Final Week at UGA! BITTERSWEET!!

Last week was a productive but fun week for Adam and I, as we put the final touches on our two projects we were responsible for. The closing banquet for the freshman college students was a success. Everyone appeared to really have enjoyed it from the compliments of the food to the décor. We had to wash and polish silverware for 400+ students, make flower table center pieces, make pineapple tree center pieces, marinate ribs, and decorate the dining hall. We had a ball working with the summit crew. The management at the summit are great people and the staff works really hard. Teamwork was the key to this event. Everyone played a huge part in this event from the cashiers, to the drink guys, to the stock room guys. I would like to thank Ms. Janet (the manager at the summit where the event was held) you are awesome! You taught us a lot! It was the first time I had ever put together flower arrangements. Ms. Chef Shelly, thanks for assisting us with the menu items and for the rest of your hard work. Ms. Red (the baker) for all of the desserts and dressing up for the event! To the remainder of the managers at the summit, you guys are awesome also!
The theme of the closing banquet was Hawaiian.

THE MENU

SALAD: Lilikoi Salad
BREADS: Hawaiian Sweet Bread and Banana Bread
ENTREES: Char Sui Pork Ribs, Mahi Mahi with Mango Salsa, Macadamia Nut Crusted Chicken with Banana-Cilantro Butter Sauce, Sweet & Sour Pineapple Meatballs and Tofu Poke
SIDES: Sesame Cabbage, Sweet Plantains, Pan Asian Noodles, and Maui Bay Vegetable Blend
DESSERTS: Medley of Fresh Fruit, Rum Cake, Palace Fusion Mini Cheesecakes, Lemon Mist Cake, Mimosa Escape Cake and Molten Lava Cake
BEVERAGES: Blue Hawaii and Volcanic Punch

HHHMMMMmmmmmm HHHHHHMMMMmmmmmm GGGGOOOOODDDD!!!!

Today is our final day as Interns at the University of Georgia. Adam and I will have a farewell luncheon at noon. After the luncheon we will have our presentation on our Customer Service Module (our second project) that we had to invent. It is a GREAT one! The project is actually titled G.R.E.A.T. (Greetings, Responsibilities, Educate, Above & Beyond, and Team Work). In the power point slide we define each of the words then we explain how it relates to the guest and to the co-workers. I believe management and the student workers will enjoy this module. Not only will they enjoy it they will learn a great amount of information. After the presentation we have our final evaluations then we depart. I must say this is a bittersweet time. I’m soooo excited about going home to Virginia, visiting my family, and graduating in December 2011 at Virginia State University. I am not ready to leave all the wonderful people that I have met in Georgia.
To Ms. Nicole, thanks for stepping in and being our contact person after Ms. Kris left. It was a pleasure being able to communicate with you and learn from you. Thanks for all of the rides when we went on our field trips. To Mr. Adam, where should I begin? I met you 8 weeks ago and it seems as if we grew up together. You have a great heart and I must say, you will go far in life! Keep up the great work and continue to bless other people that you encounter. I must say I have learned a lot from you in the last 8 weeks and when I come to NY to visit I will def contact you. Until next time, be blessed and congratulations on your last semester at Penn State.
As far as the other interns, congratulations!! I enjoyed reading everyone’s blog and looking at the wonderful pictures that were posted. Continue to be a blessing to others and please continue to be a blessing in the Hospitality Industry. Until next time, little PINEAPPLES be safe.

Mr. Kelvin Butler

Our Final Day At UGA...

Today is our last day as interns at UGA, so I just want to show my gratitude one final time. To all of the management and staff of UGA Food Services, I say Thank You! If not for your gratuitous amounts of hospitality, I could not have felt as happy and at home as I did for the past two months here in Athens, Georgia (900 miles away from my home in New York). Each and every one of you taught me something new and valuable and I cannot say enough about my time here. I also have to say thank you to my fellow intern, Kelvin Butler. It has been my pleasure to have met you and worked side by side with you for the past two months. I believe that I now have a lifelong friend in the state of Virginia. You are a great person with a strong mind and an obvious passion for the hospitality industry, where ever your future endeavors may take you (Hotel ownership, night club ownership, Chik-Fil-A ownership, or anything else that you come up with) you will most certainly be successful!

