WEEK 8: The end of my road in the Peach State

WEEK 7: Almost at the end of the road ;-(

I'm so sad to say this is my second to last week here at KSU :-(

This week we were all over working on various tasks involving the garden, the Plow to Chow Blog, and the KSU Farmer's Market.

Monday Syd and I worked on updating SWOT Analysis for 2014. The SWOT analysis is a mandatory part of an operation and includes the operation's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Tuesday we brainstormed and organized ideas for the Plow to Chow blog. We decided to write one blog just about Hickory Grove Farm, since its a huge part of The Commons operation (providing 20% of the produce). Since we wanted to include all of the fruits and vegetables that the farm grows for KSU dining operations, we decided to take a drive to the farm. After gathering the info we needed, we ran into Robin, the farm manager, who offered to give us a tour of the back trails of the farm woods. The woods were absolutely gorgeous and way bigger than I had thought. Robin told us that before they made the actual trails, they (the farm staff) had to scope out all of the woods in order to find out the best areas for digging. She also told us that once they complete making trails throughout the woods, they are going to open them up to the public to use for running, nature trails, etc. Going through the woods was an unexpected surprise, but totally worth it! After work on Tuesday, Syd and I spent the night relaxing and playing pool at our apartment complex's community center.


In addition to our usual assisting at orientation, Wednesday was spent writing our two detailed blog posts on Hickory Grove Farm and The Commons. Thursday morning the interns from UGA (University of Georgia) visited KSU for a tour. We each talked about our experiences in the internship, including projects we've worked on. We spent all morning showing them around the farm and The Commons and then ended the visit with a delicious lunch :-) After lunch we went home for our midday break to tan and nap a little bit before heading to our favorite part of every Thursday...the KSU Farmer's Market! Unfortunately, this Thursday was our last day at the KSU Farmer's Market for the summer ;-( Since it was my last day, I wanted to buy some things to support the Farmer's Market as my last goodbye.. I bought corn, a watermelon, and some hand-woven bracelets that supported children in the Philippines. Also, the official farmer's market staff t-shirts came in and we were lucky enough to get one as a thanks for helping out all summer!

Modeling our new farmer's market tees

Since we've traveled a lot this summer, we decided to stay local for the weekend and just chill. B-) After work on Friday, we spent the night shopping at the Town Center Mall, which is only about 5-10 minutes from campus. Saturday we started the morning right getting breakfast at the infamous Wafflehouse...I got the blueberry waffles and a cup o' joe ;-) Even though the food was good, I mainly just went for the experience of visiting a Wafflehouse, since they are mainly located down south. lol The rest of Saturday into Sunday was spent jamming out to music, playing bananagrams, and cleaning my room. Originally we were supposed to go kayaking on Sunday, but it was cancelled due to the extreme torrential downpours. So instead, we ended our relaxed weekend helping our friend move into his new house, which is gorgeous btw!

Bananagrams

Wafflehouse - Blueberry pancakes!

WEEK 6: B'More in Baltimore - NACUFS Nation'l Conference

This is week 6 of my 8-week internship in Georgia, making me 75% done :-( I've had such an amazing experience the past five weeks! I've learned so much about the foodservice industry while having tons of fun and meeting great people! This week was spent mostly in Maryland at a conference, so stay tuned for all the deets! ;-)


We left for the conference on Wednesday, so Monday and Tuesday we worked in the office with Melissa and learned about the marketing aspect of a foodservice operation.

On Monday, we spent most of the day updating the marketing calendars for the 2014 school year; we updated the schedules for The Commons and the Farmer's Market. We used an excel spreadsheet to update the information. It was a fairly simple task, but very meticulous. After we were done, we spent the last leg of the day watering the herb garden, since we were going to be gone for a week. On Tuesday, Syd and I worked on finishing the Camp Green Cuisine re-cap and the press release. After that, we went to Hickory Grove to get a rain barrel that is going to be used in the herb garden as an all-natural watering system! Watering the plants manually is a very long and inefficient process, so Melissa, Syd and I decided that creating a self-sustained watering system would be the best way to keep the plants constantly hydrated, thus increasing their life span. When we returned form the farm, we spent the rest of the day organizing the garden, collecting the tools, removing the trash, and weeding.

