Monday Motivator

Perhaps you need some motivating after the Thanksgiving break.  I know I am feeling a bit overwhelmed with the work that is at hand to wind down the semester.  Perhaps the following resource may be of interest to you or someone you know.

The Monday Motivator, managed by Kerry Ann Racquemore, is described as:
The Monday Motivator is a weekly e-mail message that provides advanced graduate students, post-docs, and new faculty with an electronic dose of positive energy, good vibrations, and a weekly productivity tip. The purpose of the weekly message is to reinforce the core ideas presented in my workshops and provide support for individuals who are making the transition from graduate student to professor.

To sign on for the weekly e-mail motivators, and check out the other resources at the website, visit:
http://www.newfacultysuccess.com/TheMondayMotivator.en.html

A quick review of the site found it to be a good resource for new -- perhaps seasoned -- faculty.

Scholarships for Students from Marriott

The Marriott Scholars Program is currently accepting applications from students in the hospitality management, hotel management, culinary, or food and beverage fields. Scholarships cover a student’s full tuition up to $9,000. Deadline to apply is February 16th, 2010.

For more information AND to apply, please go to http://scholarships.hispanicfund.org/Marriott

If you have any questions, please contact Auri Duarte at aduarte@hispanicfund.org
Application Deadline: February 16th, 2010
Individual Awards: Full Tuition up to $9,000

Eligibility Requirements – Each student must…
• Be of Hispanic/Latino heritage
• Be U.S. citizen or permanent resident residing in the United States or Puerto Rico
• Plan to enroll as a full-time undergraduate student during the 2010 – 2011 school year in an accredited four-year college or university in the U.S. with a hospitality management or culinary program.
• Plan to pursue a degree within the hospitality management, hotel management, culinary, or food and beverage field
• Have a cumulative grade point average of 3.0 or better on a 4.0 scale

Selected Students Will Benefit from:
• A full renewable scholarship, up to $9,000 to cover tuition and fees
• Internship opportunities with Marriott International
• The opportunity to win a trip to Washington, D.C.
    - Network with influential leaders and executives
    - Learn career skills through workshops and mentoring
    - Attend the Annual Hispanic College Fund Scholarship Awards Gala

Serve Fast Food on Thanksgiving

I subscribe to Wired magazine and recommend it highly as a way to keep pace with the rapid changes of technology and its myriad of applications in the world.  The title for this blog post is the same as an article that appeared in Wired this month.  The Thanksgiving idea was from ErikTrinidad and his Fancy Food blog which can be viewed at: http://www.fancyfastfood.com/

In fact, a quick visit to the blog shows a wide range of high end dishes made with simple ingredients from various fast food places.  The Thanksgiving dinner was fashioned out of corn dogs to make turkey legs, mashed potatoes by pulsing french fries, cranberry sauce from donut filling, and arranged as usual on the plate.

This would be a great creative thinking activity for students to have them forage menu items from fast food restaurants and create gourmet looking and tasting dishes.  All you would need to do is have them review the fast food menu located near campus and select items that could be used to make gourmet dishes, send them to collect, prepare, and then present to the class.  It might be more fun if the class was not told the ingredients to make them guess which items came from which fast food joint to make the dish!

National Toilet Day

Today is National Toilet Day, as proclaimed by the World Toilet Organization.  World Toilet Organization (WTO) is a global non- profit organization committed to improving toilet and sanitation conditions worldwide (http://worldtoiletday.com/).  This is really no joke or laughing matter here in the USA and elsewhere in the world.  In truth, 2.5 billion people worldwide are without access to proper sanitation, which risks their health, strips their dignity, and kills 1.8 million people, mostly children, a year.  Even the world's wealthiest people still have toilet problems - from unhygienic public toilets to sewage disposal that destroys our waterways. 

Another reason that we should bring this to the attention of our students is that the average person goes to the toilet between six and eight times a day. Of the 69 gallons of water Americans use per person per day indoors, 27% (18.5 gallons) goes to flushing -- more than on showering or laundry or any other single activity, says the American Water Works Assn.  And while we flush 69 gallons of water down the toilet there are tens of millions who do not even have access to clean drinking water let alone a decent toilet.  It is also time for students to realize how much water can be wasted in a hotel or foodservice operation if the toilets are not functioning properly, leaking, or in constant use like those at a conference hotel which can impact a business that runs on tight margins.

