University of Nevada, Reno

Arrival 

Hi there! My name is Victoria Vita and I am currently twenty-two years old. This summer I will be interning at THE UNIVERSITY OF NEVADA, RENO (UNR). A little about myself: I recently spent four wonderful years at Rutgers, the state University of New Jersey in New Brunswick. Just this May (2015) I graduated with a degree in nutritional sciences with a concentration in food service administration. I also minored in environmental and business economics.

I was raised a Jersey girl, but born on the West coast in California. I heard about the NACUFS internship through emails from the Rutgers nutrition department and when I found out that the University placement must be at least a 200 mile radius from your current university I seized the opportunity to head to the west coast.  I also applied to NACUFS to learn more about university food service along with the demands and atmosphere the job entails. Throughout my young life I have always been connected to the food industry and have worked at places like McDonald's, Chipotle and Douglass Cafe for Rutgers dining services. Overall, I am excited to be an intern for UNR and can not wait to start!

Before the start of my internship my parents and  I flew from New Jersey to Los Angeles, California. We spent a few days visiting family and touring LA. From there we drove from Los Angeles to Sacramento to visit even more family. Finally, we drove up the winding roads to Reno, where my parents and a few of my relatives stayed at the Riverside Plaza. The first festival to kick start the summer called "Street Vibrations" was going on that weekend. The streets were filled with motorcycles, bike gear and men with beards. 

My Uncle I havent seen in 9 years

With only two days before my start date my family and I walked the streets of downtown Reno. We ate prime rib at the Cal-Neva casino which is ONLY $5.99 a plate! It was very delicious for such a great price! We sat by the Trukee river and enjoyed the water. We also had the opportunity to talk to some of the owners of the motocyles and took tons of photos.

Street Vibrations

My family and I by the Truckee River

 The next day my family and I went to Kings Beach. Lake tahoe is absoultely amazing. The view of the mountains in the background is incrediable. In New Jersey there are no mountains only flat land, so the view of the lake with the mountains and the snowtop peaks were incredible. Throughout the day, my aunt and uncle decided to rent out a kayak for the day so my mom and I had the chance to kayak in Lake tahoe. 

The clearest water I have ever seen!

Kayaking with my mom at Kings Beach

Lake Tahoe

Week One (June 8 to June 12)

Time for business! This week has just begun. On my first day I met Chris (resident district manager) and Russ (associate director for housing operations and dining services) at the Overlook. When I first walked in I immediately understood why it was named "The Overlook" From the seating area to the right of the building there is a beautiful scene that overlooks a small lake with two fountains. In the lake are ducks, swans, bass and turtles. Chris introduced me to a ton of friendly people and what seemed like the entire staff of the university. He gave me a tour of the facilities, different dining areas, and a basic overview of the entire campus from the gym, library, class room lecture halls, etc... The campus is beautiful and much smaller than what I am used to at Rutgers and from different areas of the campus it oversees the mountains which is such a beautiful sight.

Advice: Don't be overwhelmed your first day, everyone you meet you'll meet again! So don't stress about remembering names. You have 8 weeks :)

The Overlook

This week I also met Kyle (catering director) and Lori (catering coordinator). Both Kyle and Lori are such friendly people and made me feel welcome right away. This week Kyle and Lori showed me how they cater events. Kyle showed me menus from recent and future events from her HUGE binder.  Lori mentioned since it is only summer her binder is not as full as it should be, which I can't even image how much bigger it could get.

I learned just from observing that Catering takes a ton of organization because the staff must pay close attention to detail. As Kyle was making phone calls to confirm her employees attendance I asked if University students work during her events. With such high volume catering events the staff Kyle selects are mostly all experienced and self-driven. Also, I witnessed during the day there could be as many as two to five events happening at different areas of the campus. Therefore, Kyle and Lori must stay organized so the events run smoothly. This week  I also shadowed in on the Heart Stoke Ball which meant a lot for Kyle. It was great to see the event coming along. I did not stay long, but I did wave a good bye to Kyle as she ran across the hallway with a cart filled with food, plates and water containers. She is such an energetic woman!

The table setting for the Heart Stoke Ball

This weekend I am finishing off at the Overlook. On Friday I worked with Shawn on 5 different seasonal salads for the student achievement center called the William N. Pennington Student Achievement Center (PSAC). We added more color to certain salads. For example, we added cherry tomatoes and/or shredded carrots for salads that needed more eye appeal. Of all the things I learned today is that people eat with their eyes and presentation is key.