Delicious vegan entree ;-)

Wednesday was the big day...BALTIMORE! As interns, we are fortunate enough to be invited to the NACUFS National Foodservice Conference, which this year was held in Baltimore, MD from July 9th-July 12th! We flew to MD, so as you can imagine most of Wednesday morning/afternoon consisted of getting to the airport, flying to Baltimore, and settling into the hotel (which had amazing views, btw!) Our first event for the evening was the Theodore W. Minah Reception, Dinner, and Award Presentation. It was held in a huge ballroom, with a beautifully catered meal. After the dinner, everyone went over to the Holiday Ballroom for the Schwan's Customer Appreciation Party, where we all chatted and danced from 9:30PM to midnight!

Culinary Challenge

Thursday began with the awards breakfast around 7:30AM. The awards given were to recognize and honor member institutions that demonstrated leadership in the promotion and implementation of environmental sustainability, specifically in the campus dining operations. The four main categories were: waste management, procurement practices, outreach and education, and materials and resources. After breakfast, we went the the showcase, which was held in the Baltimore Convention Center from 12:30PM - 5:00PM. The showcase was WAY bigger than I had expected. Once I arrived, I understood why everyone was telling us to go on an empty stomach! There were hundreds of vendors up and down aisles promoting various products, both food and non-food products. I knew a good bit of the vendors, ie. Kelloggs, Sbarro, Freshens, etc..but there were also vendors I've never heard of before. Most vendors, if not all, gave away free samples of their products! Everyone was so friendly and willing to answer any questions anyone had about their products. It was an amazing experience and am totally thankful I got the opportunity to be exposed to this kind of foodservice marketing! After the showcase, we went to the Culinary Challenge, which was essentially NACUFS' version of iron chef! We ended the night at the Industry Appreciation Reception drinking and connecting with fellow foodservice foodies :-)

Most of the free stuff from the showcase!

                   

The showcase!

The field view from our seats!

We started Friday off attending the Regional Breakfast. Afterwards we went back to the showcase to finish visiting the rest of the vendors that we weren't able to reach on Thursday. Since many vendors fly over to the conference from their hometowns, they usually give away TONS of free product because they can't bring it with them on the plane. Therefore, me and Syd were given a whole bunch of free products ranging from soups to teas to granola bars, and the list goes on! After the showcase, there were 20+ interest sessions that we pick from to attend. We sat in on two sessions; one was titled "Creating a Memorable Dining Experience Through Marketing Communications"and the other was "Healthy Marketing for Healthy Student Bodies". They were both awesome sessions and I took away a lot of helpful tips from both! After a day filled of networking and learning, we ended the day attending the Yankees and Orioles baseball game at Camden Yards! It was an amazing stadium and the stands were packed! It was a great game and a great way to end our Friday night :-)

Rob, Syd & I @ the game

Syd and I being completely normal .... ;-)

Saturday was our last day at the conference. After the continental breakfast, there were various interest sessions that ran all morning into the afternoon. The interest sessions covered a large variety of topics regarding foodservice: nutrition, gluten-free, meal plans, culinary, allergens, sustainability, manager training, financials, and advertising. I went to couple different sessions and took notes. I also attended the General Session which was a motivational speaker. The woman (Wendy Booker, author of The Three S's) talked about her life journey suffering with MS and the obstacles she overcame as well as the goals she achieved by never giving up. It was a moving session and was very grateful I had the opportunity to hear her story. After that, I went to a few more sessions until the Loyal E. Horton Dining Awards Luncheon. After the luncheon, we went to the TailGreat at the Ravens Stadium, which was located on the other side of Camden Yards. It was a celebration for all the NACUFS attendees. It consisted of a live band, catered food, games, and green screen picture taking!

The Awards Luncheon

Our goofy green screen pic ;-P

Ravens Stadium

Sunday was spent packing up all of our things and flying back to good ol' Kennesaw! After a hectic morning in the airport racing against the clock, we safely arrived back to KSU! As a result of our looong and busy week, we took it easy on Sunday and just hung out and listened to music.

WEEK 5: Star-spangled Green Cuisine Goodness

Week 5 was a short but busy workweek. Not only was it the week of July 4^th, but it was also the week Sydney and I hosted Camp Green Cuisine, our 2-day kids camp for the kids of the Kennesaw Teen Center.

