As part of the CAFNR dietetics program, students gain experiences that allow them to sit for the Commission on Dietetic Registration’s exam. One of the requirements includes writing a business plan with nutritional programming, which could include a restaurant or market location. While Mizzou dietetics students have been writing business plans as part of their senior coursework since the program began, students recently were able to execute their business plans for the first time through a partnership with Mizzou’s Campus Dining Services through the Food Service Management Supervised Practice Experience (NEP 4290).
“The Coordinated Program of Dietetics has maintained a long-standing relationship with Campus Dining Services (CDS); all CDS locations have been heavily influenced by the business plans dietetics students create,” said Sarah Buckallew, assistant teaching professor in dietetics. “This is a truly unique partnership we have that helps our students stand out and sets them up for success. I had the same experience as a student here over 15 years ago, and it was a formative part of my education. The skills, concepts and confidence I gained from this experience set me apart as a dietitian and it’s nice to see this imparted on our students today.”
This year, students had eight weeks to work as a group to plan and execute a pop-up restaurant to be hosted in the Culinary Development Kitchen inside Johnston Hall, a new Mizzou dining space. Ava McKinney, Piper Forthaus and Hamza Khan created a Parisian-themed café lunch experience, featuring build-your-own charcuterie boards, homemade French onion soup, homemade apple butter and red pepper hummus, and fruit with chocolate fondue. The students hand-selected ingredients from local vendors to use in their preparations.
To plan and prepare, the students worked for 10 hours a week in the Mizzou Culinary Development Kitchen, and spent from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. preparing food into individual portion sizes for easy purchasing by students when the pop-up café opened on Oct. 8.
“My favorite part of the experience was seeing people’s positive reactions when they got their food from us,” said Forthaus. “It made all the hard work of prep worth it, and we met our goal of serving more than 80 people.”
This hands-on experience not only fills a pre-requisite for their future as registered dietitians, but also can inform their future work with clients in their career.
“There are a lot of components that go into dietetics, but even if you want to do clinical, like many of us do, having that background in food service is very helpful in serving clients,” said McKinney. “If you’re in a patient setting and you order food for them with certain nutritional requirements, someone in a food service kitchen somewhere has to make that, and it’s good to have that experience to know what is and isn’t feasible in a kitchen. There are also a lot of registered dietitians that work with campus dining, or in other corporate positions, so that’s an option for us as well.”
“I think this experience was incredibly helpful in understanding more of the logistical side of things when dealing with businesses and food service,” said Khan. “Going forward, I’ll remember the importance of marketing, menu planning and community feedback.”
The next pop-up experience will include build-your-own ramen bowls and will be held in the Culinary Development Kitchen inside Johnston Hall from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 4.