Green Coca-Cola Bottles

I heard great news today!  Consumer demand and the trend toward sustainability has led to the announcement by Coca-Cola to launch a line of bottles made with plant-based materials.  This action on Coke's part will significantly reduce the amount of plastic used in their products. The new PlantBottles blend as much as 30% plant-based materials derived from sugar cane and molasses with conventional petroleum-based materials. The bottles will first appear in West Coast cities, Denmark and Western Canada, though the company aims to move to worldwide distribution and, eventually, bottles made entirely of plant-based materials.  You can read the article at:
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2253260/coca-cola-launches-plastic

Ideas for Reducing Food Waste

I have finished reading the recently released book, Waste: Uncovering the Global Food Scandal by Tristram Stuart and highly recommend it.  The book is a comprehensive analysis of the production of food (by land and sea) from the farm to the table and the obscene amount of waste that occurs as a result.  Some of the facts and figures having to do with food security was questionable until I read my local newspaper today that reported on the USDA estimating that 1 in 7 households are battling hunger in the United States of America!  To put that in perspective, it means that 49 million people (or 14.6% of US households) are battling hunger in our country while we worry about those elsehwere on the planet.  What is worse is that 1 in 4 children in our country lives on the brink of hunger!

So what to do?  Here are some small steps that some have taken to discourage wastefulness of food while others around us are going hungry.  One restaurant (unnamed by Stuart) in East London charges customers 2.5 sterling (approx $4) that gets donated to Oxfam if they fail to finish their dinner.  Another unnamed restaurant in NYC has a similar scheme.  Another unnamed restaurant in Chicago reduced its portion sizes but will supersize for free those who request it if people ask them to do so at no extra charge.

The old world chefs lived by the waste not, want not credo and it is time we reinstill that value in today's students and hopefully the communities of which we are a part.

Obesogenic Environment

I ran across a new term today in the latest book I am reading by Darrin Nordahl (2009) entitled Public Produce which lays out the argument of how public lands may need to be used to grow food for communities if the agribusiness trends continue.  A term that appeared as the author was sharing data on how given the choice between spending $1 on a 400 calorie burger or a fresh peach those who live in impoverished areas will pick the burger to "get more for their food dollar" and that is indeed true when looking at the high obesity rates in the US.  Access to fast food over fresh food in far too many American cities has led the Center for Disease Control to label the American society as "obesogenic" which is a condition resulting from "environments that promote increased food intake, nonhealthful foods, and physical inactivity."  This claim is not so ridiculous when the data are presented as Nordahl is doing in his recently published book.

The question to all of us today is, "what are we going to do about it?"  Are we doing outreach in impoverished neighborhoods to show people how to eat better on tight budgets?  Are we active in our own classroom trying to motivate students to do their part and make a difference?  Or, is it business as usual as we condone the business practices of the fast food industry which may be profitable but at a cost to the American society, especially taxpayers who have to underwrite the ignorance of consumers and the greed of producers?  I know that I am doing my part by bringing disturbing trends to the awareness of my students.  I do not "warm up" to fast food merchants interested in hiring students.  I certainly do not support these businesses in my community.  The truth be told, if we do not stand up and do the right thing our industry will continue to pedal its crap to cash strapped ignorant consumers and instead promote local, healthy alternatives.

If wanted to read an article on obesogenics in the Public Health Nutrition Journal check out:
http://journals.cambridge.org/download.php?file=%2FPHN%2FPHN12_03%2FS1368980008002450a.pdf&code=e65b3c61318146d7e051a6bcc1b17fc3

Here is the intro to that paper which may inspire you to read further:

Understanding the determinants of diet and physical activity behaviour and how to measure them are necessary either in intervention studies or in policies aimed at the prevention of obesity. Environmental change is a prime driver of the obesity epidemic, a phenomenon termed the ‘obesogenic environment’(1,2). Worldwide we are experiencing a rise in food availability, food accessibility and sedentariness, which are all factors tightly coupled to overall economic growth and development.  More specifically, obesity has been causally linked to the high consumption of soft drinks(3), large portions of energy-dense fast foods(4), skipping breakfast, television viewing, low degree of physical activity and low intake of fruits and vegetables(5,6). These factors are behavioural and can be addressed through health education directed at individuals or groups. Unfortunately, such efforts have not shown much success(7,8)...