Monday was Day 1 of Camp Green Cuisine. The camp was from 12:30-4:30pm, but Sydney and I came into work around 8:30am to prepare the game plan for the day. Since the weather called for rain, we had to adjust our itinerary a bit. Luckily, our schedule was easily modifiable and everything worked out! In the morning, before the kids arrived, Sydney and I created stencils of our camp title and logo. One thing I learned: stenciling is a very tedious and time-consuming task! After we made our stencils, we went to a room on the 2^nd floor in The Commons and spray painted the title “Camp Green Cuisine” on each of the camp tees. While we were finishing designing the shirts, Melissa gave the kids a tour of The Commons, followed by a 45 minute lunch. After lunch, we met the kids at Hickory Grove Farm. Before tie dying, the kids received a tour of the farm. They learned about the daily farm operations and the importance of living sustainably. They also learned the connection between the farm and the food in The Commons and visited the farm’s fields where the recently sowed produce is growing. Some of the vegetables were germinated, which was awesome because the kids were able to visually associate what we were teaching them. They also got a tour of the chickens, goats, and the hydroponic farming house. We ended the day with some fun tie dye and popsicles :-)

Tuesday was Day 2 of Camp Green Cuisine. This day was filled with DIY flatbread pizzas and parfaits for lunch followed by lots of gardening! When the kids arrived around lunchtime, we started the day giving them a lesson on basic nutrition concepts. We also played an interactive fruit and vegetable game to test their knowledge and get them pumped for the day's activities. Each teen made their own flatbread, which included sauce, cheese, and a variety of meat and vegetable toppings. We also gave them some take-home recipe cards in case they wanted to duplicate any of the recipes at home. After lunch, we got to work in the garden! We taught the kids basic gardening and weeding techniques and also explained the different gardening tools and how to use them properly. We showed the kids all the herbs that were currently in the garden as well as the herbs and flowers that they were going to plant themselves. By the end of the outdoor portion, the teens had planted 3 different beds of thyme, parsley, and cilantro. After a long, hot day in the garden, we ended the day making DIY parfaits. We had pre-chopped berries, melons, and granola with both vanilla and strawberry yogurt, but allowed the kids to use their creativity to make their individual parfait. It was such a great day full of fun, learning, and delicious and nutritious food! Camp Green Cuisine = a success! :-)

Wednesday was our last day of work because our awesome boss Melissa was nice enough to give us off Thursday and Friday for the Fourth of July weekend! Wednesday was a pretty mellow day. I worked a majority of the day on creating a brochure of DIY urban gardening. I included the definition of urban gardening and 3 different DIY methods that are easy to do and also allow for lots of creativity. In the brochure, I included the how-to's for raised flatbeds, horizontal flatbeds, and vertical flatbeds. After creating the brochure, we spent the remainder of the day doing the regular upkeep of the garden aka weeding and watering the wonderful herbs and flowers. Wednesday night was spent packing for our 4 day adventure the the Music City: Nashville, TN!!!

Sunset on the way to TN!

Live concert on Broadway

Thursday morning was spent mainly doing some last minute errands and blogging. Our drive to Nashville was 2 hours full of gorgeous scenery, accompanied by an awesome playlist we compiled for our road trip! We arrived to Nashville in just enough time to unpack and head straight to downtown! Our first stop was Broadway... not the musical FYI. Broadway is a main street in Nashville known for the music scene. essentially, it was a huge outdoor music festival! There was a huge stand with different bands playing all night. All the bars were open and everyone was out having a great time. We learned that Broadway is usually a place where tourists go, but we didn't care because it was totally awesome and definitely a great start to the weekend! After hanging out at the concerts, we went to check out the bar scenes of Nashville. We spent the rest of the night chillin' at Soulshine Pizza Factory dancing and listening to a local blues/soul band.

Happy 4^th of July, Ya’ll! Independence Day is my favorite holiday, so you can imagine how excited I was to get the day started! We started our day getting breakfast at a local restaurant called Bongo Java. Bongo Java is Nashville’s oldest coffeehouse and was named Nashville’s best coffeehouse every year from 1994 to 2012, which is pretty awesome. After breakfast, Syd and I went back to Broadway to shop around and buy some souvenirs. One thing is for sure…Independence Day in Nashville is definitely the place to be! In addition to the inevitable fireworks, there was tons of live music playing all day with food and alcohol vendors lined up and down the streets! So many people were dressed loud and proud in patriotic outfits and cowboy boots (There were countless amount of stores solely for cowboy boots lol). For lunch, we went to Dick’s Last Resort, which was a super fun time! The food is just regular bar food, but the experience and laughs you get while your there makes the experience so much more memorable! After spending all afternoon on Broadway, Sydney and I met back up with our friends and we all went to a BBQ to have some brews and celebrate with good company. After the BBQ, we went to the Korean Veterans Memorial Bridge to see the fireworks! I didn’t know this at first, but I later found out that Nashville was rated #1 for best fireworks in America in 2013 and rated #2 for 2014!

