Indigo Robinson

KNH103

Report 4 Food Service Job Shadow

Culinary Support Center

I received a tour of the Culinary Support Center located not too far from Oxfords

campus. It was only a bus ride away so it was not difficult to get to. As I walked into the center, I

entered a room that was filled with a few offices and the front desk. I approached the person who

was at the front desk and I introduced myself and she was the one who took me on the tour. The

lady who took me on the tour was named Laurie Sampson. She gave me a tour of the whole

facility. She showed me some of the offices, where food items were stored, prepared, and the she

also showed me the docking station, the place where the trucks would come in and out to either

deliver or sent out to the dining hall on Miami Universitys campus. After the tour, Laurie and I

went into one of the conference rooms and talked more about here role at the Culinary Support

Center and what she did before working at the center.

Lauries job title was the Manager of Procurement and Food Purchasing. Some of her job

duties includes ordering certain food products (produce, dairy, Pepsi products, bread, and

Starbucks), invoicing from delivered food for dining, managing the uniforms, and ware house
inventory. She has been working for Miami University for about 13 years and 25+ experience in

food service.

Before working as the Procurement and Food Purchasing Manager, she held a restaurant

manager position at McDonalds. At that job, she learned managerial skills that have helped her

with her current job as a manager. Her previous job helped her learn how to manage multiple

people and working with customers.

When asking Laurie what part of being in the food service industry was and she said that

it was finding the best prices possible. The thing that she was trying to strive for was getting

good quality for the best price. Laurie said that her favorite part of her job was the total customer

experience and getting good quality products for the right prices. Another important part of her

job was to get just enough food without accumulating too much waste.

I am glad that I decided to go on the tour. It was interesting to see the food service part of

nutrition and see how things ran in a facility that was dedicated to food service. Seeing the

different pieces that go into food service and seeing how they all work well to make the culinary

support center what it is today was very beneficial to my knowledge of the different parts of

nutrition. Talking to Laurie gave me more insight into the center and allowed me to get more of

personal perspective on the food service part of nutrition.