Dietetic Internship Final Update: Food Service part 2

Well guys, this is it. The last real dietetic internship update. I am done with my nine months and 1,299 hours of internship. Then it's graduation and sitting for the RD exam. Nine months of dietetic internship is a labor of love. Some days you feel like it's mostly labor, but I can't begin to tell you how excited I am to be that much closer to becoming a Registered Dietitian.

Let's dive in, shall we? The last time we caught up with my culinary road trip endeavor, I was just starting at site number 3: The girls boarding school in Virginia horse country. Everything about the school is gorgeous, from the buildings, to seeing the students ride by on horseback throughout the day.

  Foxcroft has unique traditions that make the entire school a true family.

• Over 70% of the staff live on the 500 acre campus and frequently bring their families to the dining hall for lunch.
• Each student is either a 'fox' or a 'hound' and the two groups compete relentlessly throughout the year in sports, and even tug of war.
• Three days a week the school has 'morning meeting' where announcements are made and girls are recognized for their achievements.
• Every student is required to participate in a sport which can be anything from riding or fox hunting to lacrosse or soccer.

  The school was very accepting of nutrition education and students and staff came up with great questions! During lunch one day I set up a 'Healthy Skin Nutrition Do's and Don'ts' table.  Displays are an excellent way to start a conversation about health. Especially when there are food samples involved.  Visitors loved to snack on the nuts and citrus. And yes, the Peeps and Red Bull from the don'ts table were totally consumed by visitors at the end of lunch. It's a sometimes food.

My next project was the big 'theme meal'. Foxcroft has had a 'When Pigs Fly' BBQ for almost twenty years! The dining director has a side BBQ catering business and knows what he's doing. So I helped them celebrate the tradition. That being said.....

I have a confession.

We barbecued a whole pig as part of my internship theme meal. And chicken. And beef. No, there was not a salad. But I like to think I kept my nutrition street cred by arranging a centerpiece of produce...and flowers. That's how I'm rationalizing it anyway. My dietitian preceptor loved my wedding bouquet, so we used the same idea to open the nutrition conversation to bystanders.

 My Foxcroft preceptor and BBQ master, Mr. B. 

The whole hog.

 The arrangement: Kale, kumquats, asparagus, rosemary, plus hydrangeas. 

 While my food service rotation was by no means traditional, it was more than I could have ever asked for. So six weeks and about seven hundred miles later,

Food service rotation? Complete.

-Carlene