Final Projects at UGA

Hard to believe it, but mine and Kelvin's time at UGA is nearly complete. Today is our last day of work, which makes for some very mixed feelings. Happy to have met so many great new people and learned so many valuable things for our future careers, and also happy to be heading home to see family and friends that we have missed so dearly, while at the same time sad to have to say "see you later" to so many people that took us in as if we were family for the past two months.

This past week Kelvin and I finished up our second big project, which is a customer service training module for student workers and management in food services at UGA. We created a program called G.R.E.A.T. standing for (Greetings, Responsibilities, Education, Above & Beyond and Teamwork). We believe that these five words truly exemplify customer service. In the online training course we explain in detail how each of the words has meaning to the food services workers and then how it translates to the guest's experience in the different food service units at UGA. We also hope to get all of the units to hang posters with the G.R.E.A.T. words where all of the workers can see it every day and be reminded of the training. In order to introduce this new program to upper management, we have a formal presentation this afternoon.

As for our other final project, Kelvin and I finally hosted our Hawaiian themed Freshman College Banquet at the East Village Summit Commons. After more than a month of planning and careful considerations the day finally arrived. Kelvin and I spent a total of three days prepping for the banquet. We marinated pounds of pork ribs, arranged 100 floral centerpieces, folded 400 napkins, polished silverware for 400 guests, built 9 large palm trees out of pineapples and leaves, and strung pineapple chunks and cherries onto 500 umbrella toothpicks for placing into specialty beverages. We oversaw the set up of the entire dining room and banquet lines, including teaching the student staff how to set the tables, how to arrange the centerpieces, and how to distribute the beverages (Blue Hawaii and Volcanic Punch). Our guests arrived at 5:30pm and were greeted by cold beverages at the entrance way. Around 6:15pm they lined up at the banquet lines for an array of foods that included:

Char Sui Pork Ribs

Macadamia Nut Crusted Chicken Breast with a Banana Cilantro Butter

Tofu Poke

Sweet and Sour Pineapple Meatballs

Mahi Mahi with Mango Salsa

Sweet Plantains

Pan Asian Noodles

Sesame Cabbage

Hawaiian Sweet Bread

Banana Bread

Lilikoi Salad (with a dressing imported straight from Hawaii)

Molten Lava Cake

Mini Cheesecakes

Mimosa Cake

And an incredible display of fresh fruits sitting underneath a 3 palm trees made from pineapples

The event ran very smoothly and the student guests and the dining commons staff really seemed to enjoy themselves at the event. The Executive Director of UGA's Food Services Mr. J. Michael Floyd as well as the Director Mrs. Jeanne Fry both came to our dinner along with several other mangers and workers that have been a large part of our internship experience here at UGA. Our special guests also truly enjoyed the meal and the atmosphere of the event. At the end of the night we had many congratulatory statements telling us that it had been one of the best Closing Banquets of the Freshman College! We even had a special request for our Ribs recipe. What a great feeling of accomplishment!

Less Than Two Weeks To Go!

Hard to believe it but there are less than two weeks remaining in our internship here at UGA. This past week was another busy one for Kelvin and I. We spent a lot of our time early in the week working on our customers service training initiative project. The initiative is going to be called G.R.E.A.T. which stands for Greetings, Responsibilities, Education, Above & Beyond and Teamwork. We have discussed in detail how each of these five key words or phrases can relate to customer service from the standpoint of both the staff and the guests. We will be putting together a slideshow, which will be used online for student training as well as posters and explanations to hand out and hang up around campus. We hope to have a positive impact on the level of customer service in UGA Food Services with our initiative.

