Critique of KU Dining

Critique of KU dining

Positives
• Sysco as primary vendor.
o I think that Sysco is moving in the right direction with everything that they are doing and I hope to share with the Virginia Tech community all that they have been doing for KU Dining. I was especially glad to hear about the drop incentive and invoice rewards system that they have in place to help increase efficiency on both ends.
• Self- Branded concepts
o It’s always refreshing to see innovation and variety in the dining halls. In addition I think those who created the self-branded concepts take a lot of pride in their accomplishments which translates positive energy that is distributed throughout the workforce.
• Sustainable initiatives
o Market cart, tray less dining, biodegradable dinner ware, recycling cooking oil for biofules research, looking into composting, RECYCLING

• Benefits for employees
o It takes a lot to get fired. Full time employees get a lot of sick leave and up to 30 hours of relatively excuse free absence. Management is proactive about addressing attendance and attitude issues with staff in an effort to keep employees on board.

Potential Improvements
• The first and foremost thing I noticed was how disgruntled a lot of the staff is during summertime operation. I think it’s an issue that needs to be addressed and discussed with staff, especially staff that is relocated to Mrs. E’s from other dining halls for the summer. I say this because often times the tension between management and employees is tangible, which is a concern because if I am noticing it then certainly some of the customers are as well. I know that the majority of persons employed in food service are not typically highly motivated professional s with degrees but I think the same standards and expectations should apply whether the work place is a law office or a dining hall.
• I know that there isn’t really any other option than to relocate full time workers from dining halls that close for the summer to Mrs. E’s; however, something needs to be done to explain to employees the differences in work and management that they will have to adjust to for the summer months in hopes that this will help ease the transition and maintain a positive atmosphere in the work place. I think that it would help tremendously if management focused a little more on creating a culture of mutual respect between management and staff, where employees can enjoy and value what they do. From what I have observed this is heavily reliant on building positive interpersonal relationships between management and staff. I’m not saying that staff and management have to be best friends, and in most instances I think having that kind of relationship could be counterproductive, but I have seen and experienced an improvement in workplace operations (like communication and efficiency) when staff members and management have a mutual understanding and respect of each other. The encounter that sparked these thoughts in my mind was when I had the opportunity to work with the catering department. They accomplished tasks quickly and with efficiency with little need for prompting by management. I believe things ran so smoothly because of the relatively laid back attitude amongst the catering team despite chaotic settings. Everyone worked well together and respected each other because they had formed substantial relationships with one another.
• I know management at Mrs. E’s is trying to work towards more of a team mentality which I spoke with Jim about recently and I think it would really help reshape the work environment so I hope to see follow through with Jim’s plan. I think it will help people value their jobs and be more willing to be held accountable for their actions.
• Finding a way to make batch cooking a reality at Mrs. E’s
o Will require more labor, different equipment but will greatly reduce food waste and improve quality of food both of which are current issues here
-I think a solution to these problems would be to reevaluate where labor is allocated across all dining facilities. Many of the workers I have spoken to have expressed how much more laid back most of the other dining facilities are because there is not as much of a demand. If things are so laid back there then is there really a need for as much labor in those locations? Perhaps some of the labor could be relocated to Mrs. E’s to help improve the operation.
-Need more equipment, for instance a second oven for pizza. Also more variety would help alleviate the demand for pizza (calzones, Stromboli, Panini’s, garlic rolls, breadsticks, Caesar salads)
-Having a more concrete theme built into each food service station (i.e. a vegetarian bar so that these things are more obvious and thus more appealing) I also think, perhaps after renovating, that it would work well to have an Asian themed food service station to meet the multicultural demands of a diverse campus
• Education
In order to further promote healthy eating and sustainable initiatives amongst the student body there has to be more education on the subject so that students understand the reasoning behind said initiatives; otherwise they will get overlooked due to lack of interest that stems from not being informed.
- Advertising Better Bites programs through Facebook or list serve emails so that students are more aware
- Need people in the nutrition department that can better relate to students, people with more modern or youthful perspectives that better understand the college student lifestyle?
• Merger- pros and cons
-Can you truly raise the necessary budget without state funding or without being part of Housing
• Increasing meal plan purchases
-Having fresher, more appetizing food. I think you are well on your way to having outstanding options at many of the retail locations but of course there is always room for improvement. I know that I didn’t exactly get an accurate impression of what the menu is truly like at Mrs. E’s during the school year so perhaps that can be something that is emphasized and explained to future interns. I also understand that the menu is a constantly evolving entity that is perpetually subject to change and improvement but I think that more of that change needs to become a reality especially in the residential dining halls.
• Intern
o Having a Login available for the intern would be very useful. I sort of felt like I was pestering people whenever I had to get on the computer because I always had to ask someone to log into the system for me and use their account.
o Having a second intern would most definitely improve the experience. First of all it would help distribute the work load on projects thus providing the opportunity for more creative input. Second it is always nice to work with someone that is easy to relate to and share experiences with. Lastly, I think by having a second intern a lot more could be accomplished project wise not to mention it provides the opportunity for companionship which is always appreciated especially when far from home.
o I think that I would have been provided with a better perspective of KU Dining if I had worked in multiple venues (retail, residential, and catering) for more extended periods of time. Most of what I learned about operations at Mrs. E’s I grasped wit in a few days. For example I spent two weeks shadowing supervisory staff, which I certainly learned a lot from but it did get redundant after a few day and I think that time could have been spent exploring other aspects of KU Dining in more detail.
o Having weekend trips or tours or other activities schedule in advance and set in stone. As I was reading some of the other interns blogs it seemed like they got to take some really interesting trips and I think that would definitely enhance the experience. I was kind of looking forward to touring some of the local farms and was disappointed that it did not happen. There is a lot that the Lawrence community has to offer and I did get to experience a lot of it on my own but I think having specific planed trips through the internship would help exponentially.

