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.