The latter part of the week Kelvin had some days off and I went on my last two management shadows. First I shadowed Mr. Wayne Fair the Unit Manager of Bolton Dining Commons. We spent the morning and afternoon discussing where new concepts derive from and how to prepare to implement them. We took an in depth look at UGA's themed dinners and how they choose themes and how the menus and decor are established for each one. UGA's themed meals are a pride point for their food services as many of these meals have won NACUFS Loyal E. Horton awards for excellence. The key contributors to many of the meals are the student workers who design and create many of the intricate decorations that make the themes come to life. We also discussed how to lead a very large, very diverse team of people day in and day out and what the keys are to showing appreciation to each and every one of them.

Finally I shadowed Gregg, a cafeteria manager at Snelling Commons. We ran a mock health inspection of Snelling and found some areas for their improvement. We discussed resume and interview tips together as well as thoughts on career advancement. Along with Unit Manager Chef Bryan Varin about the ideas of "tray-less" dining and how while it can be more sustainable in terms of water usage reduction and reduced chemical usage, it takes away a lot of good customers service. This is because customers without trays have a harder time carrying for instance just one simple entree, salad and beverage. Especially if they are already carrying backpacks and books when they arrive at the commons. This can cause guests to become unhappy, drop more items and can also cause log jams when customers have to continue to come back to the same lines over and over again. Customer service is key! Let's keep the customers happy and keep using those trays people!

So this is it the final week and half is upon us... This week we will finish our customer service initiative and make final preparations for our Hawaiian banquet! Wish us luck!

ALMOST TO THE END OF A SUCCESS STORY!

Good Day!
Monday Adam and I kicked off the week by shadowing the catering staff at UGA. We got to see how different catering events are booked in the computer system. The events could be anywhere from cookies and punch to planning a wedding. We were able to see the catalog that the staff uses to order different linen for the different events. The managers told us how someone could call to get the price of a certain menu with a certain number of guests then call back a week later and want the price of a whole different menu. I think that would be a headache at times but with technology today, it’s as easy as plugging the items into the computer system and letting the computer do all the configurations. We were also able to talk to Mr. Wayne Pahl for a couple hours. He is a very nice guy who is knowledgeable about the hospitality industry and was able to give us some great advice. He appears too really like what he does here at UGA and his staff loves him. Towards the end of the shift we had to set up a banquet for the orientation students. I was able to put hamburgers on buns, help set up the chocolate fountain, change out sternos for the chafing pans, and expedite. My expediting position consisted of pulling food from the hot box and un-wrapping it for the lines when needed. It was a busy job and I enjoyed working with the student manager. The remainder of the week was office hours and we were able to work on our customer service project. It is still coming along well and it should be completed by next week. Once the project is completed, I will gladly go into details. Until next time be safe!

Kelvin Butler

WHATS YOUR VISION?

Greetings and Salutations,

This is the one and only Kelvin Butler. This past week at UGA has been a pleasant one. Thanks to Miss Nicole, we visited “Jittery Joes” and “Your Pie.” Jittery Joes is a coffee shop with delicious coffee might I add. We got to meet some of the staff members and we saw the process of roasting the coffee beans. I had never seen the roasting process so I was really amazed. Your Pie is a “build your own” pizza franchise started here in Athens, GA. The owner is a former UGA employee of food services. He was a marketing major in college and always knew he wanted to open a restaurant. He was blessed with his vision to be able to open multiple restaurants. It was great getting to meet the owner; it added some new ideas to my vision. Towards the end of the week we got to work with the catering team. I had fun with them because we got to work with other employees our age. The catering team is a great group of students that knows how to get the job done. You give them a task and you don’t have to worry about it afterwards. Adam and I are still working on our customer service module for the student workers. YYYAaaayyyyy it’s coming along wonderfully. Until next time folks, be blessed!

