Final Project

My final project for my internship at the American Lung Association in Minnesota was to organize the food/budget, lodging, and overall logistics of the SHIP Technical Assistance Regional Training.  This was a state-wide training that was targeted to various community leadership teams that are working under the Statewide Health Improvement Program.

Planning for this event began in early April.  When I found out that I would be in charge of the food and budgeting, I got to work right away.  The theme for this training was "zero waste and eco-friendly" so it was somewhat of a challenge.  I began researching local vendors for organic foods and compostable serveware/silverware.  I got in touch with the Chester Creek Cafe since their menu holds many organic and nutritious food items.  I also checked out the Whole Foods Co-Op for natural sodas and organic fruit.  Since the training would be held from early morning till the afternoon, we also needed food and drinks for the morning.  For this, I went to Starbucks and the Positively 3rd Street Bakery.  Starbucks has organic coffee (both regular and decaf) along with awesome herbal tea.  The 3rd Street Bakery has amazing cookies, bars, and muffins, that all use organic whole wheat and other natural ingredients.  The biggest challenge for this was staying within our budget.  We had about $1000 budgeted for the Duluth training, and there were roughly 65 people attending.  This training was also being held at Lake Superior College.

On top of budgeting and creating the menu for the training, I also helped with lodging and logistics.  Since attendees weren't all from Duluth, we needed to offer lodging for them.  We wanted to offer only smoke-free lodging so I researched all the hotels and motels in Duluth, and formulated a list of only the smoke-free establishments.  I then forwarded that list to Jon Hunter, a member of the Technical Assistance team, since he was the head organizer for lodging.

As for logistics, I was to see that the overall training went smoothly.  We needed to make sure that we had everything we needed (signage, proper waste disposal, folders, etc...).  I put together 300 folders that were to be distributed at all the trainings around Minnesota.  This entailed slapping a SHIP sticker on the front of each one, and stuffing them with information and a CD.  Since the theme of these trainings was "eco-friendly", we decided to put all the PowerPoint presentations, and other handouts onto a CD instead of printing out numerous pages of paper.  This was a good idea, but it also required burning 300 CD's, which took some time.  I also printed and laminated signs for the training, since not everyone is familiar with the campus at Lake Superior College.  One of the most important things for this training, in my opinion, was the proper disposal of all this food and waste.  Going along with our eco-friendly theme, our goal was to have no more than 2 pounds of waste!  This was a challenge because 65 people eating lunch is a perfect equation for a lot of left overs!  Because of this challenge, I got in touch with AJ and Susie from the Western Lake Superior Sanitary District (WLSSD) for more information and help.  They graciously let us borrow composting bins and bags with signage, and also recycling containers.  With the help of WLSSD, our goal of 2 pounds of waste or less was possible.

The actual training in Duluth took place on May 13 from 8:30 am to 3:30 pm.  The previous day, I went to the Whole Foods Co-Op and Starbucks.  I picked up all the fruit and natural sodas from the Co-Op.  Then I went Starbucks to place an order for Pat McKone to pick up in the morning, since it's right by her office.  The morning of the training, I stopped by the 3rd Street Bakery to pick up 72 muffins and cookies that I had ordered.  I didn't have to worry about the food from Chester Creek Cafe, since they were catering for us.  When I got to LSC, I helped set up all the food during the morning.  We got coffee and tea set up, along with juice, muffins, and organic fruit.  The morning session was being held in a large room upstairs, however, we were required to eat lunch in the atrium because the students of LSC were using our room for graduation that same afternoon.  Because of this, we had to move literally everything down to the atrium.  There were two breakout sessions total, one before lunch and one after lunch.  When everyone went to the first session, I and a couple others helped prepare for lunch.  We moved all the food and materials down to the atrium.  When the caterer came with our food we set up and organized all the sandwiches and salad.  We also set up the proper waste bins since we were using compostable silverware, plates, and napkins.  I didn't stay for the second session, so after everyone was done eating, I helped clean up, made sure all the waste was properly disposed, and left.

I learned a couple things after this event.  First, "going green" is harder than it seems.  Although very much worth it, I think it made this experience a bit more challenging.  I think one reason for this is because there aren't many vendors that supply eco-friendly materials.  I am grateful that I found The Green Mercantile because they supplied us with all the plates, napkins, silverware, bowls, and anything else we needed for this training.  Another thing I learned is that it is always a good idea to have a back-up plan.  No matter how prepared you think you are, problems can always occur, and outside variables may interfere, so always have a plan B.  I say this because I spent all this time preparing and organizing the menu for this training, and on the day of the training, one of the participants said that she was a huge water drinker.  I didn't even think about providing water for a beverage!!  Luckily, I talked to the LSC food services and they supplied us with a couple pitchers of ice water.  The final thing I learned was to allow yourself A LOT of time to plan.  It took me a month to organize everything for this training.  After many calls, hundreds of emails, and a handful of visits to local places, I got everything that was needed, and the absolute best part is that the participants absolutely loved the food and we stayed within our budget!