Marriott Plans Major Green Initiative

Marriott plans to add more than 450 green hotels during the next five years, a 1,000% expansion of the company's more efficient designs. Each green hotel saves the chain $100,000 in upfront costs, can be designed six months faster, and reduces water and energy consumption 25%. The company's first green hotel will open next summer in Pittsburgh.

According to Treehugger, It looks like Marriott's green hotel trial program has been a resounding success--so much so, that over the next five years, the company plans on expanding its green hotel initiative by 1,000 percent. A new green design will now be embraced on over 450 upcoming hotels--and the plan will save the company $100,000 dollars on each hotel, cut water and energy consumption by 25%, and shave 6 months off the required design time.

To read more visit:
www.treehugger.com/files/2009/11/marriott-expand-green-hotels-1000-percent.php

Mathmetical Themed Comics

This was on a listserv I am on from one of the participants, Ted Panitz, from Cape Cod Community College, today.

For a numbers of years I saved comic strips dealing with math and learning/teaching concepts, problems and conundrums. In particular I was impressed with how much comic strip writers understand about our math anxieties and how you can play with and manipulate math concepts. When I started i thought i would find a few but as you will see there are an incredible number of strips and they still keep coming.


I like to share these with my students to make a point about their attitudes or approaches to learning. I have put them on my web site at: http://tpanitz.jimdo.com/ted-s-clean-jokes-file/comics/

I flipped through some of them and they are pretty good and may assist you in your efforts to teach math to culinary arts and hospitality students.

Report on "Greening Retail"

There is a recent report on the green efforts of retailers such as Tesco, Wal-Mart, Woolworth and other global brands.  If doing research on green efforts in foodservice this research could be good as part of a literature review to establish benchmarks or best practice comparisons.  The report was produced by a sustainability expert Wendy Williams, and located on the blog for the National Retail Federation.  If you want a synopsis of the report based on an interview with Ms. Williams visit the blog:
http://blog.nrf.com/2009/11/04/sustainability-expert-wendy-evans-discusses-greening-retail/

To view a copy of the report visit:
http://www.greeningretail.ca/Research/1526-GreeningRetailSummary-Oct21_SM.pdf

Of course, the thing that bothers me the most is that unlike the retailers mentioned in the report, restaurants keep doing things like pumping packaging out the door that cannot be recycled or offer the customer an opportunity to purchase a reusable bag for their take out order.  Or, the bags are not offered for those who want to take home a doggie bag so that when the customer returns they can take their leftovers home in their own bag which cuts down a restaurant's costs on paper and plastics for those who cannot finish a meal that is three times the normal portion size.  Hell, I still get things to go in styrofoam containers!  But of course, these things do not come to mind in the foodservice industry especially when you have complete and utterly corrupt lobbyists like Rick Berman fighting to keep restaurants stuck in the past instead of running a modern day sustainable restaurant, let alone any, hospitality business.

Refreshing Indeed!

I am in the UK doing tourism research.  I always make it a habit of checking the local markets and the city market in Cardiff. It is refreshing to be in a culture that does not think beef and pork are only the tender and less tender muscle cuts.  A wander through the local market finds the beef monger displaying wares that include every single piece of an animal that can possibly be eaten like the brains, hearts, tongues, and more.  Seeing the whole pig in a display case from the tales to the head is also refreshing.

I have to ask those of us in culinary arts and hospitality education what we are doing to promote the muscle and offal of animals for public consumption, starting in the classroom and portrayed on the Food Network.  The complete and utter waste involved in growing and processing a living being and using a small percentage of the carcass is something we have to turn around.  We are a nation of immigrants who all used to eat every bit of an animal and now we eat so much less increasing the waste I just mentioned.

So please do your part to restore the virtues of home economics in our students and get them to cook and enjoy the whole animal.

By the way, I enjoyed my first taste of razor clams today.  What a treat and offered here in the fish market.