The Retail Side of Things

This week was different from other weeks since I spent most of it on the retail side of UGA's food services. It was a change from the dining halls.

Monday we shadowed the executive director of food services around campus. We got to help write a press release and sat in on a phone interview for R&I magazine. Of course Mr. Floyd spends a lot of his time in the summer trying to sell the meal plan to the parents of the incoming freshmen so we also spent a lot of time doing orientation things again. It was a really long day, but I got a broader perspective of the whole food operation at UGA. A lot of the little things that I'd been told by different people took on new meaning after talking to Mr. Floyd about it.

Tuesday I was out at Red Clay Cafe, one of the on-campus eateries. It was a totally different atmosphere working the retail side of things. I manned the cash register for several hours. And learned to do many things at the same time while still smiling at the customer. I also sat in on their debates over new menu prices that are going into effect in the fall. Then I got to be creative and make new labels and price tags for the bakery items.

Wednesday I worked in another of the retail eateries- Barberitos. It's one of the newest units that's only been open 6 weeks. They are really popular with the students are it's pretty steady business all day. I got to see how they dealt with not having the correct produce order come in.

We also met with the last chemical company this week. They brought us a proposal that we had to add several things to. But now we can really start to analyze what we think UGA should do in the future. Which is a good thing since we now only have 2 weeks left here and the presentation that we're making is coming up fast.

Friday was different from other days in that we attended an assistant manager training seminar. The day revolved around knowing your management style and using it to interact with others to get the best results. I've attended other seminars similar to this, but not quite the same. It was interesting to hear how each style thought that they should be dealt with in a high stress situation. Hopefully I can apply what I learned in the future.

Half way through!

As time goes on we are getting closer to the end of our internship. At the beginning of this week we marked the half way point.

To start this week we worked the Freshman College arrival banquet. We helped set up for the banquet right after lunch. Doing this event really helped us understand more what we have to do for our closing banquet. We now know how to do general setup for the closing banquet. I think everything ran very smoothly and all the freshmen really seemed to enjoy their dinner.

Tuesday we met with two different chemical company representatives, after that Katie and I worked more on our chemical project. On Wednesday morning we went flower shopping to Flowers Inc. with Janet. Katie and I picked out the flowers we wanted for our table arrangements and flowers to put in Grecian urns for center pieces.

Later that day we had a production run with Stuart learning how Food Pro really works. I can see how it is a full time job just to understand the program. That night I shadowed Chef Paul for a catered dinner that was for 35 people at the Village Summit. It was really cool to get to see how he does dinners like this. I also got to work with the "Tiny Intern" and help prep the food and plate it up on site.

Thursday morning I had office time to work on our entry for the NACAS magazine. Later that day we had a mock health inspection at TATE II. I thought it was really interesting to see all the little things that go into a health inspection and everything they look for. I hope to retain everything the inspector taught us so I know what to look for while I'm walking through the dining halls.

Friday we had the day off. On Saturday Kris, Katie, and I went to an organic farm called Dancing Sprout. We started the day at 10am and I planted seeds for a local farmer with Kris. The farm was run by a local teacher from Athens and his wife. He told us that his kids are always interested in helping out. I really learned a lot helping them and it also felt good to know that helping this man for two hours cut out on so much work for him. He is not a farmer for a living, but I think if he could be he would be.

I am looking forward to the next couple of weeks. We are becoming much more comfortable here in Georgia and really starting to get the hang of things in Athens.

Another Week of Fun Filled Adventures

The Greek dinner for Freshmen College is almost done being planned. We have figured out the decorating scheme and floor plan for the event. The manager at the Summit (where the event is being held) helped us to place a linen order. We also went flower shopping with her and found some interesting things to incorporate into our decorations.

The chemical project is also coming to a close. We met with the Ecolab reps again. They gave us a complete bid for a product line. Then we met with Momar for the first time and arranged for them to organize a bid for us. They told us a lot about their green line. We're supposed to meet coming up with Butchers the third and last company on the list to get a bid from them. Then all that we have to do is organize our presentation.

On Friday we also got to conduct a Mock Helath Inspection at Tate on the new units. There are still some kinks to be worked out in the system apparently. But the units are running really well considering that they've been opened just over a month. Seeing the health inspection forms and reading the regulations now makes me want to see the reports for the restaurants that I eat in.

Saturday we went on another field trip. This time we went to Dancing Sprouts farm and got to play at being farmers for the day. I basically spent a lot of time weeding in the full sun. But I met some interesting people. The farm is also organic and encourages sustainability so it was a different perspective than what I've heard before when the owner was talking. It was a fun but dirty day.