Written By: Christin Ostlund, 2022-2023 Cohort
I began my dietetic internship with my five-week food service management rotation at Creighton Elementary School District (CESD). I could not have asked for a better first rotation where I was welcomed with open arms to an environment that encouraged me to learn and grow as a dietetic intern.
Experience in a School Kitchen
I spent my first week working at Gateway Elementary in the school’s kitchen working alongside the food and nutrition manager and staff. They immediately took me under their wing to provide me with valuable insight and experience into what it takes to feed reimbursable meals to all the kids at school (which is A LOT). The staff are hard at work first thing in the morning to serve breakfast in the classrooms, prep the weeks fruit and vegetables, cook, and assemble the menu items for lunch, and work the cash register, all while ensuring the kids are taking meals that are reimbursable under the School Breakfast Program (SBP) and National School Lunch Program (NSLP). On top of all this, the food and nutrition manager oversee their kitchen staff team, ensuring food and equipment safety is being followed, auditing the reimbursable meal count, providing physical and monthly inventory checks, and ordering food items for the upcoming menu cycle. With all that the kitchen staff have to do they still manage to develop relationships with the kids and provide a safe and welcoming environment for the kids to eat in. I loved seeing how much the staff worked together and shared a passion for providing the kids with the nutrition they need to set them up for success to learn and grow in the classroom. This first week spent at Gateway Elementary gave me valuable knowledge that helped me throughout the rest of the rotation.
Standardized Recipe Project
Over the next 4 weeks I completed projects and worked alongside my preceptor, the District Food Service Manager of Nutrition, and her other colleagues at the district office and central kitchen. With the district wanting to move more away from convivence meal items I was assigned with creating a speed scratch standardized recipe to batch cook and taste test with some of the kids within the district. While creating the recipe there were many components that I had to consider including equipment, budget, time, taste, presentation, and nutrition to ensure the meal was reimbursable. This project was extremely daunting and faced a lot of trial and error, but with the support of my preceptor and the central kitchen staff I was able to create a standardized recipe for Butter Chicken that could be batch cooked in any of the school kitchens for lunch.
FFVP Nutrition Education
CESD implements the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program (FFVP) to provide kids with more in season fresh fruit or vegetable. Kids are provided with
a fresh fruit or vegetable as an after-school snack every Tuesday and Thursday along with a fun education handout about that fruit or vegetable. I was tasked with FFVP for November. This involved selecting the in-season fruit and vegetables to provide for the month of November, determining the produce item amount needed for each school, and creating the education handouts.
In Class Nutrition Education
My preceptor and the District Food Service Manager of Operations work in collaboration with teachers throughout the district to provide monthly in class Edible Eds, where they provide in class nutrition education presentations about an in-season fruit or vegetable that are catered to each classroom’s curriculum. They tasked me with creating an Edible Ed for pumpkin that could be used for a range of different grades. After creating the Edible Ed for pumpkin, I converted the education into a script that could easily be adjusted based on the grade they were presenting to. I then got to present the Pumpkin Edible Ed with my preceptor and the District Food Service Manager of Operations to a class of 6th graders.
In-Service Presentation for Food & Nutrition Staff
For my in-service presentation for the food and nutrition staff my preceptor had me create a presentation for the Offer Versus Serve (OVS) provision within the NSLP. While the NSLP requires the 5 food components (meat/meat alternative, grain, fruit, vegetable, and milk) to be offered at lunch the OVS provision allows kids to have a choice in what they want to eat and helps schools reduce food waste. OVS requires kids to choose at minimum 3 out of the 5 components offered with one having to be a fruit or vegetable. I created a presentation going over this concept and how it applies to the district’s specific food items on their menu cycle. We went over examples of tray selections that kids may make and discussed why or why not they would be reimbursable. This helped the managers clear up any confusion with this provision and be more confident in relaying the information back to their staff to better implement OVS at lunch and ensure meals are still reimbursable.
