Hi everyone, my name is Kara and I am currently finishing up my food service management rotation at University of Maryland St Joseph Medical Center in Towson, MD. Despite only being four weeks into the internship, I feel like I have done so much already. Time really does fly by! I have gotten to interact with many members of the Sodexo team, including the clinical nutrition manager and the general manager. I have worked in food production to help prep foods for catering events, worked in the retail area, facilitated safety huddle meetings with the staff, and have attended many interdepartmental meetings with my preceptor.
This past week I was able to complete my retail marketing and wellness project. I decided to have a nacho bar, with it being themed around “Football Friday” and football season as a whole. I was able to decide on a topic, partake in ordering food for the event, and prep the food that day. I also created marketing materials for my event in order to make the hospital staff/visitors aware of the details. The event went very well! All of the items sold and I received positive feedback from multiple customers. I am excited to look into the sales data to see how my event compared to an average day for the account. It was very rewarding to plan an event from start to finish and see the end result. This project taught me a lot about all the considerations that go into planning an event. As a future RD, I know that these skills will come in handy in the future.
Overall, I have had fun becoming more familiar with the functioning of the food service department. It’s been really great to spend time shadowing and speaking to all of the staff and witnessing how each of their individual duties come together to create an end product. While food service management has been fun, I really am looking forward to beginning my clinical rotation. However, I am glad that I completed my foodservice rotation first because it has allowed me to become oriented with the hospital, and I will be able to take this knowledge with me into my clinical rotation.
This past week I was able to complete my retail marketing and wellness project. I decided to have a nacho bar, with it being themed around “Football Friday” and football season as a whole. I was able to decide on a topic, partake in ordering food for the event, and prep the food that day. I also created marketing materials for my event in order to make the hospital staff/visitors aware of the details. The event went very well! All of the items sold and I received positive feedback from multiple customers. I am excited to look into the sales data to see how my event compared to an average day for the account. It was very rewarding to plan an event from start to finish and see the end result. This project taught me a lot about all the considerations that go into planning an event. As a future RD, I know that these skills will come in handy in the future.
Overall, I have had fun becoming more familiar with the functioning of the food service department. It’s been really great to spend time shadowing and speaking to all of the staff and witnessing how each of their individual duties come together to create an end product. While food service management has been fun, I really am looking forward to beginning my clinical rotation. However, I am glad that I completed my foodservice rotation first because it has allowed me to become oriented with the hospital, and I will be able to take this knowledge with me into my clinical rotation.