Me at Dick's Last Resort

Bongo Java Coffeehouse

Fireworks <3

Park in east Nashville

Saturday we spent all day exploring both east and west Nashville! In the morning, we drove to East Nashville to have brunch at a vegan restaurant called Wild Cow. It was very delicious and would definitely recommend it! After that, we drove to a park that was about 20-25 minutes from where we were staying. On the road we took to get to the park, there were miles of absolutely gorgeous multimillion-dollar mansions along each side of us. Each house’s driveway was at least a mile long! We later found out that the neighborhood we were driving through was home to many famous country singers! After hanging out in east Nashville, we went to west Nashville to check out the shopping life at some local thrift stores. After being on our feet all day, we ended the night going to dinner with our friends at Chagos Cantina, a local Mexican restaurant that’s known for its awesome happy hour ;-)

PFunky Griddle!

Sunday was our last day in Nashville :-( We wanted to leave with a bang so we decided to get breakfast at an awesome restaurant called PFunky Griddle. The PFunky Griddle is sort of like The Melting Pot except its primary focus is breakfast foods. You order whatever you like and they bring out the ingredients for you and you can cook your meal right in front of you on your own personal griddle. I ordered all-you-can-eat whole-wheat pancakes with blueberries, peanut butter, and coconut shavings for my toppings.  Can you say, YUM? ;-) After stuffing our bellies, we hit the road back home to good ol’ Georgia and spent the rest of the night unpacking and unwinding from a long, successful weekend! B-)

WEEK 4: Halfway there!

Woaahhhhhh, We're halfway there!!! (-Bon Jovi)

Sup ya'll?! (yep, that's right...I'm a Northen turned Southern gal ;-) )

So this week concludes part one of this awesome internship! Never thought in four weeks I could learn so much about sustainable living as well as have so many amazing experiences!

Our Monday morning began working in the Human Resources (aka "customer service") part of the foodservice operation. We shadowed Lisa, the Administrative Office Secretary, and learned the day-to-day duties and responsibilities for her position. She showed us how to use the office phones for when students/parents/faculty call to ask about information involving meal plans. We learned one of her daily duties is to create charts of how many students enter The Commons and the on-campus retail locations the day before. She also calculates how much revenue each on-campus food location makes daily. After shadowing Lisa, Syd and I stayed in the office and worked on the Plow to Chow blog. By the end of the day, we agreed on a design and layout for the blog and also wrote our first post! :-D

On Tuesday morning Syd and I were signed up to do a 10am Taste Testing for Freshens, one of the food locations on campus. A representative from Freshens Ed Redmond was in charge of the testing and explained what we would be doing that morning. We (along with a few other volunteers) were signed up to evaluate 6 different flatbreads: Chipotle, Roasted Vegetable, Beef and Cheddar, BBQ Chicken, California, and Spicy Thai. We were given water and oyster crackers as palette cleansers to use between each round of tasting. We were at the tasting for almost two hours discussing the pros and cons of each dish and giving Ed both positive feedback and constructive criticism. At the end of the testing, we had to rank our top four choices from best to worst. I ranked the Thai flatbread first, followed by the California, then BBQ Chicken, and lastly the Roasted Vegetable. It was a really fun experience, not to mention a great way to start a Tuesday morning! Not only did we get to eat 6 different kinds of pizza, we got paid $40 to eat pizza... What a deal! ;-) After the testing, Syd and I spent the rest of the day working on the Plow to Chow blog.

Wednesday was spent in my favorite place...the garden <3. We weeded and watered the garden in the morning. Before our usual orientation gig, we helped the 2 greeters of The Commons mark and tally how many students and parents entered The Commons from the incoming freshman orientation. Each student or parent wore a wristband allowing them unlimited access in and out of The Commons for the day. After work, Syd and I hung out in the community quad of our apartment with some friends. We had a country-styled BBQ with rib racks and other mysterious meats and played an awesome card game called Spot It. (Totally recommend getting this game!)

