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.
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