Miller squared

Today was fun day in the life of foodservice interns Rachel and Tara. We had our first meeting with someone who was not part of the MSU foodservice family. Marti Miller, a manufacturing representative for Johnsonville came to pay us a visit. Paul had told us that Marti is a good friend of his and someone in the business who he trusts and can be completely honest with. He also said that she has always been a good resource for past interns and urged us to ask her intelligent, thoughtful questions about our future endeavours in the foodservice industry.

When Marti arrived, Paul was up at the SUB making a phone call, so Tara and I got to spend some time with her one on one. We immediately began picking her brain regarding her career, where she has been, and where she would like to be. When Paul and Ron got here, we began our "meeting". I put meeting in quotations, because it was more like the group of us tasting a bunch of Johnsonville products. We tried 2 mini sausages for the "slider" trend that Paul is hoping to capitalize on at MSU, 2 different types of hot dogs that Ron is considering for concessions, and some hand-held sandwiches that Marti thought would be a good addition to our convenience facilities. While we were tasting, the mood was laid back and fun. We each had a sheet with all of the items listed where we could make our notes about how we felt about each product. Once we had tasted everything, the business began. Paul and Marti began discussion MSU's current sausage situation while Tara and I discussed our financial situation. After some bargaining and weighing of costs, we have decided to get back with Marti regarding our purchasing for the fall.

This meeting was different than I expected in a variety of ways. First of all, I pictured us all doing the sampling in a kitchen (like we did) and the moving to a table or more traditional meeting space to talk business. To my surprise, we pulled out our usage guides and calculators right there in the kitchen! Watching and participating in this type of negotiation and business deal made the purchasing discussion that Paul had with Tara and me last week come alive. We were able to see how Paul and Marti worked together to both try to get what they wanted.

After we finished discussing business and cleaned up our greasy mess, Paul, Marti, Tara, Ron, and I all went out to lunch in downtown Bozeman. It was here that Tara and I got to really talk to Marti and get her perspective on jobs in the foodservice world, education, experience, and interviewing. Paul was right, she was very down to earth and had a lot of useful perspectives on what I may come across in "the real world". Much to my relief, today was yet another time that I have been reassured that I can still be successful and have a beautiful career, even if I decide to not become an RD or do not get matched for an internship. That comfort is invaluable!

Other than the meeting with Marti, my day consisted of entering items and recipes into Computrition for all of Ron's concession items. This is a helpful tool, because Ron can now look at everything he is selling in the concessions department, see what his food cost percentage is, and make price adjustments accordingly.

That's about it for my day. Tomorrow we will start entering the fall menus into Computrition and hopefully will be getting some cereal samples in so that we can make a decision about our cereal purchasing.

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