One Week to Go

I went back over to Red Clay Cafe on Monday. I followed around Tamala the unit manager. She had me working the cash register again. I also wrote the weekly specials for 2 weeks. I saw how FoodPro was updated daily to get supplies for the next day. In the afternoon we also went out to one of the eatery units to help out with the parent's orientation for the freshmen.

Tuesday I was scheduled to follow Chef Paul around the retail center at Tate II. He sent me to do inventory with the stockroom manager. Standing around in the freezer for extended periods of time is no fun. The stockroom manager and I also rearranged the stockroom so that all the products used by specific retail units were grouped together. Paul also showed me how to do forecasting and he had me update some of the patron counts in FoodPro.

Wednesday was spent with Chef Bryan at Bolton. The executive chefs at the dinning halls have things very different from the retail operation. Bryan also showed me forecasting and price checks. The number of items and the volume of product moved though was significantly higher.

Thursday we took another field trip. This time we went to Zaxby's corporate headquarters. Zaxby's is a quick casual chicken place that is based out of Athens, but has over 400 units from Texas to Virginia. We spent some time in the R&D unit hearing about how they test new products. Then we were in the test kitchen and got to try some new gravies that they are in the process of adding to their menu. After that we got a tour of one of the local units and got to eat some of their food.

To round the week out, we went out to Summit and did prep work for the Freshmen College closing banquet that is on Monday. There were a lot of little details that had been handled all summer, but they're finally all coming together for the final event. All of the flowers that we ordered came in yesterday. Arrangements had to be made for each of the tables and center pieces were put together for the banquet tables. Flower arranging isn't something that I do all that often, but most of the arrangements look really good. The white and green color scheme goes well with the blue and white table cloths. Also, all of the signage that we designed came in and looks really nice. This event is going to be worth all of the effor that went into planning it.

Katie and I started out this week shadowing Mr. Floyd. We got to see what an "average" summer day is like for the Executive Director of Food Services. The day started at orientation where we greeted parents and incoming freshman. We saw that no day for Mr. Floyd is average and he talked to us about what his work week is like in the summer verses what he does in the fall. Katie and I got to sit in on a conference call with a woman from R&I (Restaurants and Institutions). She wanted to learn more about the day to day life of the director of food services. Our day went from 7am to 7pm. We interacted more with orientation and then finished our day at the orientation tailgate.

I spent both Tuesday and Wednesday following around Chefs. On Tuesday I shadowed the retail chef, Paul. On Wednesday I shadowed Chef Bryan. Chef Paul and I spent the day doing inventory. The units do a weekly inventory of everything on hand in the stock room. Wednesday Bryan and I did the forecasting for the next three weeks and put all the information into Food Pro.

Thursday I spent the day with Bambi who is the assistant manager at Red Clay Cafe. Bambi showed me how to make sandwiches and I was on the register during the lunch rush. At the end of the day we closed out the registers and I learned how to shut down the entire cafe.

On Friday we attended the assistant manager workshop. We had been given materials prior to the workshop to have our coworkers complete with questions about who we are as workers. The main idea of the workshop was for us to learn about our management styles and to understand how to work with other personalities. I really found this helpful and felt as if the questions helped me to understand others and myself.

Only two more weeks of internship! I can not believe it has gone by so quickly!!