Hello all! My name is Amanda Fyotek and I am a Region 1 intern based out of the Boston and South Massachusetts areas. I began the internship in September 2020 in my food service management rotation at Bryant University in Rhode Island. I have a strong and pretty diverse background in food service working in restaurants, country clubs, hotels, and even hospitals but never in any school setting. I was very excited that Sodexo was able to place me in a University for this particular rotation!
During my time at Bryant University, I got to experience what managers, supervisors and employees do on a day to day basis, which was fun to learn. This of course is also happening during the COVID-19 pandemic, so there were many opportunities to face and new processes being developed that everyone needed to adjust to. It was both challenging and enlightening to be included in this.
My favorite part about this rotation were the projects. In food service management, there are several projects that allow you to work very closely with the team on items such as sustainability and wellness, which are also two topics I love to learn about! While interviewing with the Chef for the sustainability project, I learned that they had a lot of requests for more vegetarian options. However, the vegetarian station ends up not being utilized much. It was then that I decided I wanted my wellness project to be about plant proteins. I was also lucky to be there during their fall fest week and so I chose a fall harvest plant protein bowl as my item to show off. The recipe came out amazing and was a hit with everyone! Some students came by saying they didn’t realize the vegetarian station was even there and some had never eaten plant proteins such as chickpeas and quinoa, which were both featured in my recipe. It was so much fun to connect with the students and give them something new and delicious to try!
One of the most crucial messages I’ve been able to take away from my time with the internship is how important it is to be flexible. Nothing has been as expected but I wouldn’t change anything about my experiences! COVID-19 has caused many challenges for everyone, but I am so thankful for my internship director who has worked with me, found me great sites, and is always encouraging during my journey!
During my time at Bryant University, I got to experience what managers, supervisors and employees do on a day to day basis, which was fun to learn. This of course is also happening during the COVID-19 pandemic, so there were many opportunities to face and new processes being developed that everyone needed to adjust to. It was both challenging and enlightening to be included in this.
My favorite part about this rotation were the projects. In food service management, there are several projects that allow you to work very closely with the team on items such as sustainability and wellness, which are also two topics I love to learn about! While interviewing with the Chef for the sustainability project, I learned that they had a lot of requests for more vegetarian options. However, the vegetarian station ends up not being utilized much. It was then that I decided I wanted my wellness project to be about plant proteins. I was also lucky to be there during their fall fest week and so I chose a fall harvest plant protein bowl as my item to show off. The recipe came out amazing and was a hit with everyone! Some students came by saying they didn’t realize the vegetarian station was even there and some had never eaten plant proteins such as chickpeas and quinoa, which were both featured in my recipe. It was so much fun to connect with the students and give them something new and delicious to try!
One of the most crucial messages I’ve been able to take away from my time with the internship is how important it is to be flexible. Nothing has been as expected but I wouldn’t change anything about my experiences! COVID-19 has caused many challenges for everyone, but I am so thankful for my internship director who has worked with me, found me great sites, and is always encouraging during my journey!
