Final Banquet Pictures

Marcia and Liza just left, and I will miss them so much! I wanted to post some pictures of their final banquet. The food was AMAZING - they did such a good job working with the chefs and cooks to create an exceptional menu that the guests were still talking about the next day!

Farewell UGA..

It is our last day... A bitter sweet feeling. Im glad to be going home and getting into a familiar environment, but I have had a great summer and will miss all the great people I have met. Will I miss Marcia?? Of course! I am very thankful that Marcia and I have gotten along so well this summer. We are opposites, each at the opposite end of the spectrum, but it has worked out really, really well!! I have learned so much this summer. Not only about Foodservice Management and how much it takes to keep Foodservice operations running, but more importantly about people, dealing with people, and myself. There are some things I know I will have to improve if i plan to be an effective manager one day. For an example, I highly lack assertiveness. Whether I go in foodservice management or not, everything I have learned I know I will take with me and use wherever I am. This has been a great experience, and I consider it to be a great blessing and opportunity to have been able to work with some great people this summer that have taught me a lot. Not only with their words, but actions. Bye Bye UGA!

Bye UGA

I can't believe today is the last day of my internship, boy has time flown. This ending is definitely bitter sweet I've really enjoyed my time here but i am ready to see my family and friends again. I'm very happy I was given the opportunity to do this internship because i have definitely learned alot about myself as well as management. I also was privileged to meet some wonderful people and try alot of new things while here. I'll definitely miss my roomie Liza we are completely different when it comes to personality and environment but we got along really well and have learned alot from each other. This experience was great and I'm glad i got to share it with her.
Friday night Liza went downtown one last time to say goodbye to some co-workers and then on Saturday I went paint ball shooter with some of them. It was so much fun;I have some bruises to show for but it was worth it!!!















On Sunday Liza and I went to Bolton and helped with prep for our banquet on Monday. We had a little trouble making the caramel lol but we got the job done. It was very interesting to see how some of the Hispanic dishes we served were made and what went into them.!!
Monday was our big day and I think the banquet turned out very well. I was very happy with how everything fell together and I think that all of Liza and I's hard work paid off. I appreciate all the amazing people from the dining halls that helped us because with out them there is no way it would have been as successful as it was.
Thank you to everyone, Good Bye UGA!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KRIS!!!!!!

Our Banquet is tonight!!
Friday we went and picked up our flowers to make our flower arrangements for the tables. I believe we made somewhere around 85 vases. Later that day we went to a Mexican Grocery Store and got some ingredients for our recipes. It was fun to see all the different foods that they had.
The weekend was fun. It was our last weekend in Athens. Friday night we just went out and enjoyed the town with some of our friends that we have met here so far. Sunday we went to work at 8 to help prep for the banquet today. We helped assemble the tamales, we worked on the flan (which took a few attempts before it got right), and we cut a lot of vegetables. Im excited. I hope it goes well. The cooks have been great in helping us with everything and allowing us to be creative. Im very thankful.
We leave on Wednesday. We still have some things to get done. We need to finish up on our mystery shopper forms and work on our presentation for the management personell.
Oh!!! and Today is Kris' Birthday!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Its the final countdown..

So, I have highly slacked off on this blogging stuff. I think it is now known that my weakness is journaling. The last several days have gone by really fast, ok, maybe it has been three weeks since the last time I posted. We have been putting some finishing touches on our banquet that will take place on Monday. I got to test make flan! That was my first time ever. Besides the fact that we left it in the refrigerator at a very low temp causing it to freeze, it was very good. We have shadowed and worked with some of the management personell for the retail operations here. We have learned the differences in the dining halls and retail operations and have found out that they are separate identities and require different management skills. Their operations use more marketing since they are targeting students with and without meal plans as well as faculty. We got the opportunity to visit the Zaxbys Corporate office. We learned about their Quality Assurance and then they gave us a tour of a nearby Zaxbys. And of course, we got to eat their for lunch, their treat! This past weekend was a lot of fun. As you can see in the pics, Marcia and I along with a friend went kayaking down the Broad River. So much fun. Sunday we went to the Braves game with some people that we have met from work, which was a lot of fun as well. Right now we are focusing on finishing up our projects and getting this banquet started! Wish us luck!

