Kelsie's Internship

Today's blog is written by Kelsie Mead, Culinary Arts student at Shepherds College:

Hi, I’m Kelsie Mead.  I’m a third-year student at Shepherds College.  On Fridays, I attend academic and Bible classes from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., and on Mondays through Thursdays I work at my internship at Oakridge Care Center.  My shift begins at 6:40 a.m. and ends at 2:00 p.m.   Follow me as I walk you through a typical day at Oakridge Care Center…. 

When I arrive, I make sure the coffee is in the coffee carafe and place carafes on a cart.  I take the coffee to the north/south dining room and serve coffee and cereal for the residents.   After breakfast, I wash the serving utensils using a commercial dishwasher.  Next, I announce over the intercom that breakfast is now being served in the main dining room.  I proceed to the compartment sink where I wash pots and pans.  After breakfast is completed in the main dining room, I set-up carts to pick-up the dishes from tables and wash the tables.  My final task with breakfast is to take out the trash. 

Once breakfast is completed, it’s time to prepare for lunch.  My responsibilities vary from day to day.  Sometimes I prepare a dessert.  I find the recipe, get the ingredients, mix ingredients together, and bake or put into the refrigerator.  Recently I made peach cobbler.  The residents enjoyed it.  When I don’t prepare a dessert, I clean out the refrigerators, scrub trash cans, organize pots and pans, etc. 

For lunch, I serve coffee and the side dish in the north/south dining room.  Side dishes include: salads, jello, fruits, and desserts.   Then, I wash the serving utensils using a commercial dishwasher.   Next, I announce over the intercom that lunch is now being served in the main dining room.  I proceed to the compartment sink where I wash pots and pans.  While lunch is served in the main dining room, if something is needed I get it for them.  Finally, I set-up the carts for dining room clean-up but I don’t clean the dining room instead I wash the pots and pans. 

I am thankful that I was hired for this internship and I enjoy working with my co-workers because they understand my vision problem.  Due to my vision, I sometimes have to wash dishes more than once.  Diligence means to invest my time and energy to complete each task assigned to me.  I practice diligence when I wash dishes.  The definition of initiative is doing a task before I’m told to do it.  I take initiative with my cleaning tasks by looking at the cleaning list and completing chores without being asked. 





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