Summer 2015 NACUFS Internship!: Week 7 at UGA

Just like that, we find ourselves at week seven. We are going to save the crying and all that jazz for next week. Here is your recap of week seven.

Monday, July 13th

Before I had to go meet with Susan Miller in the Food Service Administration office for a cash audit, I run over to O'House to get Rob the last of the recipes for the closing banquet. Everything is coming together beautifully if I do say so myself. I cannot wait to show you guys what it looks like once we put it all together. Anyway, I met Kara at the FSA office where Susan was trying to decide if we should take a bus to a location, wait for the van to come back or if we should walk to the Creamery. We collectively decided that it would be much easier just to walk to the Creamery since it was just a few buildings and a tiny hill over. When we got there, Susan explained to us the importance of accuracy when doing a cash audit because of the issues that it may cause managers. We also found out just why it is much easier to do a cash audit at a unit that has two registers instead of one. When a unit only has one register, it can cause a back up when it comes to checking out customers. Susan had a nifty little packet that she uses to help her keep track of all the numbers that has to input to get the results of the audit. She also let me be her second pair of eyes when it came to double checking that the amount she counted out is in fact the correct amount. Once the cash audit was complete, we went over to the commissary to check on the recipes that we made last Friday. The BLT wanton was a complete fail. There is really no other way to explain it. It just did not hold well over the weekend, it was very tedious to put together, and just failed all over the place. I can say that the other recipes held up fairly well and tasted super delicious. Even though there needs to be a little less honey on the apple and the pasta salad needs a new noodle because of how hard it got over the weekend,the flavors were amazing. I going to go ahead and count them as wins for the record.

Results!!!

Tuesday, July 14th

I really enjoyed being able to follow Susan van Gigch, the Associate Director for Retail Operations. Before we got into the swing of things, we sat down with Susan and Brian Varin to get breakfast and a break down of what we doing that day. First on the list was a phone meeting with a representative from Au Bon Pain about the layout of a new operation that will be coming to campus. It was really interesting to see how things come together from ideas to blueprints to opening day. That meeting was definitely different from every other meeting that I sat in on since I have been here. After that meeting, we had a very quick meeting with some Panda Express representatives just to answer some questions and shake hands. When that meeting was over, it was right to another meeting with Adam Rainville at Village Summit about a proposal to possibly close earlier than they do now. He made great, well researched points as to why they should close earlier than they do now. It was shining example of how you need to come to a meeting when you have an idea that you want people to listen to. At the end of that meeting, we went to lunch at Bolton and concluded the day. That was the end of my scheduled day, but I did take the time to get some notes together about the Grab 'n Go recipes for a final write up.

The outside of Susan's Office

Wednesday, July 15th

I am so happy that I got the chance to make up the inventory day at Bolton with Brian Gibbs, the Assistant Manager in charge on inventory and product management. The guys that work in inventory made sure to keep it very interesting for me and made sure that I was comfortable in the freezer. They let me know that if you can count, you can do inventory. It was kind of a slow start after all the inventory was counted because FoodPro maintenance started late last night and still was down by the time we came in at 4 AM. It finally came back to full working capabilities around 9:30 but not before I got check in some inventory from Central Storage and from the produce vendor. Okay, now I got to see first hand why it is important to check your order against what is brought in while the vendor is there so if something is wrong, you can address it right then. When FoodPro came back online, I got to put in all the final counts into FoodPro. It was nice to see how something that I helped count actually fits into the grand scheme of things in such a big dining commons where it could get lost in the shuffle. When I was done inputting the numbers, Brain should me how he ran the report that shows him how much money he has in the inventory. I like inventory because everything that you do makes sense right when you do it and not somewhere down the line but only if this happens at this time. After I was done with inventory, I made way to Kris' office to wait for Kara and V.J. Little, a broker with HOPCO. V.J. took us to The Last Resort, a local Athens favorite, for lunch and to talk about how awesome her job is. She made sure that we understood that when it comes to a broker client relationship is knowing how to read your client and how to bring them products that could be better for them. She had so many stories about how she had to make calls about rescheduling meetings because she saw that it might not be a great time to talk to them. V.J. shined a lot of light on knowing how to approach people, which not only helps the broker/client relationship but also relationships in general. Quick side note about The Last Resort, the lunch menu is super delicious and you NEED TO GO THERE!!! After the meeting, she took us back to Bolton and we went a had a little sit down with Kris for a quick overview of what is going to happen in our final days here (holds in tears).

Walking in the street at 4 AM

The Red and Black cake from The Last Resort

Inventory

More inventory

Thursday, July 16th

The has finally arrived to one of the field trips that I have been looking forward to since we started this internship. We took a ride on down to Kennesaw State University. They quite different from UGA because, for one, they have a couple of farms that they get 25% of the produce served in the dining hall. They also require all full students to purchase a meal plan but as you go up in classification, the smaller the amount of swipes and the price of the meal plan. We had a super cool time going to the closest farm to the campus. We were met by the guard dogs, Bacon and Eggs, at the gate and took the grand tour the farm and learned just how awesome they are at growing and maintaining the land. They were in the process of growing some corn and different varieties of tomatoes among other delicious fruits and vegetables. The stations that they have in their dining hall are very similar to the ones that can be found in Bolton except for one station they have that gives patrons the opportunity to try different meats that you cannot easily access like kangaroo and rattlesnake. Between the ideas that I have gotten from UGA and now Kennesaw, I cannot wait to go back home and see how it can possible work for my school.

Meal plan break down

Tomatoes!!!!

Joey in front of The Commons at KSU

Oh! A farm!!

Well, hello goat!!

Friday, July 17th

Did somebody say coffee?!?!?!?!? That is correct boys and girls, we hopped in a van and took a stroll over to Jittery Joe's coffee roasting facility. It was everything I thought a roasting facility would be: huge bags of green coffee beans, empty coffee tins, a huge roaster, fans, and the resident local and their dog. It was really cool to finally see how coffee goes from a little green seed to a medium or dark "French" roast. There are so many types of coffee and not surprisingly a lot of it comes from different countries in Africa. I still cannot believe the the only difference between one roast and another is the time they are left to roast. I also came to conclusion that my definition of coffee and what coffee truly is are in no way the same. My type of coffee is not really coffee at all but sugar, creamer, flavoring, and a splash coffee. Once we got back on campus, we moseyed on over to the commissary to do more recipe testing to see if we could find more successful things for the Grab 'n Go project. I can tell you right now that the cauliflower grilled cheese is a success but not for the Grab 'n Go project. It would be much better suited for the eateries that serve hot foods. We will see how the other recipes we made hold up over the weekend.

Outside the roaster

Coffee beans EVERYWHERE!!

The Weekend

I went to the World of Coke!!! I had a blast and even got a picture with the Coke Bear. Although, his eyes really creep me out. When I finally got to the Taste It room, I cut loose and tried every single product they had to offer from all over the world. They had some great ones and some not so great ones, but I would try them all over again just because if I ever go back.