1 Week to go!! :-(

Last Thursday I went on two mock health inspection with Beth, she showed me what she looks for and explained how everything is scored. Then on Friday we toured Zaxby's a chicken chain down here and it was actually very interesting, we got to see their quality assurance standards for the chicken they purchase and sample some items. Saturday morning Liza and I went Kayaking on the Broad river with a friend it was so much fun and very beautiful, we kayaked about 6 miles and it took us 3 hours I really enjoyed myself. On Sunday she and I drove down to Atlanta and went to an Atlanta Braves game, even though they lost horribly to the Washington Nationals I still enjoyed the experience this was my first baseball game!!
This past Monday and Tuesday I spent more time shadowing managers for a day but instead of in the dining halls they were the managers of the retail restaurants on campus so it was nice to compare and contrast the two. Today I worked with Pat the dietary specialist on campus and helped pick out the menu for a new restaurant they will have on campus soon, and go with her as she talked with a sales men and sampled new product. I enjoyed watching how they market their products to her and taste testing them as well; they were selling sausage links, sausage patties, Canadian bacon and more all made out of turkey many of these products were very good. To finish off my day I spent some time with Catherine the dietitian on campus and she went over some of the things that she talks about in her nutrition class that she teaches on campus, its offered for free to any student on the meal plan. The rest of this week will be office hours and prep time to work on our projects I can't believe next Wednesday is my last day!!!
I'm really excited because I will be going paint ball shooting on Saturday!!
Cia

The past week or so has been pretty busy, we spent the rest of last week taste testing recipes which were amazing!!! Then we got a lot of much needed office time to work on our projects, Liza and I were able to finally make some pretty good progress on redoing the customer service training modules but have yet to get to the mystery shopper evaluation forms. This week I shadowed chef's Paul and Bryan learning about inventory and how they use food pro to assist them with daily task. Tomorrow I will be shadowing another chef in the commissary and Friday visiting a restaurant.
Cia

Hey! So The fourth of July break threw me off. Last week, the first part of the week, Marcia and I shadowed the closing managers for one of the dining halls here. We learned how to shut everything down and the procedures for closing the lines. Last week was a short work week because we were off for the fourth, which was a lot of fun. My mom came to visit and we went to Asheville, North Carolina. We saw the Biltmore estate and the winery, and then we just hung around Asheville for a little while. They break was nice. I got to enjoy and see more things of Athens. This week has been fun too. We helped with the opening Banquet for the freshman college, and Marcia and I got to make our own flower arrangements!! We also got a chance to work on our flower arrangements for our closing banquet. This week has been filled with a lot of test tasting of the recipes that we will be having at our banquet. It has been very yummy! The recipes are great and authentic!

Busy Busy Busy

My 4th of July weekend was great I went to Chattanooga, Tennessee and visited one of my old roommates from last year at MSU. We got a chance to catch up and she showed me around town so even though I wasn't at home in Michigan I still enjoyed myself.
Now that the 4th of July has come and gone it's really starting to sink in how little time I have left here, before i know it it will be time to pack up and leave. Liza and I still have a ton of work to do on our projects and have been spending a lot of time as of late working on the banquet that we are putting together for later on this month. Yesterday we got to see what the opening banquet looked like and that helped out a lot with putting some of the ideas we had together. Today will be spent working on recipes and helping cook and taste test some of the food that will be presented at our banquet.
Cia

Field Trips!

Here are some pictures from our field trips last week:

These are from Roots Farm...