Field Trips and Catering

This past week at UGA took us on two great field trips. We began the week by paying a visit to Jittery Joe's Coffee processing center. We met the operator and staff of the facility and saw how they roast the different types of coffee beans. We learned how different coffee blend are created and so how long it takes to roast a batch of coffee beans. We also saw where and how Jittery Joe's ships out it's many different flavors of coffee. Field trip number two for the week took us to "You Pie" a local pizza restaurant that was started by a former UGA food services assistant manager. "Your Pie" is a build your own personal pizza concept that is similar to places such as Mo's Mexican restaurants, Subway, and Chipotle. "Your Pie" is a franchised company that was started in Athens, GA where the original 3 restaurants are and now has branched out with franchised restaurants now in 9 locations. The company is using their own research in combination with that of potential franchisees in order to choose the best new locations for the franchise. They hope to be all over the entire South East United States within the next 5-10 years. The last part of our week was a day of shadowing the UGA catering team. We helped set up and run a lunch event for a group of high school juniors and their parent's on a tour of the campus. We also discussed industry practices and good and bad management styles with Mr. Wayne Pahl, the head catering manager. We are still hard at work on our two projects and will post more details as the big day of our closing banquet approaches, as well as when we firm up our official customer service training initiative.

Projects Taking Shape

This past week Kelvin and I were very focused upon our two projects here at UGA. But before we began work on those we used our day off on Monday for Independence Day to travel to Atlanta. We visited the Underground Station, The CNN Center, Centennial Park and Turner Field for a Braves game with post game fireworks. It was a day full of fun and unfortunately at times, rain. The rest of the week we spent preparing for the Freshman College Opening Banquet at the Village Summit Commons. We assisted in rolling 425 napkins with silverware, putting together over 100 floral center pieces, decorating the room, and setting up and tearing down the event. The guests certainly seemed to enjoy themselves and we were pleased to see so. It is up to Kelvin and I to assure that the Freshman College Closing Banquet runs just as well if not better. We spent part of the week finalizing our theme and menu, by speaking with two of the chefs here at UGA plus one of the dinning commons managers. We also chose the decorations, colors, staff uniforms, etc. We also took some initiative in seeking out Ms. Stacia Fink, who is our contact point for our second project, to create a customer service training module online and also a way to present the ideas to the managers so that they can implement the ideas and create the change in the staff. We look forward to showing off our knowledge and abilities in the form of these projects. Until next time... this is Adam, signing off!

THE BIG DAWGS!!

Greetings interns, management, and guest this week have been a blessing and I have experienced and learned a great amount of information. Adam and I kicked off the 4th at the Atlanta Braves game with fireworks following the game. It rained by the 7th ending but we still were able to enjoy the fireworks. I pray everyone enjoyed their red white and blue day! The remainder of the week consisted of prepping for the freshman college banquet of 400+ students and professors. We had to roll silverware, decorate tables, and prepare flowers for the centerpieces. We had to prep the dessert table along with watching one of the managers put together a chocolate fountain. The banquet went really well and the students appeared to be having a great time. That was just a sample of what Adam and I is in the process of preparing for their closing banquet. During office hours this week we finalized the menu and looked at a few more decorating options. We also started working on our 2nd project which is a customer service module that we must invent for the student workers at UGA. I am looking forward to this upcoming week. Keep up the great work interns. Let’s make a difference! WE CAN ALL DO IT! Until next time…..Be blessed!

Another Week Gone By at UGA...

This past week at UGA began with a field trip to the Nestle Stouffer's factory in Gaffney, SC. Here we saw how a large plant operates on a daily basis. Despite the fact that a large portion of the factory is automated, it still takes a remarkable number of people to operate the 10 lines at the factory. Much of the foods produced for both retail stores and college dining are made with fresh ingredients and no additives. Also every one of their lasagnas, which is their most produced product is hand laid for quality and customer satisfaction.

This week Kelvin and I learned how inventory is taken at the dining commons here at UGA by taking physical inventory of the Snelling stock room, coolers and freezers. We then learned how to enter it into FoodPro for updating and analysis and how to order more inventory for the next day or up to the 3 weeks out. FoodPro was a big part of our weeks learning. On Wednesday we learned how the chefs use FoodPro for forecasting and recipe creation and then we learned how the central food storage warehouse uses FoodPro to take all of the data submitted by all of the food service outlets on campus and analyzes it in order to process the schools needs for the coming weeks. While the semesters are a time of predictable customer counts and inventory needs, the summer is very up and down and difficult to predict.