Final Comment Continued

Equipment
- Steam kettles- can be used for just about anything short of grilling things…
-Grittle- for meats, grilled sandwiches, eggs
-Pans. Come in all shapes and sizes. The standard pan is full pan (or hotel pan). Full pans are 2” deep. The rest of the pans are broken down into halves, thirds, fourths, sixths, and ninths. They come in 2”, 4”, and 6” variations.
- Convection ovens
- Floor mixers and table mixers
- Steam boxes- rice, vegetables

Preparation (back-up items)
- recipes are printed out from CBOARD according to the forecasted number of servings required for the guest count for the meal
-some items are prepared in advance the day before, however the majority of the food prepared in hot foods comes ready made or canned or partially prepared- such is the nature of an industrial scale foodservice operation.
-always have a back up planned, especially for popular items. For example for my special event dinner I suspected that the gnocchi would sell well therefore we planned on using penne pasta as a back up if the gnocchi ran out

Timing
-Dishes should be prepared by the batch as much as possible in order to preserve freshness
- Dishes should begin to be prepared enough time in advance so that they are ready to eat 15 minutes before the doors open for a meal

Standardization of recipes
- decreases waste, saves on time and labor, and ensures that the product is consistent no matter who is making it.

Appearance/ Quality
-Garnishes- people eat with their eyes therefore appearance is of utmost importance
-It is always important to test the product to ensure that something is not awry
- If you mess up a recipe admit it because the most important thing is customer satisfaction, by serving them a bad product we defeat the ultimate goal of the operation

Through out my stay at Mrs. E’s several of the chill foods and hot foods cooks to it upon themselves to teach me how to make some splendid garnishes.

Tyler showed me how to make curly q’s out of bell peppers by deveining them and letting them set in ice water over night
Jwyanza showed me what a little color can do for a dish by adding a variety of bell pepper carrots and parsley to the Feijoada that I made for the World cup dinner
Kirk showed me how to make penguins out of eggs, octopi out of bananas and fish out of lemons
Kuni…Kuni made the most amazing flowers and a bird of paradise out of apples
Marsha made sharks out of cucumbers
-My dinner guest of the future will never find their plates looking dull that for sure!

Hot Foods Checklist:
Hot Foods ready 15 minutes in advance of service time
Food matches menus or substitutions
Temperatures are recorded and correct
Foods have eye appeal
Batch cooking items are not cooked too far in advance
Portion Utensils are correct on the lines
Foods are being held in refrigeration until its time for them to be prepared
Gloves are being worn when appropriate
Fryer grease is being changed when needed



“Three sink method”
-This method as it states entails using three sinks. The first sink is for washing dishes with soap to remove any food and debris. The second sink is for rinsing the dishes with clean water, and the third sink is filled with very hot water or a combination of water and sanitizer. Dishes are submerged in the third sink and then allowed to air dry to ensure proper sanitation.

Staffing and Scheduling
-The dish room at Mrs. E’s requires 10 people to be fully staffed but can be staffed with much less depending on the volume of guests for any given meal, when the guests come in (all at once or gradually), and how many staff are available.
- The positions are as follows : Silverware and paper removal, Plate Scraping (3), Loader, Unloader (2), Silverware sorter, Runner (2)

When we are short staffed other staff from other areas can be rotated into and out of the dining room. When things on the service lines slow down staff can be moved into the dining room to accommodate for the subsequent dish room rush.

Dish room Layout – staff are strategically places so as to maximize efficiency

One at the beginning of the conveyor as it enters the dish room- removing silverware and paper from plates
Three at the gutter- one on gutter 2 and two on gutter 1
One loading the dish machine
Two emptying the dish machine
One sorting silverware
Two running dinner ware and sliverware back out to service stations and sliverware holders

Dish machine

Has 4 cycles: Prewash, Wash (150 °F), Rinse (160°F) , and Final Rinse (180°F)
-it is important that the dish machine reaches a final temperature of 180 in order to ensure that the dinner ware has been sterilized. To emphasize this importance, when the health inspector came to visit, dish machine temperature was something that she checked not once or twice, but three times in one visit.

In between meals:
The dish machine gets turned off, drained, and cleaned.
1. Drain the machine by turning the three leavers located on the bottom of the machine and turn off the steam valve
2. Open metal sliding doors on the side and spray down the insides with the hose removing any food and waste particles. Brush off filters and remove any food waste out of basket filters
3. At the end of the night run the filters, rubber floor mats, and plastic hanging squeegees through the dish machine for cleaning and allow them to dry over night.

I got to spend a few hours in the dish pit, which wasn’t as bad as everyone makes it out to be. I sorted silverware and scraped plates for most of the dinner service. Time flies by when you’re really busy; however when I was working in there the garbage disposable on my side of the gutter was broken so I will admit that it made the experience a little more colorful than usual.





Staff Scheduling

Catering events at Mrs. E’s were very different from the catering event I observed with the KU catering department. For Mrs. E’s staffing was very informal. It mostly involved assigning staff or supervisors that were there on the day of the event and weren’t particularly busy with any pressing projects. The Science Fiction Awards banquet that we hosted at Mrs. E’s required a little extra effort on the production side to actually make the dishes for the event and we simply “stole away” a few of the service staff to help set up the tables and buffet.

For the wedding reception that I worked with KU catering staffing was a little bit different because all of the employees are there specifically for catering and are not part of another operation like at Mrs. E’s. For the reception staff were assigned specific sections of tables to wait upon (bring beverages to, clear plates, and assist otherwise) and were also assigned other specific duties like refilling the buffet line. Over all from what I witnessed it seemed like the staff just kind of adapted to the situation at hand and didn’t particularly have scheduled assignments set in stone.

Menu Planning

For both events the menus were selected by the guests from the KU catering guide. Usually Mrs. E’s has a separate catering guide but the Science Fiction group wanted to use the KU catering guide so we let them. Once they chose their selections this required that we test each recipe in order to figure out how to produce each dish as best we could in our venue. For both events all of the food (with the exception of the wedding cake) was ordered through our regular vendors and produced in house. For the wedding reception at the Union the menu planning was primarily decided by the wedding planner that the party had hired. In most instances guests would consult directly with catering but in this case there was a middle man to deal with which complicated the situation slightly because of course some information got lost in translation.

