouts, posters, and flyers Maria designs grab the attention of passing students. For the students, Maria creates monthly calendars to inform them of upcoming specials they won’t want to miss, as well as coupon books for retail locations, and much more. For the rest of the Sodexo team, Maria is able to take what information they give her and turn it into a professional display. After this week, all we can say is we really hope we each get our own Maria to help us out when we are registered dietitians!

A poster in Maria's office we love!

We have been cleaning out MyZone throughout the week to get it ready for student orientations that are happening in a couple weeks. In case there are students coming who have a food allergy, we want the room to be ready and stocked. We rearranged some appliances to create more space around the room, freed up some counter top space, and cleaned the entire area. Afterwards, we ate lunch in McNeil Room with Maria, and we got to meet Phil Harty, the Regional Vice President of Sodexo (in our tshirts and jeans unfortunately). It’s great to meet so many different Sodexo employees, and we love to tell people just how much we are enjoying our experience here.

After evaluating what needed to be changed in MyZone, we came back to the marketing office and Maria created a new MyZone template so we could make up to date informational handouts and posters. We made a sign and a brochure for the top 3 allergies here: nut, dairy, and gluten. They include FAQ’s about nut, dairy, and gluten allergies, and provide where hidden sources of those allergens may be. It’s really important to have these signs up so students can be as informed as possible about their food choices and their safety. We love the new colors of MyZone and it’s exciting to see it’s renovation come together every day!

Using a specialty printer for the large MyZone poster.

Final product: the framed poster to be hung up in MyZone.

The nut, dairy, and gluten free diet informational posters.

The nut, dairy, and gluten free brochures.

We also walked to the athletics training room and restocked handouts on their sports nutrition board. Some of the handouts are provided by Sodexo corporate, and some are made by Kim! They include information about hydration, pre- and post-workout foods, and how to eat healthy when you’re on the road for games! It’s easy for athletes to pick up a brochure on their way out of a workout and learn how to maximize their performance by eating healthy.

We went to Evelyn’s for lunch to try their new July menu. The “chorizo” taco salad, made from seitan, was delicious!

Vegan chorizo taco salad!

Ground turkey burger with fresh side salad!

Later that day we were invited to our first ever food show. Multiple food vendors set up booths in the Commons Dining Hall with free samples and displays to try and increase interest in their products so that we might order them for RPI. We got to go around to all the booths advertising all kinds of food from steak, cheese plates, granola bars, potato chips, sushi, to oreo churros with a cream dipping sauce! They even gave us a tote bag for all the free samples we took. It was fun to try the foods and learn about each company. However, we were told that it’s important to make sure the food vendor’s products are available through Sysco, RPI’s main food distributor. It was a really fun way to end the 4 day work week and stock up on snacks for the holiday weekend!

Local beef and lamb samples.

Potato chip and coffee booths.

Local cheese samples.

Oreo churros!

Caroline: After the food show on Thursday I drove straight from work to Washington, DC for the 4th of July weekend. It was a long 7 hours, but luckily there was no traffic on the back roads. I met up with my three roommates from UNC, my boyfriend, and a couple other friends from UNC too! We had tons of fun in the city wearing our red, white and blue and watching fireworks from a rooftop bar. Even though it rained on us on July 4th, we still had an incredible weekend and hope to make this a new tradition once we graduate!

Karen: The 3-day weekend was full of adventure! My boyfriend came to visit from Virginia and after going to the Troy farmer’s market downtown, we headed up to Crane Mountain in the beautiful Adirondacks! The trail was rated as “difficult” according to websites, and they weren’t kidding! The views up top and along the way were well worth it. We ended the evening with dinner in Saratoga Springs on the way back, and even stopped in a Grateful Dead tribute show in one of the bars. The next two days were spent in Montreal, Quebec, to enjoy the annual jazz festival and explore unique and delicious restaurants. There are so many great places within just a short distance when you intern here at RPI!