Kelvin and I are also now very involved in the planning of one of our two final projects. This one is to organize and manage a closing banquet for the summer freshman college here at UGA, an event for around 400 people. We have hashed out some ideas and met with some of the chefs to gain better perspectives of what works and what may not work and we have chosen a Hawaiian theme. The Menu is in progress as well as many other pieces to this big puzzle. I am certain that with myself and Kelvin making the decisions and with the great help and support we have from the chefs and managers here at UGA, our event will be a great success!

Happy Independence Day to Everyone! Have a great week!

4 DOWN 4 TO GO

Adam and I kicked off the week with a field trip to Nestles Stouffers Plant in Gaffney, SC. It was awesome being able to witness the operations of the plant. Seeing how the food was prepared and packaged was amazing. Even with technology the plant still needed a great amount of workers to run the operation. It was nice to know that all Stouffers products are freshly made with no additives. I never looked at it as being a home cooked meal just cooked at the plant. We learned how to take inventory in Snelling Dining Commons. We inventoried the entire stock room along with the refrigerators and freezers. The freezers were not one of my favorites but it was the next best thing to coffee or an energy drink. We were able to order the items that were needed for the next couple of days if they were not in stock. FoodPRO was a high light of our week. We were able to see how it was used for ordering foods and other items. FoodPRO keeps track of opening inventory and closing inventory for the week. It also keeps track of what foods the student’s consume the most then it sends a forecast of what items should need ordering for the week and then it ship the orders. I learned the system could make mistakes so the employee that is responsible for inventory needs to double check to make sure all the items are really needed.
Towards the end of the week, Adam and I prepared food for one of the UGA food service employee’s retirement party. We were able to season chicken and grill it for preparation of chicken parmesan. One of the managers saw us the next day and said how everyone loved it. That Friday we had office hours to prepare for our closing banquet that Adam and I have to plan and manage. We were able to pick a theme and talk with a couple of chefs on campus. Talking to the chefs was a great idea because it helped us be a little more open minded and we were able to get more food options. We have decided to do a Hawaiian theme for the closing banquet so that should be a pleasurable one not only for the employees but for the incoming freshman. We are half way through the internship and I am going to continue to be a sponge and soak up all the experience. I am excited about the internship coming to an end so I can go back home and finish my last semester at VSU but I will be sad to leave the people that I have gotten to know in the last 4 weeks. UGA is a great school and full of great people. Until next time be safe and continue to enjoy life to the fullest.

Kelvin Butler

"LET THE BIG DAWGS EAT!"

Hi,

I pray everyone had a blessed week from the last update. A lot has occurred since then at the University of Georgia. This past week I got to shadow 4 different managers at the different dining commons. I enjoyed following the different managers. I was able to observe the different manager styles from manager to manager. Each manager I shadowed had diverse styles that I will be able to use in the near future. I learned how to manage each dining commons (Snelling, The Village Summit, and Tate Café). Another exciting part of my week was being able to shadow the Executive Director Mr. Michael Floyd for 12 hours. We were able to assist the orientation team with the 2011-2012 freshman of UGA. While shadowing the Executive Director Mr. Floyd, we were able to sit in an interview for a potential chef for the catering team. We (the interns) were able to ask the potential chef questions during the interview. The end of the week we went to an assistant managers training workshop at Botanical Gardens. The Director of food services Jeanne Fry hosted the workshop. It was a way to bring all the assistant managers from the different dining commons together to share information and educate. It was truly a learning experience to be able to read and discuss the book “Gung Ho.” All the managers had to read the book before the workshop. After reading the book, it can now assist me with managing my employees in the future. Special thanks to Ms. Nicole for providing Adam and I with a ride to the workshop. This week ahead of us will be another exciting one. Stay tuned and I pray everyone else is having a great time like I am with the wonderful employees at UGA. Before I go I would like to leave you'll with this quote: “Aim for success, not perfection. Never give up your right to be wrong, because then you will lose the ability to learn new things and move forward with your life.”- David Rockefeller

Stay Blessed

UGA Food Services Gets Gung Ho!