Food and Beverage Presentation/Event set-up

While setting up for both events I got the opportunity to learn several decorative techniques such as napkin folding. With Jim I learned how to make a “Bird of Paradise” out of a napkin (shown in the picture) and with Ellen, the KU catering coordinator I worked with, I was shown how to make the buffet table come to life by decorating it with lights and gauzy cloth. Jim also showed me another technique for sprucing up the buffet table by placing black lights underneath the table for added dramatic effect. Jim also taught me the keys to a good table setting. For a table setting uniformity is of first and foremost importance. You want all of your place settings to look the same and have the same orientation. Forks go on the left as close to the edge of the table as possible with the salad fork on the outside and entrée fork on the inside. The knives and spoons go on the right with the spoon on the outside. The next aspect of importance is the centerpiece which you want to ensure exhibits elevation. Elevation is also a crucial aspect of the buffet table because it makes for a better appearance and makes items more accessible. Last is the décor. For the Science Fiction banquet we found some painted plaster planets in storage that drastically improved the appearance of the buffet table. I heard nothing but positive comments about it all night from the guests, they got a kick out of it.
As for event set up you want all of your warmers lit and ready a half an hour before the meal, and all food out and ready 15 minutes before the start of the meal. This was more complicated for the KU catering wedding reception because the wedding party was really late and we really didn’t have a clue as to when they would arrive because they were so late. Therefore the food quality suffered a little bit despite our best efforts.

Event clean-up

Pretty self explanatory. Tables are bussed, all dishware and glasses are cleaned and all leftover food is discarded.



I miss you all so much!



Staffing
Every day that I worked with the service supervisors we would sit down and write up the staff schedules for the day. Usually someone would already have prepared the breakfast one so I only worked with the lunch and dinner shifts. Much must be taken into consideration when scheduling staff especially during the summer because all the full time employees from dining halls that are closed for the summer come up to Mrs. E’s. Because we have so many full time staff from so many different locations, in order to avoid confrontation and keep things fair staff are rotated on a daily basis through all areas of the operation. However, there are some employees (like the senior hot foods cook) that remain in the same position because they are the most qualified and there needs to be some consistency to keep things running smoothly. The Service Supervisors typically do all of the scheduling and will then consult with Production. Scheduling is a relatively simple process, that is when enough of the staff decides to show up for work. I think out of the 4-5 weeks I spent in Mrs. E’s there was maybe one day where we were fully staffed. When we are short staffed there are several measures that can be taken to compensate. To begin with, during the summertime we do not serve anywhere near the volume that we serve during the year so most food service stations can be ran with one to two persons, so staff can be removed from food service stations to other locations. Next, staff can be moved into different positions as the meal goes on that follow the flow of the guests. For example, for the initial rush you will want to populate the food service stations with staff then once most of the guests have moved out of the food service area and into the dining area you will want to move the employees to follow them. Therefore staff will next be moved into the dining room and the dish room to accommodate for the shift in guest location. This way tables can be cleaned and prepared for more guests and the dish room does not get overwhelmed. Also, one of the first things that we will do if we are short staffed it make phone calls to part-time employees to see if they want to pick up some extra hours and help us out. On the other side of the spectrum, one of the more drastic measures that can be taken if we are really short staffed is going to paper. When we “go to paper” supervisors can essentially pull everyone but two people from the dish room and use those employees to staff locations that are in need. However, going to paper is not necessarily a desirable action to take because it is very expensive, therefore it is usually avoided at all costs. Also we can close a foodservice station if we are extremely short staffed but that rarely happens because it only provides one more free staff member which usually isn’t enough to make a difference.
The positions that are scheduled are as follows:
Pizza/Pasta, Dessert, Beverage, Grill, Main Dish, Deli, Pots& Pans, Specialty, Monitor, Bakery, Storeroom, Janitor, Cashier, Dining room, Dish room, Hot Foods, Chill Foods, Crew leaders, Supervisors, Managers

Check Lists
--Service Supervisor Check List, Production Supervisor Check List, In-between meals checklist (service), In-between meals assignments (production), Closing check list (production/supervision) Opening check list

Menus
-Should be checked daily for error, substitutes, or run outs. Back-ups should be planned accordingly if it is found that we are lacking a product that a menu item requires. Food on the line should match the menu, menu cards, and any substitutions that have been made.

Supervisor/ Employee Relationships

If there is one thing that I will take away from this experience it is the overwhelming importance of the maintenance of a positive relationship between management and employees. It affects all aspects of the workplace, from service and production and customer satisfaction, down to people actually enjoying their jobs. I’m not saying that supervisors and employees need to be best friends but there definitely needs to be certain level of respect between the two, a respect that goes in both directions. When that respect diminishes then problems that are difficult to remedy arise. Relational and behavioral/attitude issues with employees and supervisors is extremely disruptive because it distracts workers from their jobs putting production and service at a stand still. Therefore it is crucial to develop an atmosphere in the work place that is constructive, one where staff feels that what they are doing is valued and worth their while. While observing the dynamic between management and staff this summer I witnessed both positive and negative instances amongst them which extremely helpful in forming my own philosophy on management style.

Storage/Preparation of food items
-Temperatures- all coolers and hot boxes are at their proper temperatures
- All food items are stored off the floor (6 inches)
-All food items are labeled and dated
-Soda hoses are checked and clean
-Daily frozen items are pulled for thawing
-Using run out as required
-Check to see that no food items are out dated
-Back-ups are planned

Utensils
- All items on the salad bar have the proper utensils. All food service stations have the proper sized serving utensils.

Responsibilities

All supervisors are responsible for sorting, distributing, collecting, and entering data from serving line worksheets into the FMS system.
All supervisors are assigned portions of the inventory to track
All supervisors are responsible for checking that temperatures are being checked and recorded accurately
Planning and directing regular work and special tasks either in the front or back of the house
Coordinating catering events
Ensuring that all employees are present, in uniform, and at appropriate stations
Service- set up and breakdown cashier stations



How you “Lead”: communicate; instruct; teach; explain; debate; direct; praise….

General duties and Responsibilities

The highest in the chain of command on location, final decision making power is vested in the General and Assistant managers. They are the primary resource and senior professional for all staff in the unit. Managers are responsible for maintaining procedures for customer service, production, performance, job and food safety, sanitation, assisting with coordinating staff needs, coordinating staff training, coordinating intern experiences, and promoting a safe and positive work environment.
Customer Service Management
-enhancing the public image of dining services, ensuring that the customer is satisfied. Implements monotony breaker and special events to help improve customer satisfaction.
Production Operations
- coordinated production of daily reports, menu change information, and monitors receiving, storage, issuing, handling, and rotating of inventory and assigns production of inventory reports
3) Safety and Sanitation Management
-developing, implementing, updating, and overseeing the unit’s programs of safety and sanitation practices and procedures. This includes training of staff and creating cleaning schedules
Staffing
- hiring process, interviewing, training, supervises, evaluates, and plans and directs the work of staff
5) Menu Management
-works with senior staff to develop, test, and evaluate appropriate menu “cycle”
6) Equipment/ Facilities
- requests maintenance for equipment when problems arise. Recommends changes to equipment to enhance production etc.