It wasn't very convenient to take pictures on our tours of Sutherland's and Southeast Processing, but here's a few:

Where to start? Ok, last week I was given the opportunity to work out at Roots Farm. It is a small organic farm that sells produce to a community group once a week for a yearly fee. I had so much fun! I got to help support some tomato plants, but mostly I weeded, which was pretty interesting because they informed me of specific weeds to get because of the damage that they do to the crops. I learned so much information about how to grow and to take care of different vegetables. At 12, Marcia and Kris came out along with some other employees that wanted to tour the farm. Sara, one of the farm workers, gave us a tour. Roots farm has a lot to offer. They grow tomatos, squash, beans, berries, carrots, cucumber, along with a lot of others too. It was a great experience. The next day we were invited to tour Sutherlands in Atlanta, which is a distribution center. It was really nice to see the background work and where and how things were packaged and shipped out. We also got to visit a produce processing plant. That was interesting. Marcia was touched so deeply that she cried twice. It was a beautiful experience. We spent the rest of the week picking out 5 star recipes for UGA's 5 star dinner in the fall. Marcia and I are helping go through boxes and books of recipes to contribute to the menu. It was a great week!

I Cried Twice

To kind of recap this past week I spent Monday Shadowing one of the managers of the catering team, that was a lot of fun to see what events they participate in and how they set up.
Tuesday Liza and I helped the dietary specialist plan what is called The Five Star Dinner. It's one of the many special events dinners that the dining halls put on every year and the menu consist of items from restaurants and other organizations that have won the Ivy Award. No two recipes can be from the same person, so Liza and I started picking out all the recipes we wanted to use and will finish this project tomorrow.
Wednesday we toured a local farm called Roots, they growth a large variety of organic fruits and vegetables and are a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture). So people buy in at the beginging of the growing season which is 16 weeks long paying about $30 a week , this is how the farm gets the money to buy seed and the equipment that they need with out having to take out loans. The customers that buy in get a weekly basket of produce that they can come and pick up and are not obligated to work on the farm but more than welcome. The farm is set on about 2 acres of land and only has 2 main people that work it, everyone else consist of volunteers both regular and sporadic. Later that afternoon we meet with chefs Brian and Paul to talk about our menu, Liza and I are planning the Freshman Closing Banquet at the end of the summer and we have to come up with decor, a menu,everything. This project is totally ours so we decided to go with a Mexican theme, and after talking with the chefs we have come up with a great menu that won't be too much work for them. Although they are more than willing to do whatever we want and we're meeting again tomorrow with Chef Paul to look at more side dish options, a couple of menu items include: Milanesa, Tamale's, Pork Carnitas, Churros, Flan, Sopapillas, Apple enchiladas, Red beans, Mexican rice, grilled corn, fiesta bowl salad, etc ( this making me hungry :-)

Today we went on a field trip to Sutherland's a distributor of UGA's that is based out of Atlanta; the people are wonderful. I had a wonderful time touring their facility and learning how they got started and operate in this industry today; they even had a nice lunch planned for us and gave us fruit baskets and goodies bags to take home. There was also an amazing processing plant that we toured which is not a part of Sutherland's but a separate entity that also buys direct and all they do is process foods, like cutting vegetables, preparing greens, spinach, beans, etc. We were able to walk through and see this process and I CRIED TWICE!!! Sure they were cutting up carrots, and celery in to 8 different sizes and making cole slaw with another machine, but the tear jerker for me was the onions. I have never cried so hard in my life I'm talking tears streaming down my face, we weren't right next to them but it didn't even matter. From a distance I watched as they put whole onions bulbs through a processor that finely chopped a full bucket (200lbs) in about 30 seconds. Next the onions were dipped in to a water batch with chlorine (100 parts per million) and then put in a spin dryer, this all took about 8 minutes. Finally it was dumped on a table where it got packaged, weighed and vacuumed sealed. He also showed us the blue book and talked to us a little bit about the industry itself and how he has managed to survive and make a reputable name for himself.
So that is a quick recap of my week, I don't have any big plans for this weekend as of right now so..............................................

Cia

Pictures!

Top: Marcia

Bottom: Marcia, Rachel, and Liza.

