Oh The Places You'll Go....

Monday brought the beginning of another work week, and the beginning of many new experiences for me. We started at South Dining Hall to have a mock health inspection with the health inspector. I've had some experience in actual health inspections, but have never had the opportunity to see the other side of things. Cheryl, the health inspector who completes all of the universities audits, was very informative and helpful. She gave us some reading material, and explained to us the different type of audits that can be conducted. We were going to be conducting a risk-based audit. We had our forms and notes sheets out, and we walked around in the order that Cheryl would normally go in. We each got to take turns taking temps and made notations on the audit inspection form. When we were done, we got to ask any questions we had and then had the rest of the day to tie up any loose ends with projects and catch up on our work.

Tuesday, was supposed to be a scheduled day off since I'm working in catering this weekend, but I am leaving town next week for a wedding and will be missing Friday so I made the day up early. I shadowed Eric for the day. We worked on a physical inventory of the equipment that gets completed only once a year. When we were entering in our numbers into the spreadsheet, we realized some prices for items were missing so I worked on locating prices out of the catalog online. When inventory was complete, Eric showed me how the cycle menus work within FoodPro. Tuesday afternoon, the other two interns and myself had a meeting with Gail in marketing to discuss marketing for the luncheon. We had some great ideas to pitch to Gail, thanks to Mahalia, and we were hoping she could turn our ideas into a great end product. Gail was very helpful answering our questions, taking notes, and giving suggestions of what we can do. The girls and I are looking forward to seeing the samples she's drawing up for us. :)

Wednesday began the real adventures....we started our tours. Our first stop was Carla's Pasta. It was here that I had my second celebrity siting since my arrival here in Connecticut. I met thee Carla! She was so nice and very hospitable. She showed interest in our studies and shared some stories of how she got started in the pasta industry. For those who don't know, Carla's Pasta is commercial operation that's been in business since 1978 that provides pasta to many vendors and customers all over the nation. They are even starting to show up in grocery stores out here on the east coast offering steam bag meals (and they are tasty, cause we had a chance to taste some!). Our tour was very interesting, and top secret (no pictures allowed). We got to see the production room, the storage room, and the packaging room. Johnny D. also provided us with lots of information and knowledge about the history of the company. It was great to see a company hold true to the same values and recipes that Carla instilled at the beginning of the company. And when the tour was over, in true hospitable form, we were sent home with some tasty morsels to consume later. :)

Day two of tours, and we were off to visit Omar Coffee and Sysco. What better way to start your day off then with a good cup of coffee, mmmm caffeine. We arrived and unlike yesterday's tour, there were no secrets here, which meant pictures for me. We started in storage and then got to walk through the entire process that the coffee bean goes through to get to our cups. They were in the middle of roasting a batch while we were there, and were prepping to start another batch. So we got to see the beans being dumped into the roaster, the beans coming out of the roaster, and the beans being ground up and packaged. I've worked with coffee for four years, and it was great to see it all the steps it takes to get the coffee to the store level.

We had some time before our next appointment so we made a quick stop to Stew Leonard's to check out their impeccable marketing skills they practice. We pulled up and I immediately realized I'd seen this place on one of those food network shows. They're tricky there, making it nearly impossible to run in and run out to grab an item. This is due to one of two things, either the maze they create to get you through their store, or the samples and interesting decor that is displayed throughout the entire store. Either way, customers are bound to leave with something. Eric swore he wasn't going to purchase anything, and still left with a handful of items. :) Job well done Stew Leonard's!

We grabbed a quick lunch at a local diner, and then headed to Sysco. We were getting a tour of their warehouse and coolers. Let me just say, that if you are a foodie, than the aisles in the warehouse would be your candy store. Wowsers, they go on and on for what seems like forever. We learned all about the different shifts at the warehouse and what each employee does during their shifts. We also got a good understanding of how such a large operation keeps employee productivity and accuracy up. We took a stroll through the coolers, and learned the importance of checking orders when they arrive from vendors to make sure temperature controls have been kept within the appropriate range. We finished with a question and answer session and than headed back to campus.

We've got catering this weekend, and then we're off to see more exciting places next week.

:)ly