Written Communications- Notice of Counseling, Accident reports, Terminations

Notice of counseling falls into two categories: attendance issues and job performance issues. Attendance issues include absenteeism, tardiness, and no-call-now-shows. Employees (especially full time ones) get a generous amount of paid sick leave in addition to 30 hours of leave that renews every 6 months. In other words, you really have to miss a lot of work here or have 3 no-call-no-shows in a year to get fired. Job performance issues include verbal notices, written notices, and counseling and corrective actions which include four categories: corrective probation, suspension without pay, demotion, and finally dismissal. When a written notice of counseling is procured supervisors or managers must fill out a sheet that displays what counseling and corrective action has been decided upon and then they must detail what the conduct was that requires the disciplinary action, a plan to improve said conduct, and consequences of further disciplinary action. Both superiors and employees must then recognize the notice of counsel by signing it. Thus the main idea behind a notice of counseling is to confront any problems keeping employees aware of their job performance and give them an opportunity to improve if need be.


Staff Scheduling

The overall picture painted was one where labor is minimized as much as is possible while still being able to run the operation efficiently. Most full time employees work four ten hour work days and then get three days off and typically have more specialized positions such as the senior hot foods cook position. Part time employees typically tend to be college students and usually work three hour shifts. I found this system to be much preferable to the one I experienced while working in the dining halls where I go to school because it provides an incredible amount of flexibility, something that is of great value for college students. Trying to find time to work while being a full time student is often difficult so I was glad to see that Mark was able to create a system that was so accommodating, because after all students are at school to learn. We also talked about some of the special needs staff that Mrs. E’s employs. I think it is great that we are able to employ them because it is not just beneficial for them but for the rest of the staff as well because it teaches everyone patience and how to be more tolerant of diversity. Lastly we discussed how the schedule differs during the school year, that mainly being the tremendous increase in part-timer employees. Also, during the school year staff do not rotate through positions as is done during the summer. I think that for the most part it is a good thing during the summer because it “levels the playing field” and gives everyone the opportunity to experience multiple lines of work; however, I have also seen it cause frustration in some of the staff

Evaluations
I learned that every new employee has a probationary period of 6 months at the end of which they receive an evaluation where it is determined whether or not they are meeting the necessary job requirements. The key things Jim and I discussed concerning evaluations were how first, evaluation content should be of no surprise to the employee because management typically is very proactive about confronting any problems that arise with staff through either verbal or written notices of counseling; and second how evaluations should be as straightforward and honest as possible. For example, if an employee has weaknesses and is not performing at an acceptable standard then an evaluating supervisor or manager should not sugar coat the situation and be honest and provide the facts. This process ensures that staff is aware of if they are performing poorly and have been counseled on how to improve. If a pattern of poor performance continues other disciplinary actions, such as suspension, may be enacted with an eventual termination if workers consistently fail to do their jobs. Jim especially spoke to how the aim is to try as hard as possible to keep a people on board because firing people depletes available human resources and is a lengthy process. However, if an employee continues to make a negative impact on the workplace then they need to be let go.


Boosting staff morale- I distinctly remember Mark saying that we should take a group picture once a week because he hasn’t seen people laugh as hard as they did during this photo shoot for a while.





After countless hours of thought, planning, and action we finally all got to experience the 2010 World Cup right here in Mrs. E’s residential dining hall.

Planning a dinner event was in my opinion, the most crucial part of this internship because it brought all the information and processes I have learned throughout the summer together. I had to use almost everything that I have talked about so far through out this presentation. Therefore, not only did it give me a chance to exercise this new skill set but it also gave me a new appreciation for everyone that has to perform the job of running and maintaining a foodservice operation everyday.

I’m so appreciative for all the help I received from all of the staff, management, supervisors, cooks; everyone was truly as helpful as could be.

Overall, I think that there are several things that I could have done to make the event more exciting and run more smoothly.
1) Check, checking, and triple checking that every ingredient of every recipe had arrived and was available in the quantities required
2) Making more of an effort to find, plan, and construct décor
-The décor that I had looked good but I think that I could have included more and had some video clips/highlights from past world cup games. Ideally I would have liked to include more interactive things for the guests to enjoy (like more games) however I think that the guests did enjoy the foozeball table. I think I was so worried about the food turning out alright that I didn’t focus enough on decorating and customer satisfaction.
3) Menus and Menu cards- I completely forgot to draw up menu cards for the event, thankfully Lorraine helped me out with that last minute
4) Creating recipes so that are more easily translatable into FMS- preparing ingredients in weight portions



One of the main reasons that I selected Kansas University as one of the locations for the NACUFS internship was because this programs description on the NACUFS internship website spoke to the many efforts that KU was making to be a more sustainable campus.

However, while KU is certainly making moves towards becoming a more sustainable campus, I did not find that this internship involved participating in any sustainable initiatives. I think that by emphasizing sustainability in KU’s internship description that it might be a little misleading. Or perhaps I did not get to experience much because of it being summer and most sustainable projects are still in their infant phases.

By 2015 plan to implement 3 new sustainability programs: minimum of 25% of items will be procured from local growers and vendors, composting program, roof top garden triple in size.

We have a lot of sustainable initiatives at Virginia Tech the I encourage you all to take a look at some of the things we are doing.
-partnering with local growers to supply multiple dining facilities with local produce, meats, and dairy
-education through a sustainability and agriculture minor
-student garden

All Good Things Must Come to an End...

...Thank goodness blogging exists so that I can document all of my wonderful memories and experiences from my summer at KU. A year later, as I sift through my college course work, work experiences, and memories I happened upon this unfinished blog. This was an experience that I cherished, and for whatever reason, the last few journal entries I wrote never made it to the internet. So, now I am posting one final time to show everyone what I did during my summer break:

NACUFS Food Service Summer Internship: Kansas University. Lawrence, KS. 2010.








