Executive Summary

Introduction
Messiah College Dining is a not for profit college-managed auxiliary service. The college’s dinning services consists of residential, retail and catering services. The retail section consists of three cafés on campus called Café Diem, Falcon Café, and Union Café. For the first month of my internship, I worked at the Falcon, however for the remainder of my internship I worked at the largest of the three, the Union Café.  The Union Cafe, located inside the Larsen Student Union building, serves a wide range of food including sandwiches, tossed salads, burgers, pizza, cheese steaks, quesadillas, ice cream, smoothies, Starbucks coffee and specialty drinks, and a variety of grab n' go items. While working at this facility, I reported to Jen Whitcomb the dinning services operations manager and Steve Musti the assistant manager at the Union Café.
For this internship, I developed four learning objectives which are listed below.
1. To learn the basic administrative skills needed for a management position.
2. To learn how to create a nutritional information sheet.
3. Learn supervisory skills necessary for a management position.
4. Learn supervisory skills necessary for a management position.


Work/Projects
The work I performed while at my internship was supervisory in nature. My main goal was to help each shift run as smoothly as possible. This meant that I had to address questions and issues that came up from employees and customers alike. Most questions consisted of located products to be refilled on the line or on how to properly go about doing tasks on the prep list. Problems from customers were few are far between. College students, faculty, and administrative/staff at Messiah College are generally gracious and forgiving. There was a particular time where the Union was short staffed on food preparation workers and our grab and go sandwiches were not available during the lunch rush. A student came expecting to be able to grab a sandwich quickly before class and be on her way. She came to me asking if we had any in the back and so I proceeded to check for her but to no avail because there were none. I came out and asked if she would be willing to order a sandwich and that I would make hers a priority in order to get her the product quickly for the inconvenience we caused her.
My job also required that I performed administrative duties such as handling cash when opening and closing the Union and the Falcon. During my own time, I developed an Excel spreadsheet to assist me in counting the draws specifically for accuracy purposes. I also assisted and individually executed inventory for the Union and the Falcon Café. I assisted in creating the preparation list for the upcoming day during my closing shifts and supervised the closing process of the Union and the Falcon.
During my time at the Falcon, I was assigned a project of compiling the nutritional information for their menu items. This required me to look at the nutritional content of every item used within a recipe. I had to use basic algebra to figure out calories, fat, sodium, carbohydrates, sugar, protein, fiber, and cholesterol content of each product. I also utilized Microsoft Excel to add the numeric values assigned to each category in order to be more efficient and accurate. At times, some nutritional information was not available and so I used a specific program call Food Processor in order to create the nutritional content for a given recipe. 


Learning
One of the most important things I learned as a shift supervisor is to look at the restaurant from a larger perspective.  When I was working at an entry level position, my focus was on the specific task of creating the products, making sure the customer was satisfied with their product and sending them on their way. As a supervisor, you have to address employee and customer related issues, you have to make sure everyone shows up for their shifts, and order products to ensure that all menu items can be created.
I also learned how to delegate tasks to employees. As a supervisor you are not above doing tasks however, it is also your job to be present on the floor and making sure things are done correctly and according to procedures. It is not advisable for supervisor to get caught up in doing things in the back or being caught working on the line unless absolutely needed.
I also learned administrative skills such as inventory, counting drawers, and product ordering from various vendors.
Future Plans
This experience has prepared me for my future goals in food service. In my future, I plan on graduating college this coming May with my Bachelors Degree. I hope to attain a management role within the food service industry and to eventually work myself up to having my own franchise. I also am considering going to culinary school after I obtain my undergraduate degree. It has made me realize a lot of strengths and weaknesses that I inhibit and this experience has revealed to me many things I can improve upon.
For instance, in my competency paper, I mentioned that I could work on balancing my work and my personal life. I have definitely made more of an effort to make time for personal relationships as well as for taking better care of myself. I also have become a better communicator with the employees and with the staff.


Preparation/Recommendations
My Food Service course was very helpful in learning the hard amount of work it requires to make large quantities of food and working together as a team in order serve others. It was also helpful because a part of the class required that I take the ServSafe test in order to become ServSafe Certified. I have also found my Marketing, Advertising, and Consumer Behavior courses were very helpful because it helped me to understand the purchasing behavior that people exhibit.
I would highly encourage the Nutrition and Dietetics Department to be in contact with the Business Department. I believe this would be beneficial because I am sure there are food service alumni within both departments. I also feel Business Department could recommend courses that would be more relevant to dealing with customers, and employees.