I have met some very amazing people
on the staff of the OU Housing and Food Services Department. Thus far, I have
had the opportunity to observe/ work at The Flying Cow Café, Crossroads, Laughing
Tomato, Concessions, and Couch Cafeteria. Each of these facilities offers
special features to their consumers, and each of these managers have a unique
way of running their business. Management styles differ greatly across campus,
and I have observed several styles which I hope to incorporate into my career someday.
In addition to working at these
food facilities, I have also had several opportunities to work with and get to
know other staff members. For example, working the Presidential Dinner allowed
me the opportunity to meet and work with several employees that I had not had
the privilege of meeting before. Another such opportunity was Chef’s Feast.
This event took place at the Cowboy Hall of Fame Museum in Oklahoma City and
was created as a fund raiser for hungry children. The OU Housing and Food
Service booth theme was Dr. Who. I helped Ms. Flowers prepare for this event,
and I also worked the event, which allowed me to meet Chef Billy, Chef Grant,
Claire Rodrigues, and Billi Ellis. Each of these individuals has helped me over
the past few weeks as I have prepared for and conducted my various projects.
One more event in which I had the opportunity to work with others was the
Social Responsibility Fair. I enjoyed meeting a few people from the both the
Housing Department and the Catering Department. By working with others to
ensure the success of an event, friendships automatically form. I am glad I had
the opportunity to form these friendships.
I began this rotation with ten projects to
complete. Slowly but surely, these assignments are coming to a close. I was
very fortunate to be able to choose interesting topics for my projects and
therefore be able to enjoy each of them to some degree. One of my favorite
projects was the sanitation inspection. I completed this assignment with the
assistance of Kevin Barker. It was very nice to be able to put my ServSafe
certification and microbiology/sanitation knowledge to work during this
project. I also learned a lot from Mr. Barker’s experience. From this project,
I was inspired to make glove usage the focus of my in-service project. Couch
Cafeteria student workers were the primary audience of this presentation, and,
according to my pre-and post-evaluations, my project helped these workers to become
a little more knowledgeable of how they handle consumers’ food. For my
performance improvement project, I chose to help one of the campus facilities to
better their customer service techniques. This project has thus far required
observations, research, and meetings, and hopefully by the final observation
period, some changes will be seen. The biggest project I have completed during
this rotation was my business plan. For this project, I planned and implemented
a nutrition booth for the staff week health fair. I incorporated my recipe
development project as a part of my business plan by creating a gazpacho
recipe. Both of these projects were successful. Many people left the health
fair with not only more nutrition knowledge but also a recipe for a delicious,
salt-free, antioxidant-packed dish.
In these few days remaining, I have
several more events and assignments planned. I will be putting the finishing
touches on four more projects. I will also be working at CATE, Couch, and Starbucks.
I look forward to packing more knowledge and experience into my portfolio in
these next nine days and hopefully making a difference in the OU Housing and
Food Services Department.
-Tess
-Tess