The first two weeks I spent at KU were jam packed with information. I learned so much in so little amount of time that the best way I can think to organize the first few weeks I was here is through numbers. Of course there is much more to be said about each department that I was introduced to and I will go into greater detail as I go through my presentation but in the beginning this was the way that I kept track of what I was being shown.

First I stopped in Blacksburg, Va; then Mulberry Mtn, Arkansas. I finally arrived at Lawrence on June 7th at 5:00 at night.



One of the first things I did on my first day of interning was visit with Julie Crowe, the Human Resources Assistant. With Julie I learned about the hiring process, where I encountered my first set of numbers, social security numbers.

With out a social security number, the University of Kansas Memorial Union cannot hire you (often international students have to apply for a card so that they can work for KU Memorial Union.
Went over employee handbook later in more detail with Jim.



At first glance CBOARD appears to be an incredibly complicated system but once broken down into all its individual aspects it is easy to see how the all fit and work together.

This process starts with a recipe, which is made and tested by the production team. If it is to be a regular menu or catering item then the following form needs to be filled out and submitted to the Systems Administrator:

Micros button name: Karen Cross- for retail

Net Nutrition
-Online service provided by KU dining that is linked to the FMS/CBOARD system. Whenever a new recipe is created nutrition information is linked to it. Therefore, students can go to the KU dining website, click on the NetNutrition link and get detailed nutrition information on any meal from any dining center on campus be it residential or retail. Even has food allergy information…


1.Manager Reports in FMS
Purchasing Reports
Print Purchase Order Index-completed monthly in order to keep bogus orders out of the system
Descending Usage Report- informs what items were purchased by descending dollar value
Order Scheduler Reports
Requirements- provides a more detailed look of what is prompted to purchase based upon the service menus and calculations recommended by the system.
Storage Location
2. Inventory Reports
Variance Reports- quantities and total extended costs, review for things that have changed i.e. pack size
Analysis Reports- useful for determining ingredient usage when updating par recipes
3. Item Reports
Item to Recipe Cross Reference Report- determines what recipe prompted an ingredient to show up on an order scheduler
Print Sized Recipe- provides the actual print recipe used for proofing or on the production line
Menu Item List- provides a listing of recipes and up to date portion costs: used by menu planning committee in deciding whether too add, keep, or dispose of a menu item
4. Issuing/Transfer Reports
-a report for accounting that supports general ledger information
5. Service Reports
Print Weekly Menu- a print out of the menu for the week, allows one to proof for errors and share information with all service and production staff
Pre-Service Cost Summary- pinpoints menu pricing/ forecasting errors- errors are denoted by a spike in the graph
Menu/Recipe Cross Reference – shows ingredients and corresponding recipes within service menu selections with date, meal, and course. Helps troubleshoot which recipe may be calling for an ingredient that doesn’t look correct on the order scheduler.



Reviewed purchasing processes with vendors with Craig Josling, the Procurement Officer
Purchasing and Ordering with Chris Nichols at Mrs. E’s

Numbers, Numbers, Numbers- purchasing, ordering, and receiving is a game of keeping track of numbers. Whether it be cost of goods, how many units of goods we have in inventory, or how much of a good needs to be ordered, Craig, Chris, and Judy deal with numbers all day long.

Benefits of using a prime vendor:
-Sourcing from one location saves time and money
-For example Sysco requires that we purchase 70% or more of our inventory from them, but they offer incentives like the drop incentive which requires that we meet a minimum drop size for each delivery and reduce the number of stops or deliveries that Sysco has to make per time period. It requires more effort on our end to plan ahead and combine drops but in the end we get a back end payment of up to 1% of whatever we purchased during the year if we decrease the number of drops, which can amount to a lot.

Menu Committee
-Meets every 2 weeks during the year
- Pricing structure-must take into account cost effectiveness, want to meet the cost demand
Ex: Nacho cheese purchase
product 1: .43 cents/lb
product 2: 1.73 cents/lb
Obviously product number two is drastically more expensive than the first one and cannot fit into the budget, therefore if the tastes are comparable then product one should be chosen.

Actuals
-Actuals are a count of how much of a menu item was prepared, consumed, and discarded. The data they provide are crucial for forecasting and determining whether a menu item was a success of failure.

Inventory
-Needs to be as accurate as possible at all times for reasons like reducing waste and determining what needs to be ordered
-Cost of Goods Sold =(Beginning inventory + what you buy) – (final inventory-cost of meal production)

Order Scheduler
– is created from service menus in the CBOARD system using forecasted numbers. It tells you which items are needed for a particular day and in what quantities they are needed. An order scheduler also includes non-menu or parstock items, which are everyday use items such as condiments and beverages. Parstock orders are determined by customer count (per every 1,000th person).

Purchase Orders
-a list of what we ordered

Invoices
– a list of what the vendor brought/ what we received
Invoices and purchasing orders are reviewed on a regular basis by each individual venue, the finance department, and the accounting department to ensure that we are not paying for things we didn’t receive and vice versa. Starting this fiscal year KU dining will be using a new digital system to review purchase orders and invoices called Image Now.

How an order is placed
-Orders are placed by the Procurement Supervisor, in this case Chris Nichols, using the CBOARD system. Every day Chris will consult his order scheduler to see what needs to be purchased for the day. Then he takes current inventory into account to ensure that we do not order more of what we already have. He will also consult with production supervisors to see if any additional items are needed due to alteration of menu items etc. Then he will manually create a purchase order by retrieving data from the CBOARD system.

Proper receiving/ storage of items
-This summer I worked with Judy Todd, the senior storekeeper where I got to experience first hand order receiving and storage. Most orders from our main vendors arrive early in the morning therefore I met Judy at 5 a.m. to observe the process and help her check off each item as it arrived.

FIFO- first in first out. System that insures that the inventory is cycled through in a manner that uses the oldest inventory items up before new ones are used.

Everything is interconnected in purchasing and creates a cycle, which is essentially the same as the FMS cycle that Mindy explained to me.



Lisa Englebrectch, Financial/Business Manager

KU dining is a self-sponsoring organization that supplies its own budget ever since it disconnect with the state and the Housing Department and became the Kansas Memorial Union. Its gets the majority of its revenue from the meal plans that students purchase.