First weekend

My first weekend at Reno was incredible. During dinner at the Downunder Cafe I met a group of 12 students doing research at the university. As I got to know them better I learned that each person was from different areas of the United States like Chicago, Puerto Rico, Minnesota, Washington D.C and Vermont. I am super excited to have met such friendly people just as eager to explore Nevada as I am.

 Future Advice: Be friendly to everyone, put yourself out there and make friends. There are people just as eager to go out and explore just like you!

That night a few of us walked to the Food Trucks not too far from campus. There was tons of street food and live music. It was a great time and just the beginning of all that Reno has to offer. Afterward, a few of us stayed by the Truckee river and cooled off in the water . 

Truckee River

The next day my new friends invited me to zephyr cove Lake Tahoe. It was a great atmosphere and the weather was beautiful. Since Lake Tahoe has a higher altitude the sun is extremely strong.

Future Advice: wear lots of sunscreen/lotion

The Final Countdown! Week 12

This is our last week at Montana State in Bozeman! Miller dining hall finally opened and we got to stick around to see how all of the hard work came together. Below are pictures from media day!

 

 

It was a great experience learning the business side of food service. It was great to meet such wonderful people and we will miss living in Bozeman. Until next time, Bozeman. We will be back again someday!
Peace,
Chloe and Alyssa

Week 11

This week was a busy week at work, as activities are picking up in the preparation of the grand opening of Miller dining hall next week. A large project that we worked on included creating binders with menus, recipes, and instructions for each station. It was a great feat to finish those and hand them over to the executive chef, Martin's waiting hands.

Chloe invited Jim from Key Impact to come up to Bozeman to help set up the General Mills cereal bins at the remaining 3 locations on campus. Employees at all locations were excited to see brand new dispensers! We tried them out at breakfast the next morning and were pleasantly surprised that the cereal didn't get stuck or create a cereal avalanche!

The line-up at Miller dining hall in the "Nook" breakfast area

The week ended with heavy lifting as the first deliveries from FSA (Food Services of America) came in to fill our empty storeroom at Miller dining hall. We unloaded 778 cases of dry storage items and 9 pallets of food in the -5 degree freezer the next day.

Putting away the products that we helped procure and make deals on

The fun after work and on weekends never ends in Bozeman! We have loved the free spirit living and encouragement from everyone we meet here. One of our favorite events that was so representative of the "Bozeman vibe" was SLAM music/art festival. We started off the morning with a free outdoor yoga session. We giggled as our yogi instructor told us to "flick our little lizard tongues and brace ourselves for the bikes riding up our backs". We also got to see all of the talented vendors, enjoy music, attend a culinary demonstration, and spend a day in the beautiful sun.

We made a list of all of the things we would like to do before we leave next week. We started off with a favorite, the Farmers market at Bogert park. Another new thing we tried was a Brew Run with Bozeman running company- a 5K in Livingston, with a rewarding beer at Katabatic brewing company at the end. Alyssa won a FREE pair of shoes from Bozeman running company!

We ended the week with a fun night of climbing with our amazing and wonderful coworker Jeri. The Spire climbing gym is huge and challenging. We left with smiles on our faces and sore arms after lifting heavy cases for two days and scaling up the climbing walls.

This Saturday, we set our sights on Baldy peak, our last long hike before we leave. As we talked about in a previous blog post, the Bridger Ridge Run commenced this Saturday. These inspiring athletes run along the length of the Bridger Ridge (something we were unable to conquer merely hiking earlier this summer). We decided to hike up to Baldy, the last peak of the ridge and cheer the runners on. We stumbled up and cheered people on as they ran by with bloodied knees, pulled hamstrings, and loud burps. At the finish line we cheered them on again and teared up as we were moved by their resilience and drive. A few runners joked that they would like to see us next year... our competitive selves are tempted by the challenge.

At the top of Baldy by the aid station

Part of the grueling course

Berkeley Final Week 8

Monday

This morning, we received a delivery of 2 allergen kits for the wellness station. We were very excited to open the box and see what’s come with the box. Since the kit will only be used to prepare allergen friendly meals for students, we created a SOP that provide full description on handling, storing and cleaning the kit to prevent cross contamination.