These photos were taken by orientation host Bobby Edenfield while the interns were working with the orientation team, marketing the meal plan to incoming freshmen and their parents.

Way Down Yonder on the Chatahoochie

This past week we got an opportunity to go to the regional hospital in Athens and tour their foodservice facility. It was neat to see some of the same equipment and to inquire about the patients diets and how they cater to each patient's needs. Every patient is on the theraputic diet. The Manager we talked to was very nice and gave us some sound advice on Foodservice Management. We also spent some time planning the Banquet that is in July that we will be in charge of. It was fun to come up with a theme and the menu items. We have decided on a Mexican theme and we are excited to finalize some decor decisions this week. The weekend was fun! Athfest was interesting. There were a lot of eccentric bands and cute tents that were set up to sell things from wood carvings to hammocks and clothes. Its a very artsy place, downtown Athens. Today we went tubing down the Chatahoochie River. I think that was the biggest experience of the weekend. Only because it rained, thundered, lightened, oh and lets not forget HAILED! but dont worry, Marcia and I trekked on. So I cant wait until next week when I can write about my experience as a worker on a local organic farm. Stay tuned!

Tubing

Today we went tubing down the Chattahoochee river in Helen,GA. It was tons of fun but could not have been more full of surprises, we checked the weather and it said a high of 86 partly cloudy and no chance of rain. The weather man couldn't have been more wrong, a high of 76, a down pour of rain accompanied by some occasional hail, thunder and lightening would have been more accurate. As soon as we got on the river the rain began and continued for a good 30minutes, at first I was apprehensive to get in the water but i figured i was going to get wet anyway. It takes about an hour to an hour and a half to tube the hooch, the sun finally came out and the last 45 minutes of the ride was wonderful. It was a really good time and looking back tubing half the way in the rain wasn't so bad either.
Oh yea Athfest was fun as well, there was definitely alot of people downtown and a lot of interesting bands playing along with some street vender's.
Until my next weekend adventure.......
Cia

A Shadow

This last week or so has been filled with lots of job shadowing, I've had the opportunity to shadow student management and management at various dining halls on campus. I really enjoyed this because it gave me a chance to see how the different managers manage and interact with their staff. Today I was given the opportunity to shadow the executive director of food service at UGA and that was very interesting. He has a great presence about him and was able to share some useful information with us about the importance of being different and how that can impact ones success. I also went on a mock health inspection with one of the managers earlier this week, He totally kept me involved and explained what everything meant when we filled out the sheet and gave them a score. I can definitely say that after this past week and a half I have learned a lot about how food service is ran from a management stand point, as well as a worker . I spent sometime serving and also working with the cooks and chef in production, i actually enjoyed it because it showed me how important their jobs are and helps me understand how they feel and what their days consist of.
I also shadowed the freshman orientation team this week showing me how they interact with parents and sell the meal plan. Since freshman( and any other students) are not required to have a meal plan they speak with the parents and even let them eat in the cafe to help with decision making. I enjoyed listening to the executive director and chef give presentations to the parents and students. They are very into what they are saying no matter how many times they've done it and really grab the audiences attention especially when they mention their 24hr dining hall on campus and encourage school spirit.
I've been working out on campus and had so much fun this weekend when I climbed the rock wall at their workout facility!! I took a class and can now climb it whenever i want!! This weekend I look forward to going downtown and experiencing Athfest (a live music concert downtown) and going to Helen to go tubing down the river.
Cia

LeT tHe BIG DaWg eAt!!!

Hey! So much has happened since our last post. We have experienced so much in only a week in a half. Last week we got the opportunity to shadow the managers from the different dining halls. We also shadowed the student management, which I think is a wonderful program for the students here at UGA. It gives them an opportunity while they are still in school to experience management positions. It was also a great way for us to get to know some of the students and people that are around our age. I think my highlight of last week was when one of the managers let me walk around with him while he did a mock health inspection. He was so informative on what to check and the proper procedures for everything. It was very interesting and I was able to learn a lot. This week, so far, we have been working with the orientation team. We have learned a lot about the meal plan and the marketing strategies of the meal plan and the services that the foodservices here at UGA have to offer.

