By Amanda Sauceda
My school foodservice rotation is done! This week I’ll be completing my last major rotation, which is general foodservice. I had a great time learning all I can in the three short weeks that I was at the school district.
The most exciting part, which was kind of like the finale to the rotation, was the taste test we coordinated at a school site. This was a great opportunity to use all the experience gained from the past taste tests and implement them at the school. The samples tested were hamburger patties that we served as a plain hamburger. In total there were six different hamburgers that they had to taste but don’t worry we didn’t serve them the whole burger to sample! We even had some of the staff on campus taste some of the samples and provide their feedback. Interestingly enough the results showed that the students and staff had similar tastes in the hamburger patties that they preferred.
What I was really able to improve on was my menu planning skills. The puzzle that menu planning can be doesn’t come easily to me. With school menus there are a lot of different restrictions of what can and cannot be served for each meal. Then there are the special diet menus that can have additional guidelines such as the special menus for children with diabetes. It’s also important to remember the follow through of how each item is assembled in the school kitchens. And of course not every age group is going to get the same serving sizes so those need to be adjusted according to the school. There are so many different pieces to school menu planning puzzle.
Looking ahead at what is coming up I still have a lot to do but at the same time I don’t. It’s crazy to think that in a couple months, three to be exact, I will be officially done with my internship. I’m going to have to start thinking about things like studying for the RD exam and looking for jobs soon. Anyone else think this year has gone by super fast?
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