Hello everyone! My name is Hana, and I’m currently an intern in Sodexo region 11 in Denver, Colorado. I wanted to share about the great experience I had with conducting my Retail Marketing and Wellness Project during my Food Service Management rotation.
For this project, I developed a fall-themed soup bar (for the first week of November) and provided hospital employees with education on Sodexo’s Mindful meal choices, which involve healthy meal selections that meet specific nutrition criteria determined by Sodexo dietitians. The soup bar featured three soups with Mindful options, a choice of 10 toppings, and three bread items—all of which were made in-house. The feedback from the customers was great: they were excited about having a new food option, they loved the fall theme and the offering of soup on a cold day, and they were very receptive to the education regarding Mindful by Sodexo. Most employees knew about the existence of the Mindful choices, but did not know what Mindful meant and decided that they would like to choose Mindful foods more often! It was rewarding to hear that my education was informative and influential in helping employees to make healthy meal choices in the future.
For this project, I developed a fall-themed soup bar (for the first week of November) and provided hospital employees with education on Sodexo’s Mindful meal choices, which involve healthy meal selections that meet specific nutrition criteria determined by Sodexo dietitians. The soup bar featured three soups with Mindful options, a choice of 10 toppings, and three bread items—all of which were made in-house. The feedback from the customers was great: they were excited about having a new food option, they loved the fall theme and the offering of soup on a cold day, and they were very receptive to the education regarding Mindful by Sodexo. Most employees knew about the existence of the Mindful choices, but did not know what Mindful meant and decided that they would like to choose Mindful foods more often! It was rewarding to hear that my education was informative and influential in helping employees to make healthy meal choices in the future.
My event was also successful in terms of meals sold. The normal range for meals sold at that station is between 75 and 120 per day, but new items rarely perform well (the last new item sold about 80 count). However, the customer count for the soup bar was 105, which—according to the general manager—is a very high customer count for a new item. The meal also completely sold out, which was excellent for sales and unexpected by the management. I feel that this high customer count was partially due to the marketing I employed, which included handing out flyers, putting up posters, and promoting the event through word-of-mouth.
Overall, I had a ton of fun working with management and with the kitchen staff on planning the menu, pricing and forecasting the meal, ordering and purchasing the ingredients, marketing the event, making the food, serving the food, and educating the customers. It was an amazing opportunity to be able plan out something new and creative, and then to see it come to life and be both successful and influential. I would say that this was definitely the most fun I’ve had in the internship yet!
Overall, I had a ton of fun working with management and with the kitchen staff on planning the menu, pricing and forecasting the meal, ordering and purchasing the ingredients, marketing the event, making the food, serving the food, and educating the customers. It was an amazing opportunity to be able plan out something new and creative, and then to see it come to life and be both successful and influential. I would say that this was definitely the most fun I’ve had in the internship yet!