Flash Reports (weekly) – gives a general idea where at budget wise . Contains a profit loss statement, sales by unit, food cost, labor cost, and general expenses

Monthly Inventory (for each venue)
-try to move inventory quickly, especially food, you typically don’t want to keep it for more than three days
- try to have a one day lead time for arrival of food products in case something goes wrong with the vendor or delivery

Actuals –compared to flash reports and invoices to check that everything correlates (what is received correlates with what was ordered)

Food and Labor expenses- manager can manipulate these expenses to their advantage by watching profit loss, altering menus to fit the budget, practicing good planning (drop incentive, if pay invoices on time get a percentage back as well).

General costs- can be broken down into controllable costs and uncontrollable costs:
Controllable: i.e. paper plates (if not satisfied with the price or quality can find another paper plate vendor)
Uncontrollable: utilities, university overhead, workers compensation

Depreciation Expenses- try to pay off an item before it depreciates. For instance, if you renovate a building you will want to finish paying the bill for the first renovation before you renovate it again.



Karen Cross , Dining Access Administrator

Meal Card activation, any billing for meals, maintaining and trouble shooting for the Micros and CS Gold systems.

Meal Plan ins and outs
-All on-campus residents with housing contracts are required to have a meal plan, if you live in dorm, then you have a meal plan.
-When you sign a housing contract the default meal plan is the 320/320 plan. You can change plans by visiting the Department of Student housing or emailing your name, KU ID number, and what meal plan you want to housing@ku.edu.
-Dining center meals and guess passes that are not used are forfeited at the end of the semester, Beak’em bucks and KU Cuisine cash rolls over.
-Can check meal plan account balance at Kyou Portal under the Finance tab.
-If you run out of meals before the end of the semester you can add more, 10 meals for 77$. You can also add more KUCuisine cash, Beak’em bucks or just pay cash at the guest price.

“Dining Center Meals” – can be used at any of the Residence Hall All-You-Care-To-Eat Facilities: Ekdahl, Oliver, GSP. There is no limit to the number of times the Dining Center Meals can be used in one day. KU card is non-transferable, meaning meals cannot be shared, that’s what Guest Passes or KU Cuisine Cash are for.

“KU Cuisine Cash”- is a value added system that acts like a debit card. Any KU cash not spent during the fall semester will roll over to the spring semester.

Beak ‘Em Bucks” – is a declining balance account that is automatically set up for you when the KU card is issued. Money must be added to this account in order to use it. They can be used for food purchases, printing, photocopying, and laundry on campus.

“Guest Passes”- are assigned to the KU card when you sign up for a housing contract and select a meal plan. Half of the guest passes are available each semester and must be used by the end of the semester, they do not roll over. They can be used at any of the Residential Dining facilities.

Residential
Turbos/ Micros 9700 Server

Retail
Micros- POS system touch screen registers in retail operations

Hardware/Software

NetVu Point – web based reporting system

EMC- software that modifies or updates the Micros database (menu items, employees, screens, buttons, etc)

CS Gold- the name of the software system that is used to track meal plans. It interfaces with the Micros when the KU Card is used.

Reports-ways to track those that have a meal plan. For instance to see if dining employees are paying for meals.

Turbo Log – purpose is to communicate with other staff some of the problems the cashier is having with cards
1. Any card that is being denied access
Exs: Patron Inactive-Active Flag False, Patron data not found, Lost card, Read Error
2. People that do not have cards but have a meal plan – write up a meal pass (free for the first two weeks of the semester)

Patron Transactions
-Individuals transactions history, tells you where the patron ate and what type of payment they used

Meal Monitor
- Gives a report of how many guests have come through a dining venue (where people have eaten and when). Good for tracking students if they say they lost their card you can tell them the last place they used it etc.

Dining Rejections
Cards can be rejected for a number of reasons and it is Karen’s job to figure out why. The most common reason is that people have run out of meals on their cards, which will show up as “Not enough meals left for plan” in the Dining Rejections Report.

Meal Passes
If your card is lost or damaged you can obtain a meal pass. Each meal pass is written for two business days. There is a $5.00 charge for each meal pass. Possession of a meal pass does not guarantee the holder meals, it depends on whether the holder has any meals in their account. The pass is simply an alternative measure to access your own meal account while your KUID is out of comisssion. Meal passes are only honored in Residential Dining Centers and for Meal Equivalents (Cuisine to Go).

Menu Item Sales
Report of exactly what was sold each day in a retail location



I really like the idea of better bites because it highlights the better food choices on campus. However, when presented with the option of hamburgers and fries students are more than likely to choose the unhealthy option. With so many unhealthy options seated right beside the better bites options in both residential and retail locations its hard to believe that the program will be very successful with out further student/faculty nutrition education or incentive. Decreasing the amount of sweets and fried foods available would be a good start in addition to making healthier options look more appealing. Speaking from what I have experienced this summer, vegetables look much more appealing when they are fresh or sautéed, not melded together in a casserole or over cooked in a steamer. For instance, during my special event dinner we sold out of three kinds of greens (collards, kale, and spinach), and my guess as to why is because they looked appealing; they were freshly prepared and garnished.

Provide more specific examples of what are considered Better Bites at dining locations in your pamphlet and online so students know what to seek out.

"Better Bites" entrees meet American Heart Association guidelines by limiting fat to 30% of daily total calories - (based upon a 2000 calorie diet and 65 grams of fat). They contain less than 600 calories and less than 24 grams of fat per entrée. They are identified with a logo and sell for comparable prices of other main entrées.

"Better Bites" snack items have fewer calories, less fat, and/or less sugar than traditional snack options. A logo will identify these select items in all campus convenience stores.



Marketing and Dining Services

The marketing department does most of the advertising for dining services whether it be for a special event or monotony breaker dinner like the ones we have at Mrs. E’s or a pamphlet on nutrition. Some examples of what the marketing and graphic design departments have done for KU Dining recently would be the beautiful 2010-11 Dining Guide and the Better Bites pamphlet. Marketing doesn’t just do advertising via print media, they can also convey media online etc.