Wow! What a busy week it was at UGA. Monday I shadowed management at the Village Summit, Tuesday I shadowed management at Snelling Commons, and Thursday I shadowed management at Bolton Commons. These three days were very exciting, I learned the importance of knowing your menu and your products, I learned how quality assurance checks are conducted, how the payroll system works, and was at Bolton for an actual health inspection that they received a score of 100 on! But the most interesting parts of the week came on Wednesday and Friday.

On Wednesday Kelvin and I shadowed the executive director of UGA Food Services, Mr. J. Michael Floyd. We assisted him with the early morning freshman orientation welcoming, the midday lunch for the student's parents, and attended his presentation about the UGA meal plan and the four great dinning commons here at UGA. We also witnessed the beginning of a departmental restructuring and had the rare opportunity to sit in on a group interview for a new chef. Mr. Floyd takes great pride in UGA Food Services and certainly cares a great deal about his staff and the student body alike.

Finally on Friday morning Kelvin and I participated in an Assistant Managers retreat at the State Botanical Gardens. All attendants of the retreat were to read the book "Gung Ho!" This was a story of how a factory director and one of her department managers transformed a failing factory into a place that all could come and take pride in their work and feel as if their work was meaningful. The book touched upon three main concepts, the spirit of the squirrel, which means making work worthwhile. The way of the beaver, which deals with people's values and goals. And the gift of the goose, which is all about people congratulating each other and cheering each other on on a daily basis. The retreat showed us how these concepts can be incorporated into any workplace as well as showed us how managers work together to formulate new ideas.

Stay tuned for next weeks update...

WORKING SMART WHILE HAVING FUN AT UGA!!

Greetings Everyone,

We are now on week two of the Wonderful NACUFS Management Internship. Here at the University of Georgia I have had an enormous amount of experiences this week. I was able to set up the wonderful salad bar at Bolton Dining Commons. I was able to serve the camps for breakfast along with the UGA students. Adam (the other intern) and I got to work in the wonderful dish room in Bolton. We didn’t realize how fast the trays would come down the conveyer belt. When it is one or two trays coming down it is fine but when there is trays back to back it is a different story. Whoever is working the line have to pay close attention while pulling certain items off the tray. I was responsible for pulling all silverware and glasses off the tray while making sure the trays were straight as they were coming down the line. I noticed if the trays were not straight on the belt it would cause the trays to back up and possibly fall off the line. I was able to serve pizza at Snelling (another dining commons). Later in the week I was able to work the grill station at Bolton. I was in charge of cooking English muffin French toast. Having to cook the French toast for 1000+ campers was an experience moving at a fast pace. I mastered it so I was happy and so were the campers, the managers, and the students. Towards the end of the week I learned about payroll.

Adam and I got the pleasure of interviewing the HR Specialist, the Dietary Specialist, the Dietitian, the Materials Manager, the IT Senior Manager, the Assistant Director Business Services, and Mr. Floyd the Executive Director. Each employee shared with us what they did on a day-to-day basis. They were nice enough to answer any questions that we had prepared.

We ended the weekend by going to the Atlanta Braves game against the Texas Ranger on Saturday. Thanks to the Director Mrs. Jeanne Fry for purchasing the tickets. Also thanks to Ms. Meghan (Student Manager at Bolton Dining Hall) for providing transportation to the game. We had a wonderful time until it started raining and thundering half way in the game. We decided to leave and have dinner at the Tin Drum Asian Café in Atlanta. The food was delicious and very fulfilling. That has been my week in a nut shell. Please stay tuned for week three.

Mr. Kelvin Butler

Hospitality Management Student at Virginia State University

A Busy Week in Athens!

The first full week of work here at UGA was a busy one! Monday through Wednesday were spent working with the full time employees and student workers as we helped to serve breakfasts and lunches to over a 1000 campers, ran the dish room and worked in the kitchen producing hot entrees, desserts and salads. We split time between UGA's Bolton commons and Snelling commons in order to gain an understanding of how procedures are handled in different areas. In between all of that we got to sit down and meet with UGA Dinning Services' HR specialist, Dietary Specialists, Warehouse Managers, IT Manager, Assistant Director of Business Services, and the Executive Director of Dinning Services. We learned everything from how products are chosen and menus are pieced together, to how people are hired and fired from UGA Food Services, to how orders are placed, received and distributed at the warehouse, to how to motivate a staff to strive for bigger and better things year after year. It was quite the start to the week, but it was only the first 3 days!

