Location, Location, Location

You don’t have to be in the realty business to have heard this one: Location, location, location. It’s the right place at the right time. Things just happen to fall into place. Lauren and I just completed our second of three weeks at UMD Dining Services and we’re thankful for (just in time for Thanksgiving!) our timing there. On top of the standard assignments and experiences throughout this rotation, we’ve been lucky enough to take part in extra programs and events solely due to timing in the internship. On our second day, we were invited to attend a stress management workshop held at College Park for the Mid-Atlantic region of the National Association of College & University Food Services (NACUFS). Anyone can benefit from this program: students, employees, management, and of course, dietetic interns. Our keynote speaker, Julie Gaver, said it’s all about choosing your attitude by keeping a smile on your face and bringing humor to the workplace.

Now that we were both feeling stress-free and energetic, we were invited to work at the Student Government Association sponsored UMD Crab Fest. WOW. I don’t know if these students know how lucky they are to have an event like this on campus. They had everything there. Potato salad: check. Macaroni salad: check. Adorable single-serving butterballs: check. The list goes on. Dining services purchased sixty-six bushels of crabs. (I’ll admit, to me that meant “a lot” so I had to dig further for a number). At an average of sixty-seven crabs per bushel, that turned out to be a whopping 4422 crabs ordered for about 900 students. That’s a lot of crabs! I’m not even a student and I had a blast.

After our much-needed Thanksgiving break, we’ll be entering our third and final week at this rotation just in time to see the pilot launch of the “OZZI” reusable to-go containers in the dining hall. This program is an effort to reduce not only waste, but costs associated with disposable containers used in the dining hall. If we had left before the holiday we wouldn’t have been able to see this happen! Like I said; it’s all about location. It’s those extra things we were fortunate enough to experience that made this rotation all the more special to me. We got lucky!

Until next time,
Marion