One of the new media outlets that Marketing is trying to utilize is facebook. At Virginia Tech we offered additional meal plan money or various coupons usable through out the community for taking surveys. All of this was initially conducted through listserv emails but was recently moved onto facebook this year. I think it was very successful and should definitely be initiated at KU. I could not find out who was in charge of the operation at VT but when I do I will be sure share the information.

http://www.facebook.com/VirginiaTechDining?ref=mf#!/VirginiaTechDining?v=wall&ref=mf

http://www.studentprograms.vt.edu/dining/

As for the KU dining website I think that there is plenty of useful information. From a design stand point I think there was far too much white space, so it wasn’t very visually appealing but all the necessary information was there.

Showtime

The Showtime program is a program designed to make employee orientation more stimulating and to create an incentives program to help motivate staff “go the extra mile.” Showtime has been very instrumental in the standardization of health and safety codes for KU Dining. It also sets clear goals and standards for what is expected in the workplace and also functions as an auditing and tracking system. The Showtime program can be broken down into:
Employee Behavior
Guest Services
Marketing and Communications
Product Receiving and Storage
Food Handling
Facilities
Service and Presentation
Production Controls
Thinkin’ Green
Warewashing



This morning I met with Dave Hurwitz at the studio next door and trained to become a certified barista. I learned to make everything from Americanos to fruit smoothies, both of which I got to sample. They were delicious!

Self-branded concepts:

I did not get to try very many of the self-branded concepts but from what I could deduce just by looking at them there are some that are awesome and others that could use some work
Pulse, Za, and Brellas had an excellent appearance and what I got to try I really enjoyed. I think they are all concepts that are very well suited for a college crowd because coffee, pizza, and sandwiches are what we live off of. I think if the quality and variety of dishes improved for Fresco and Quesarito that they would sell exponentially better, they are a product that is definitely in demand because I have seen very similar products rake in the sales at my university.
-More types of meat/protein on the Quesarito bar (pork, beef, chicken, blackbeans, pinto beans etc)
-Burritos, tacos, taco salads, burrito bowls, chips and salsa/guac/cheese
-Variety of salsas and toppings
Also I have found that when these items are preset, meaning having standards to choose from, customers are more likely to choose them because they are familiar with them

Dave and I mostly talked about the success that the Pulse café has had because of its unique self- branded concept, extended hours, and inclusion of the Freshens franchise which significantly contributes to the operation. I really enjoyed working at the Studio because I got to learn first hand how to make some of the drinks and work the Micros system on the register.

Franchises- Keith and I talked a whole lot about franchises and how they tend to be the backbone of any operation because they provide a familiar product that is consistent, there in lies its value. By standardizing a product, streamlining it and enabling it to be produced efficiently franchises provide what many self-branded concepts cannot at a low cost.
Here’s where the numbers come in:
When considering the numbers involved in cost one must take into account a wide array of factors:
-Food cost
-Labor cost-franchises are very good at saving $ by minimizing labor as much as possible (Subway-pre-packaged pre-made items)
- Fixed expenses (utilities)
-Franchise Fee
-Co-op fees (funds for marketing)



Refrigeration
All refrigerated items are to be kept at a temperature of 40 degrees Fahrenheit or less. If a cooler exhibits a temperature above 40 degrees for more than 2 hours straight then all items are to be removed from the cooler and stored in a functioning cooler.
All coolers are “temped”, meaning checked to see if they are staying cool enough a minimum of twice a day. Production supervisors are responsible for doing this.

Food preparation- slicing, dicing, peeling… mechanized (robo coupe and buffalo chopper) and by hand
The Onion Test- can you properly dice an onion? Well I couldn’t. No worries, Hugh, one of the Production supervisors at Mrs. E’s was kind enough to show me. First you peel the onion, then you cut the ends off. Then you chop it in half. Next you slice the onion both horizontally and vertically in 1 cm sections but DO NOT slice all the way through to the end or the entire onion will fall apart! Next chop the onion moving the blade in a rocking motion from front to back across the front of the onion. Watch in amazement as perfect cubes of onion appear before your eyes.
Always place a damp rag under the cutting board you are using so that it does not slip.

Random culinary knowledge I acquired while working in chill foods:

Basis for a good soup is the stock.
How do you make a high quality stock you might ask? Well Hugh Reno can tell you. It all starts with your mirepoix which is chopped celery, onion, and carrots. Then if its not a vegetable stock you add your meat, for instance if you were making a chicken stock you would add chicken backs, legs, and bones then bring the mixture up to heat quickly so that the fat from the meat separates out and can be removed. You will also want to skim the top of the stock periodically to make sure that it does not get greasy. Then you let the concoction sit for anywhere from 2 to 24 hours depending on what kind of meat it has in it and voila! The cornerstone of a good soup is born.
Left over salad products from the salad bar- get thrown away.

Excess prepared salad bar items- get labeled and wrapped in plastic and stored in the walk in cooler.

Everyday dates on all of the chill foods items in storage should be checked to see if any are past due. All past due items should be discarded.

Temperatures of foods on the salad bar are taken every half an hour.

Week 4 - Supervising

June 28, 2010

Monday of week four began as every other Monday morning here does with an abrupt awakening to the sound of an ancient vacuum cleaner. It’s like clockwork; it’s so reliable that I didn’t even set an alarm for today, granted I did not have to be at Mrs. E’s until 10:30. Starting today, for the next two weeks I will be learning every detail about being a supervisor at Mrs. E’s so that I myself can supervise for a few days. Therefore, for all of today I shadowed Lorraine and tried to absorb all the information I could on what her responsibilities are as a supervisor.

As does every supervisor, Lorraine has her particular way of going about things. She starts off her day by checking the schedule, which she pre-plans a few shifts in advance, to see who is at work and who is absent for the day. Then adjustments are made as needed. Today I got a much better sense of how scheduling works in our dining hall because a lot of the employees either called out sick or had to leave early for various reasons. When we are short staff, people have to be moved around from station to station in order to accommodate the flow of diners accordingly. For instance, at the beginning of a meal most staff are placed in service stations to serve food as efficiently as possible, then a number of them are periodically moved into the dish room, and last some staff are moved out into the dining area to clean up tables and prepare the dining area for the next meal.

