Last Day

Though I look forward to the future, I am a bit sad to be saying goodbye to OU Food Services, as I have had so many wonderful experiences here and have enjoyed everyone I work with.  Thanks to everyone here for making this such a positive experience.  The past nine weeks spent learning about management responsibilities, developing recipes, doing sanitation and safety inspections, creating a nutrition awareness table outside Crossroads restaurant at the Oklahoma Memorial Union, completing a performance improvement project, and countless other things have given me a great experience to draw on in the future.  My favorite thing about this rotation was that everyone I worked with was eager to teach me about their work and willing to help me put my knowledge into practice in whatever way I needed, whether it be getting on  board with a performance improvement project or letting me take over a section of the Couch Restaurants kitchen for a recipe development project.  This is a great university, and one I am proud to have attended.  OU Food Services will always have a special place in my heart. 

Final Week

The in-service presentation went really well on March 13.  The presentation was over Stealth Health, and focused on bringing attention to ways in which foods offered at the various food service locations on the University of Oklahoma campus could be made healthier without sacrificing flavor.  The focuses were on ingredients, portion sizes, and healthier menu items.  A lot was learned, and I had fun teaching it.

More recently, I've been working on finishing up my reports and projects.  Last week I met with Marcia Musser to go through the Sizzle section of Couch Restaurants to do a safety inspection I developed.  She was very helpful in showing me where various safety features were, and explaining other procedures that might be used, such as having outside entities review the safety of electrical wiring and the sprinkler system.

As I wrap up, I'm thankful that so many of the employees at OU have been so willing to spend some time teaching me what they do.  Many also gave me a chance to jump into  what they do every day, or do one of my projects in their facility.  Thanks so much to all of you. 

Reviewing what I've learned here

I've reached the point in the management rotation where most of my projects have been completed.  I am presenting an employee in-service presentation at the managers meeting next week, and have already done a recipe development project , a performance improvement project, and a business plan for a nutrition awareness table.  I will be spending the next several weeks writing up my final reports on how these projects went, why they were done, and what the results were.  I already posted a picture of the recipe development project, which I've decided to keep vegan and gluten free after all, so I'll focus on the other two.

During the past week, I put on my nutrition awareness table right outside Crossroads in the Oklahoma Memorial Union.  My nutrition board focused on the ability to get hydration from a variety of foods (not just water), and how to meet fiber and calcium needs.  There were also pamphlets available that I made to give students ideas for how to make healthier choices at the Oklahoma Memorial Union.  We served stewed apples (similar to apple pie filling, but with less sugar), chickpea salad, and cranberry kale salad.  The goal of these samples was to give students some ideas about ways to incorporate more fruits and vegetables into their diets.  This indirectly encourages higher fiber diets, since fruits, vegetables, and especially the chickpeas in the salad are high in fiber.  This also went along with the information on the nutrition board pointing out how much water we can get from fruits and vegetables.  The students enjoyed the different offerings we have, and several of them took copies of the pamphlets, as well as recipe sheets showing them how to make the foods they sampled.  We probably had about 100 students visit the table, based on how many servings of food we had left over. 

Here's a look at the board I put together highlighting fiber, calcium, and water content of foods:

 

I also recently completed a performance improvement project with the help of Jamie Palmer, the manager at O'Henry's, as well as Rebecca Seaton(manager of Oliver's),  and Sharon Barker (manger of Cate Center).  I did some assessments of the consistency of product being produced there and focused in on the make your own salad station, where Jamie and I worked to develop a standard for how the salads should be assembled.  I then created instruction sheets indicating how to prepare the salads and what portions to use.  We implemented the new procedure on a Monday and I came back to assess the progress that Friday.  It may take some time for the employees to get used to this procedure, but when they do it will be much easier for them to have consistency in their salad production.  I'm very appreciative to all the Cate managers for their help, and am glad Jamie Palmer was so willing to let me try something different within her area.  Thanks.

 

Next week, I'm bringing a presentation to the managers meeting about Stealth Health, giving ideas about how we can help customers eat more healthfully without thinking about it. 

Week 5:

This week I am continuing several projects, including a recipe development, as well as a plan to improve the consistency of salad serving sizes in Cate Center, where they serve salads made to order at O'Henry's.  The salads are made fresh and exactly how he customer wants, and I worked with Jamie Palmer to come up with a plan to standardize the portion sizes by weighing items into the salad using a food scale.  We are testing our new system this week. 

Additionally, I am going to be working in Couch Restaurants on the final run through of a Vegan Enchilada recipe I have been developing.  We made the first round last week using corn tortillas, and they had some benefits and some drawbacks.  They tasted great and were gluten free, but didn't hold their shape well.  In order to hold better shape, they would need to be dipped in oil, which adds extra fat.  Instead, I am going to try the recipe with whole wheat tortillas instead.  It will still be vegan, just not gluten free.  I'm excited to see how they turn out.

Here's a look at last week's batch:

 
 

It's Monday!  Here's a recap of last week.  I had a chance to chat with Robert Weaver about the work involved in managing Couch Restaurants, Cate a la carte, and Wagner dining.  I also got to meet with Shawn Henry and learn about how she manages the Union restaurants, Couch Express, Bedrock Cafe, the Bookmark, Amicus Cafe, Elements, the Redbud Cafe, and the Flying Cow.  I also got to spend Wednesday at the Flying Cow observing/helping Rhonda Winkelman and her team work their magic and learning about the detail work that goes into supplying Cow on the Fly sandwiches to multiple locations throughout campus.  Thursday was spent visiting the Union, where I got to see how the Laughing Tomato is run.  TJ Carter encouraged me to send her my recipe ideas, and Carren Welch answered any and all questions I had about how she manages the food inventory and keeps everything fresh.  Thanks to everyone who gave me their insights this week.  I have gotten the impression that rotating at OU Food Services for my internship is a unique opportunity to see many sides of food service management with a variety of different types of food service operations all functioning as a team to bring a quality food environment to students. 

Blast from the Past

I am back!  That's right.  This intern has been here before.  My name is Hannah Presley, and long ago in the years of 2007-2011, I was a student, food service worker, and Housing Center Student Association member at the University of Oklahoma.  Returning to Norman has been a lot of fun, as I got to catch up with quite a few familiar faces last week.  That was my first week here, and I was pretty excited to be back at my alma mater for a nine week rotation.  Now that I've settled in, I'm working on several projects as part of my internship requirements.  I need experiences that give me a good background in major aspects of dietetics.  Here at OU Housing and Food, I'm getting a chance to see the food management side of things.  The first project I started was developing recipes for enchiladas, one reduced calorie version and the other vegan.  I've created one recipe and tried it out at home, and in a few weeks I will get to test them both in the kitchen of Couch Cafeteria with one of the chefs.  Additionally, I've been working on pamphlets for nutrition awareness weeks for Couch Restaurants, the Weather Center, the Union, and Cate Center.  They look great thanks to some help getting stock photos courtesy of the Housing and Food marketing department.  Another project I'm working on is an employee in-service presentation teaching managers about ways to make their food offerings healthier for students.  The idea is to make changes that the students will hardly notice so that they don't find healthy eating choices to be challenging.  One of the great things about the University of Oklahoma is the President's Associates dinners that they host.  This Thursday, February 6th I will be helping to set up and work the catering for a President's Associates dinner featuring Sandra Day O'Connor as the main speaker.  Here's hoping the snow stays away so we can all enjoy that night!