This weekend has some exciting things to offer. Athfest is this weekend, which is a local music festival in Athens. I think we are going to check that out, and on Sunday a group of us are going to Helen, Georgia to go tubing!!!

It's Still HOT

The weather has still been very hot and humid with no rain in sight, I think I'm finally getting used to the idea of sweating when ever I walk outside; good thing everything is air conditioned! I've had a chance to interview alot of very interesting people;we had an opportunity to talk to a dietitian who was wonderful and was able to really give us great advice. She talked to us about her internship experience and what exactly it is she does at UGA. We also learned alot about how food service is run at UGA, they have won 60 Horton awards from NACUFS, a silver plate award and an Ivy award to name a few. They are definitely very proud of what they do and it definitely shows, everyone has been very nice and helpful. I'm really enjoying the food and the variety that they have to offer. Working with the staff has really helped Liza and I find some good things to include in our projects for the summer dealing with customer service which they do a very good job at. There is a lady in the Snelling dining hall who never forgets to ask us how we are doing and did we enjoy our meal; she really makes you smile.
Liza and I had a chance to check out downtown and see what Athens had to offer, so far so good. There is a lot to do like listening to poetry, taking salsa dancing lessons and listening to some of the local bands play. I'm really excited to see what the rest of the summer has in store, I feel like we've done so much already.
Cia

Marcia and I have been having great fun! We got to experience our first weekend in Athens, and Athens has tons to offer for everyone. Downtown is a fun atmosphere. There are many specialty shops and fun restaurants and cafes to dine in. This weekend we ate at the mellow mushroom and experienced the Ben and Jerrys ice cream shop. I brought my bike to Athens, so I got to enjoy a scenic bike ride around the campus and on the biking trails. As far as work goes, we have been busy. We have been interviewing a lot of the management personell. There are so many job opportunities in the Food Service Management area. We have been exposed to management positions of dining halls to Human resources and IT managers. We are learning a lot plus experiencing the different job positions of the dining halls to better understand what everyone does. For instance this morning we worked in the dishroom for two hours. I know that most people would think of that as not an appealing job, but I really enjoyed it. I got to meet the staff that worked back there and they were very nice and were very interested in what Marcia and I were doing. I had fun learning something new. The workers here are great! They definitely take time to speak to us and see how we are doing, very personable. The weather has been hot, but that hasnt stopped us from getting around and enjoying the town!

It's HOT!!!

Hi my name is Marcia and I'm an intern at UGA this summer for thier Food Service Management Internship. I've been at UGA a couple of days now and everything is gorgeous. The first thing I said when I stepped out of my car and met my program director was "Man its hot." I'm definitely not used to this kind of heat, the humidity is extremely high and it's like 90 degrees at 8am. My roommate Liza is awesome, I really like her and look forward to enjoying some fun weekends exploring the city. Our first couple of days have been very exhausting, I've had the opportunity to meet a lot of very interesting people, tour the campus, city, and all the dining halls. I'm really excited to work with and job shadow these people, today will be filled with interviews and a first hand look at how they run their facility.
Cia

First day

Hey!

I am Liza. I am interning at UGA this summer. Yesterday was our first day, and we did a lot of meeting, greeting, and touring of the campus. I enjoy meeting all the workers and managers because they seem to really enjoy what they do and do not mind sharing their experiences with us. We were assigned our projects for the summer, and I am excited because they sound really fun! We will be working on revising the Customer Service Training Modules and we will be responsible for planning the Freshman College Orientation Closing Banquet for 275 participants. I cant wait to see how the summer plays out. Im anxious to tour the city and let everyone know what the town offers as well as the internship. Its going to be fun!

Testing 1-2-3

Hello!

I'm Kris, the intern coordinator at UGA Food Services. The interns arrive in just a few days, so I'm trying to get everything set up for them.
So, um... I hope this thing works!