After reviewing the schedule for the day, Lorraine and I went over the menu for the week to ensure its accuracy. This week we noticed an error. Usually hamburgers are served for either lunch or dinner every other day; however, this week hamburgers were on the menu for both lunch and dinner every day. We brought the problem to the attention of all of the other supervisors and higher level management but it was too late to make any changes for the current day. However, there was still time to alter the menu for the rest of the week by replacing hamburgers with other main dish menu items. The hamburger fiasco was a good example of how everything in Mrs. E’s is so interconnected. As a result of having hamburgers on the menu too many times several purchases needed to be changed such as increasing orders for other main dish items and the menu for the week needed to be rewritten.

Next Lorraine and I continued to move down the “Supervisor Checklist.” We set up the cash registers for lunch, first checking that they had the proper amount of change, $45 in 5 dollar bills, $35 in 1 dollar bills, and $5 in quarters for a total of $85 in change. At the end of a meal it is also the supervisors responsibility to change out the cash drawer and collect any profits made during the meal. For the rest of the afternoon I observed Lorraine as she made rounds around the dining hall making sure that everything was cleaned and prepared for dinner service. We also ventured down to the basement to see if there were any decorations in storage that I might be able to use for my World Cup themed dinner event. We found a few things, however I think I will have to keep on looking or make some of my own decorations.

Once again the thing that always impresses me most about working with the supervisors at Mrs. E’s is how well they get along with all of the staff. There generally seems to between them instead of a hierarchical relationship which is how I think most workplace environments function best.

June 29, 2010

This morning I continued my supervisor training with Sergio. He printed out some very helpful information for me, like the supervisor training manual he created which detailed how to complete daily work assignments, supervisor check lists, sanitation assessments, cash register set up and break down, and employee operating guidelines. It gave a nice overview of everything that supervisors are responsible for. Today I got to experience an additional supervisor responsibility, job interviewing. Bill, myself, and Sergio interviewed a young man this morning for three different positions: hot foods prep, pizza prep, and grill cook. First we described each jobs responsibilities, hours, and benefits. Then we asked the interviewee some interview questions in order to determine if he met the requirements of the job. Even half way through the interview it was obvious that he was more than qualified for the job, in addition to being a well mannered and motivated individual. He was one of the top candidates so far.

After the interview we started gearing up for lunch service. For the past few days we have been preparing most of the meal in advance because one of the camps, which has 450 campers, arrives all at the same time so we need to make sure we are well stocked with menu items when they arrive. Lunch ran very smoothly today, which I think had a lot to do with the fact that we had almost a full staff and had prepped much of the food in advance. While food items might lose some of their freshness after sitting in a warmer for a while I think the general idea is that it is better to have food available rather than running out of or getting behind on an item. We simply don’t have the ability to batch cook during the meal given timing of the arrival of the diners, the labor we have available, and the machinery we have available. I think batch cooking is more feasible during the school year when diners come and go at a more even pace.

For the rest of the day I continued testing recipes for my special event. I first prepared my main dish, the Brazilian Feijoada because it takes nearly two hours to cook down. It was nice to be back in the kitchen preparing food, getting my hands dirty. The Feijoada is a meat and beans dish containing several different kinds of beef and pork, black beans, and spices. We don’t have stove tops in the kitchen so I had to use one of the steam kettles to prepare it. The kettles get very hot very quickly and it is difficult to keep them at a consistent temperature so I kept on having to turn the kettle on and off but all in all I think the dish turned out just fine. Although, I think I will an additional Serrano pepper and more water to the final dish because the test dish really did not have much spice to it at all and ended up being a little too thick. Next I tested the collard greens recipe I had which was quick, simple, and yielded great result. There’s really nothing better than fresh greens when they are cooked right. The collards will be served in the traditional Brazilian manner, with the Feijoada over rice. Tomorrow I will finish testing the rest of my recipes and put in a marketing request for my special event.

June 30-July 2

For the rest of the week I continued learning all of the details of service supervising and tried to make progress on details for my monotony breaker dinner. Lorraine and I scoped out what decorations were in storage at Mrs. E’s and then I took a trip down to Oliver dining hall for a tour of the facilities and to pick through their decorations as well. Oliver is closed for the summer but Dave Weakly painted a good picture as to what things are like when it is up and running. Compared to Mrs. E’s, Oliver serves significantly less people so it had less of an industrial feel and it also connects with the residence part of the dormitory via a lounge area which also gives it a more homey feel. After the tour Dave and I were able to go down into storage and find a few decorative odds and ends like a wire Eiffel Tower, some Italian decorations, and cloth with countries flags on it (all of which will come in handy). In addition I found some netting in Mrs. E’s that I should be able to fashion into a nice goal over the entrance to the dining hall.

During the end of the week I got to encounter one of the challenges that supervisors have to cope with, being short staffed. Several employees called out sick or left sick on top of many staff members being on vacation therefore we were not left with enough people to run the dish room properly so we had to “go to paper” meaning we replace all of the dinner ware with paper or plastic products. The main reason we decided to go to paper tonight is because we have a camp of close to 500 people that all arrive and leave at the same time so it would be impossible to keep up with a flood of dishes all at once without more staff. No one really likes to go to paper because it is so expensive but sometimes it is necessary to avoid undue stress on staff and to keep things running smoothly.

This week Lorraine is also helping train one of the supervisors from Oliver, Kuni on how to close Mrs. E’s so I got to observe that as well as learn how to close up Mrs. E’s myself. Luckily we have another check list, a closing checklist to follow along so I didn’t get too lost. Mostly, at the end of the night everything gets deep cleaned, like the grills and dining room. The supervisor’s job is to ensure that everyone is on task at this point, especially in the dish room so that everyone does not have to stay until the wee hours of the night. Lorraine was also good about going around to each food station towards the end of the meal and making sure that they had everything in order and mostly wiped down so that closing would be quick and painless. For example, she always asks whoever is in the deli to weigh all of the meats and cheese and start filling out their actuals sheets when dinner calms down in order to get a head start on things.

The next day we attended the Housing’s “First Friday” meeting which was ironically on a Thursday due to many people not being able to make it to a Friday meeting. We mostly discussed how to make the First Friday meeting more efficient so that it is less of a report and more of a discussion. Everyone concluded that the meeting itself was a necessity in order to keep everyone in the department on the same page but no conclusion was reached on how to better format the meeting.