At noon, we visited the Free Spirit Farm located in Sacramento, CA with Shawn, Samantha and Kristen. We were very excited to meet the owner of the organic  farm, Toby Hastings as we heard many great things about Toby from Shawn. Toby will be one of the major supplies for Brown’s in the fall. Toby leased the farm from the Center for Land-Based Learning to grow fruits, vegetable and flowers for over 40 local restaurants, farmers market, and Airbnb in San Francisco. The growing season starts in May and ends around November. During winter, he grows legumes as cover crop to supply the following year’s nitrogen needs. He also grows a wide variety of fruits like peaches, plums, pluots, figs, persimmons, berries, wine grapes, pomegranate and many more. During our tour of the farm, Toby was generous enough to let us try lots of the fruits that he is growing! We tried Toby’s favorite emerald pluot and loved it so much! It was so sweet and juicy! Nothing beats fresh fruits handpicked from the farm! At the end of our tour, we even got to take some fruits home with us! 

Baby walnuts 

Megan tasting a elderberry.. not sure what she thinks!

Pepper plants 

Delicious blackberries that we all snacked on!

Megan tasting blackberries 

Baby Pomegranates

Regular Plums 

Megan and Melissa's favorite new fruit called an emerald! What a treat 

Fresh Fig that was super sweet and juicy 

Super sweet and juicy grape tomatoes, that even Melissa liked!

Melissa grabbing a plum on the tour

The twins and their plums! 

Toby even grew some grapes that he might use to make wine in the future! 

Kristen, Toby, Sam, Megan and Melissa with their fresh picked produce from the farm

Sam and Toby picking some tomatoes 

Look how cute these watermelons are

Toby picking fresh plums for us to try!

The crew at the farm

Where Toby collects his fresh eggs!

Toby's chicken on the farm fed with grain from his neighbors, and extra fresh fruits and veggies

Tuesday

Today we went to Brown's cafe and tasted the breakfast samples that the chefs were testing for opening next week.  The chefs had prepared the yogurt parfait, two breakfast plates (below), along with two types of breakfast porridge.  Everything tasted great, just as we had remembered when preparing the sample dishes with Kristen. After, we had a few projects to take care of with Lucky to help with Brown's.  First, we had the fun opportunity to help pick out a new counter top for a cabinet that will be put in Browns for the sparkling water CO2 containers and other refrigerated filtered water. One of the biggest changes to Brown's along with the menu, is there will only be one drink refrigerator that will hold yogurt parfaits, and in the future fresh squeezed orange juice.  Therefore, all of the soft drinks, teas and juices will all be removed! After, we took our visit to Brown's, we went back to the office with Lucky and worked on creating new menu boards for GBC.  Because GBC has new products for the fall, it was necessary to rework the menu boards.  We created a breakfast display, burrito and burrito bowl, sandwich, and salad displays and adjusted the pricing as necessary.  After we finished working on the menu boards Kristen asked us to create an SOP for making housemade aioli. According to the health inspector, he provided a list of suggestions that should be included in this SOP because they chefs are working with and serving raw eggs. We incorporated how to make the aioli with specifications for sanitation, temperatures, preventing cross-contamination, hand washing and storing.  

Breakfast plate

Sweet millet porridge  

Savory breakfast made with polenta 

Wednesday 

Today we started working on our final presentation. After a long few hours in the office we looked forward to a yummy lunch at Brown's. We went over to Brown's for a delicious lunch.  We tried many of the sampler plates and Kristen described to her staff how the food will be plated, depending on the sides ordered.  After tasting the delicious food we created an SOP for Kristen for preparing homemade aioli.  

Kristen explaining the sample plates to her staff 

Thursday

Today again we went to Brown's and sampled all of the panini and burgers they will be offering during the re-opening of Brown's in the fall. They were so many varieties and we loved everyone of them! Also we worked with Lucky again, altering the menus.  It has been very hectic with the re-opening of Brown's now that it is crunch time! 

Portabello pesto panini

Curried Chicken Salad Sandwich 

Caramelizad onion, spinach, tomato, and hummus panini 

Ahi Tuna Sandwich 

BTL

Tofo Siracha Burger

Grass Fed Burger

Friday

Today was the big day for our presentation! It went really well, we had a huge turn out and the managers all really seemed to love it.  Thanks Cal for the best summer yet!! Now it is time for our travels back to school and the start of our senior year!