Autumn - Ohio State University

My last week at Ohio State was by far the best week. The focus of the week was my theme lunch, which took place on Wednesday. I spent Monday and Tuesday working with the staff at North Commons, where the lunch took place. My duties on these days were to go over recipes and quantities with the chef, ensure that my food items were ordered correctly, and work alongside the kitchen staff so that they would be comfortable cooking for me. All of the knowledge that I gained during the previous seven weeks of the internship was needed during this week, and I feel as if I put it to use well.

The menu for the lunch consisted of Lemon Chicken with pasta, Fish and Chips, and Vegetarian Paella as the entrees. The sides served were Ratatouille, Green Beans Almondine, Garbanzo Bean Salad, and a French Dinner Roll. The best part of the menu, dessert, consisted of Crepes filled with chocolate sauce and fresh strawberries and Cannolis. A total of 435 diners visited North Commons for lunch during my theme meal, and, after completing a small analysis of the leftovers, it was found that the biggest crowd pleasers were the Lemon Chicken and the Cannolis. Below are a few photos from the event:

I only had one hour to decorate the dining hall. Luckily, I was able to utilize the student employees, during their lunch break.

The major group that joined us for lunch was called the "Singing Buckeyes," and they all came to eat at the same time!

The dining hall was decorated with flag banners and inflatable airplanes.

The crepes may have been the most time consuming item on the menu, but they looked delicious!

The cannolis were very tasty (and popular), as well.

A member of the kitchen staff created a decorative fruit display for the dessert station.

Diners could dive deeper into the spirit of the theme by signing this map of Europe in order to let us know where they have traveled.

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I thoroughly enjoyed my stay at the Ohio State University, and I will miss the Dining Services team. However, I am now back in Michigan, preparing to start my last semester at Michigan State University on August 31.

Thank you NACUFS for this experience!

Field Trips Continued - Mizzou

One of the field trips we went on was to Goatsbeard Farm. This is a goat farm in which they make goat cheese. Jenn explained the cheese making processes that they do right on site! The goat cheese is sold at many several local stores and restaurants. Information on the farm can be found on their website. Below are pictures from the trip.

Another field trip we went on was to the City Landfill. Here we looked at a compost pile from a few months. The products in the pile were from the CDS picnic in which they are using environmentally friendly products. They are seeing how well the products have been degrading, and if not, to switch to a different product. I've never been to a city landfill, neither has Sara, so this has been a first time for the both of us.

End of the Summer (Part 3 of 3) - Mizzou

Our final project was to present a business plan for a major special event. A major special event is different from a mini-special event in that it is an event that occurs at all the all-you-care-to-eat dining locations (like a Thanksgiving event). The event we created would potentially take place in the Spring semester of 2012. So, we called our project "World Tour 2012." During this event, each all-you-care-to-eat facility will feature a world region. Since there are four, we have - Mediterranean, European, African, and Caribbean. We also created multiple activities to go along with this event to make it more interactive by including social media features. We presented our business plan to the Campus Dining Services Department on our last day. It was a great hit and everyone loved the idea and brought up interesting challenges the event would create. This internship was a great experience and I learned a lot about food services management, more than I would have in any of my classes. I definitely would encourage my peers to apply for a NACUFS internship. The program exceeded my expectations and is an experience that I would never forget.


Special thanks to: Debbie, Julaine, Steve, Eric, all the managers, assistant managers, and sous chefs.

Future interns - if you have any questions at all feel free to contact Sara or me by commenting.

End of the Summer (Part 2) - Mizzou

A few days after Sara's mini-special event, I executed my own, Medieval Mizzou. By creating a mini-special event, we learned a lot about the management and supervision roles and responsibilities within CDS (Campus Dining Services). Unlike Sara's event, was the complete opposite in terms of theme, food, feel, decorations, and counts. The forecasting for this event changed drastically within the week, and after experiencing Sara's event, I wanted to be prepared. Below are pictures of the decorations and food for the Medieval Mizzou event. I enjoyed the creative process involved in creating such an event and working with the staff to make the dishes I put on the menu.

End of the Summer (Part 1) - Mizzou

Hi Everyone,

To conclude the internship at the University of Missouri - Columbia, Sara and I completed several projects. We each executed a mini-special event. These themed events occur in only one dining hall during the lunch or dinner hour. Sara did her mini-special event first, like I mentioned in other posts, her's was Tango de Mango. The event was slightly under-preped and we had over double of the expected turn out. None the less, the food was delicious! Below are several pictures of the event and Sara preparing for the special night. I thought Sara did a great job communicating with the staff to prepare the food the way she wanted and to give them an idea of what she pictured the night would be like.

University of North Dakota - Week 8!

Today was my last day here at University of North Dakota. This week has been really busy between more menu planning, FoodPro training sessions, making recipe adjustments and the Summer Picnic, as well as finishing up projects and assignments before I leave. Rather than go into detail about everything I did this week, I would really like to just thank everyone here at UND for making me feel welcome and part of their team. They gave me a little goodbye reception after my final evaluation, but I feel like it's really everyone here who should be given the applause for all of their hard work everyday. Many thank yous to all of these fabulous people, and everyone not pictured here who I have gotten to meet here at UND...

Part of the great Wilkerson & Squires staff - special thanks to all the ladies in the red shirts for all the hard work they do out in the dining room, especially with the Summer Picnic this week!
Thanks to Linda, the morning kitchen manager, for all of her kindness and help during the internship. (She's hiding in the middle in the pinkish shirt)

Thanks to my very sweet suitemates in room 309, Eun Ji (Angie, left) and Su Jin (Crystal, right), they are dietetic interns here from South Korea!

Many thanks to my internship coordinator Mary Urbanski, for her guidance and encouragement, and also for giving me the freedom to make my NACUFS experience unique!

Thanks to Sarah, who is not only an awesome person but is also the best student manager ever!

Thanks to the evening managers, Lori (the "crazy broad") and Molly (who is just fabulous!) for being their incredibly fantastic selves.
Thanks also to Dan, the morning production manager, he was off today but I got to say goodbye to him at the Summer Picnic. Thank you for everything that you do!

And last but not least, thank you to Dustin the dietitian here at UND, for all of the encouragement, knowledge and support you've given me this summer!

I was really flattered that my reception featured fresh fruit, dip, and healthy snacks instead of the cake they usually have for interns. Here's to healthy eating for all! I hope that that will be my small imprint on UND, through the nutrition education sessions and Stomping Grounds online nutritional projects that I have had the opportunity to work on.

This has been an incredible journey for me, and I will definitely never forget my summer at the University of North Dakota. Thank you to NACUFS, Ms. Debbie Laupp, Mary Urbanski, Dustin and everyone who has made this experience possible for me.

THANK YOU UND!!!