Thursday was an awesome start to the weekend. At work, we finished mulching our section of the herb garden we've been working on and also completed our 2nd horizontal flat bed! Since the Farmer's Market was cancelled due to the weather forecast calling for storms, we went to Mellow Mushroom to enjoy some brews, pizza, and watch the USA vs Germany World Cup game. B-) After lunch, we worked the rest of the day from home working on the kid's camp schedule, recipe cards, and logo, which looks totally awesome btw! (You'll have to wait and see ;-) ) After work, Sydney's Uncle Lee came down from North Carolina and we all went to dinner at a vegan restaurant called Cafe Sunflower. The cuisine had an asian flare and was super delicious. I ordered veggie dumplings and one of their vegan salads which used vegan soy chicken. The rest of our night consisted of listening to music and being our regular obnoxious alter egos, Ace and Buzz. ;-)

2 vegans and a carnivore ;-)

She didn't think I'd get proof of her eating vegan ;-)

DIY: Tie dye in action

Our logo for the camp <3

Work on Friday consisted of choosing a name for our kids camp as well as officially picking the camp logo! After hours of brainstorming, we came up with the name Camp Green Cuisine. We thought it was a catchy, kid-friendly title that covered the sustainability and nutrition efforts we were trying to promote. We also made a shopping list of all the supplies we needed for the camp and gave it to one of the workers to buy at Home Depot. After work, Syd and I got to work searching Pinterest on millions of DIY shirt designs and began making our tie dye shirts and hats for our 4th of July weekend in Nashville!!! Of course tie dying took us longer than it should have, but we just can't seem to control our random dance sessions and our inevitable procrastination...but then again, why should we? ;-)

Saturday Syd and I spent all day outdoors! Our first stop...ALABAMA! Luckily the drive was only 1.5 hours away from Kennesaw. We packed a lunch to have a picnic in an outdoor gazebo at Desoto Falls State Park. The weather was soo perfect! After we ate lunch, we went to the actual waterfalls and gazed at the amazing view (don't worry I'm gonna post a picture below ;-) ). We spent all afternoon swimming in the stream and climbing across the the top of the waterfalls. It was so fun and slightly dangerous (but who says a little danger isn't a good thing B-) I guess its not normal behavior in Alabama to walk across waterfalls, because all the people who were at the Falls were staring at us like we were crazy -- (little do they know...we actually are ;-) lol) After an amazing day spent well at the Falls, we got back in the car for Pt. 2 of our road trip...to Cloudland Canyon State Park! Once we arrived at CCSP (I'm too lazy to spell it out lolz), we picked our site location and set up camp! Our friend was meeting us later in the night to hangout and have a campfire, but in the meantime we explored the area and started collecting sticks and twigs to use for the fire. Once our friend arrived, we cracked open some brews, turned up the tunes, and got loosy goosy while making our fire. It took us all night to make the fire because most of the wood was a little damp from the rain the day before, but once we got it burning steady, we roasted some veggies and burgers for dinner and stayed up goofing off until the fire died. It was a perfect night to sleep in a hammock, so sleeping in my hammock is just what I did...and boy was that a perfect way to end the day!

Desoto Falls

Our hard-earned fire

An awesome 'shroom

Sunday was an awesome continuation of our outdoorsy adventure. In the morning, we all got brunch at Cracker Barrel. I ate some granola earlier in the morning, so didn't get much at the restaurant, but the home fries and fruit bowl I did order, were delicioso! ;-) After brunch, Syd and I went back to the campsite to pack up our things before we went hiking. After packing and lollygagging, we finally began our hike around 2pm. The nature trails were sooo beautiful and the weather was perfect for hiking! While on our hike, we saw steps off of the side of the mountain that led to a deck. It looked like something you would see in Narnia, so of course we followed it lol. The view from this deck was absolutely stunning! It overlooked miles and miles of mountain ranges...I kid you not, it looked like New Zealand! If you like hiking, I totally recommend visiting CCSP because that view is something EVERYONE should see in their lifetime! After hiking, we drove back to Kennesaw (in a torrential downpour, I might add lol) and ordered.... da da da (drumroll please) Mellow Mushroom! (Don't judge us..or do, but you can't knock it til you try it and see why its addicting!) When we got back to the apt, we unpacked, looked through all our awesome nature pics, and then called it a (well deserved) night.

The stunning view from Cloudland Canyon Mountain

This week was such an amazing adventure-packed 7 days and I'm so sad to say there's only 4 weeks left! Nevertheless, I can't say I'm not excited for the next couple of weeks...Nashville, Baltimore, and Savannah! Yup, we still have many adventures to come, so make sure you stay tuned! :-)

Later,
Natalie