Thursday and Friday were spent shadowing management. on Thursday I shadowed Ellie Hanson at Tate Cafe, which is one of UGA's retail outlets. I learned about what helps to set them apart from the dinning commons, like the ability to purchase items a la carte and to have made to order items along with grab and go items. They also operate under chains such as Larry's Subs and Barbritos. On Friday we shadowed Kirti Leatham a manager at the Snelling commons during the year, but helping out at Bolton for the summer. We learned a lot about how to motivate a staff, as well as how to keep staff members on task throughout down time. We discussed the qualities that make a good manager, like listening to employees and teaching them the proper ways to perform tasks rather than just scolding them for being wrong.

On Saturday we ventured to Atlanta with several other people from the commons to take in an Atlanta Braves game at Turner Field against the Texas Rangers. Sadly the weather turned sour within the first few innings and a 2 hour rain delay began in the 5th inning at which point we left the game and went for dinner in Atlanta where we were able to finish watching the game, which the Braves unfortunately lost 5-4 in 10 innings. I hope to make it back sometime for a full game.

FIRST WEEK AT UGA

Greetings All!! My name is Kelvin Butler, a senior at Virginia State University Studying Hospitality and Management. I was selected to participate in the NACUFS Food Management internship at the University of Georgia. Everything has been great so far. I was welcomed by Kris Ingmundson (Training Specialist) with a huge gift bag that included work shirts, a pen, a notebook, a water bottle, an ID card holder, a map, a UGA t-shirts, along with other great items. She called a couple of her team members to help me move all of my items in. Ms. Meagan the student manager took me to get my faculty/staff student ID and other important things I needed to before I began my internship. My roommate Adam Berger joined me the next day and Ms. Meagan gave us a tour of the entire campus. We got to learn some history about UGA and Athens GA. Something we noticed quickly was the many hills the campus has to offer. It is great for exercise even though we joined the gym our second day here. We got to have breakfast with some of the other managers and the Director Mrs. Fry. The reception was pleasant and welcoming. It helped us learn some of the staff members and some of the other managers from the other dining halls. We got to sample and rate some Mexican food at Oglethorpe Dining facility provided by the staff members of the dining hall. The Executive Director Mr. Floyd joined us for lunch. Adam and I were able to shadow the student managers in Bolton Dining Facility. The student managers gave us a tour of the dining hall and talked to us about their wonderful positions and what it incorporated. We learned a lot in that day and are ready to see what next week has to offer. Overall, the staff members are extremely nice and I am sure I will have a great experience and I will learn an enormous amount from this wonderful internship.

First Days at UGA!

So I arrived at UGA earlier this week and what a truly nice campus this is! At first glance it appears to be a very big school, but once you find your way around it shrinks down to size. All of the people that I have met are very warm and welcoming and making the adjustment from New York/Pennsylvania an easy one for me so far. The dining commons here are quite impressive! From their modern designs to their vast variety of food options, the commons here are a fun place to eat and work. Thursday was our first day and we had a reception at the Bolton Dining Commons, at which we were introduced to many members of the staff and management team, as well as the summer student orientation leaders who are dining commons supervisors during the school year. We then took the grand tour of the campus and the town and learned a bit of history as well as the ins and outs of the area. We saw everything from the Botanical Gardens to the mall. We even rang the victory bell! Then on Friday we were invited to attend a taste testing of some new mexican dishes at the Oglethorpe Dining Commons. After that we headed over to Bolton to spend the rest of the day shadowing the student manager and student supervisors. A lot of hard work goes into performing their jobs, they have a great deal of things to balance and coordinate each day, so it was great to pick their brains for a day. So far things are going really well for myself and Kelvin. Monday begins a very busy week full of working the lines, interviewing staff and shadowing management so there will be plenty more to write about soon!