The Final Week: Week 9

Eight weeks gone, and my time here at UNI is over! My special event was a hit, and I made some great connections here with both the staff and student employees. I'm excited to come back down to Cedar Falls for an occasional visit during my dietetic internship in Minneapolis, which is only three hours to the north.

However, I still had three days of internship left this week, so here they are! I spent the weekend relaxing with my friends, but Monday was my last university tour. Susan and I went down to the University of Iowa in Iowa City to see their foodservice set up.

The main dining facility has a salad bar, six entree stations, and a dessert bar. 

Entirely too much room for desserts! It is possible!

There was a huge flood throughout Iowa in 2008 that caused a lot of damage to both public and private property along the river. Unfortunately, a great deal of the U of I borders the river, so many buildings were destroyed or damaged. The University was in a bind because they now had millions if not billions of dollars of damage to repair. Fortunately, they were able to partner with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), a federal organization whose business is to fix high budget natural disaster damage. This has allowed the U of I to rebuild much that they wouldn't have been able to afford themselves; however, there are some limitations to what and where they can rebuild. FEMA promises to restore the damaged property exactly as it was before the disaster, which makes sense because it wouldn't be fair if damaged properties used FEMA money to drastically alter and improve their properties with amenities they couldn't afford before. This caveat has frustrated some departments, including the foodservice department, for several reasons. Improvements were in the works before the disaster that now must wait until construction is complete. Some foodservice standards have changed since 2008, but the foodservice managers cannot upgrade their facilities to meet them until FEMA finalizes their work. While FEMA's assistance has been key to rebuilding the university and continuing student recruitment, it has also introduced some road blocks to improving certain facilities.

The U of I is the second largest university in the state with 33,000 students. Roughly 6,000 live on campus and utilize university dining services while roughly 1,500 students reside off campus but still have meal plans. The Iowa and Oklahoma university systems are remarkably similar: both OSU and ISU are land grant schools with primary focuses in agriculture and a few other assorted majors. OU and the U of I have stellar medical programs, and UCO and UNI are the smaller, more community-focused universities with specializations in business and education.

The U of I has all-you-care-to-eat facilities just like UNI, but the foodservice director has a lot of changes in mind once FEMA construction is complete, such as repurposing some of the venues and replacing some equipment or changing the design of some kitchens and food prep areas to better facilitate traffic and handle the heat flow from all the appliances. Additionally, the university must currently use disposable cutlery and plates because they haven't replaced the dish machine yet.

Herky the Hawk and I showing our Iowa pride!

Tuesday and Wednesday moved slowly. I finished the last bits of various projects I was working on involving FoodPro and Excel and attended the final session of Mike's John Maxwell leadership workshop. The best part was my exit evaluation with Susan. I received very high marks and some reminders of things I can improve on, both of which were much appreciated. My strengths are my outgoing nature, organization, responsibility, and critical thinking ability, and an area of improvement is my connecting skills with people more introverted than myself. I enjoyed my time at UNI immensely and would definitely recommend a NACUFS internship to anyone with an interest in quantity foodservice, particularly in a university or college setting. I hope you enjoyed my writing, and thank you for your support!

Panther pride! Go UNI!!