Dietetics class teaches how to prepare food

A dorm cafeteria meal is not as simple as it seems. Each element is the product of a long line of dieticians, cooks, servers and distributors.\nThe School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation course N321: Quantitative Food Purchasing and Production, focuses on the process behind serving that not-so-simple meal. The course is required for seniors in the Didactic Program in Dietetics. Its objectives include teaching students the principles of menu planning, pricing and evaluation, food purchasing, forecasting and production and food product flow. All these principles are taught with the idea of preparing large amounts of food for schools, hospitals and other mass-service eateries.\nThirty-seven students, mostly seniors from the Didactic Program in Dietetics, are currently enrolled in the course Victoria Getty, director of HPER's Didactic Program in Dietetics teaches. Getty has been teaching the class since 1999, one year after her arrival to the Bloomington campus. She received her undergraduate and graduate degrees from the Penn State Nutrition Center.\nJamie McFerran, a senior majoring in dietetics, said she realizes the benefits of taking the course.\n"The hands-on aspect of the labs allows us to see how different food-service operations are conducted," McFerran said. "This will prove beneficial in our required dietetic internships that follow graduation. When we are in lecture, all of the information we receive gives us a basis for what we will see during labs and eventually on the (registered dietician) exam."\nGetty also said she finds the course essential but for different reasons.\n"The most important thing is food safety," Getty said. "You don't want to get anyone sick or kill them off."\nN321 is not only a required class for dietetics majors but a service-learning course as well. Students are required to serve three rotations in Residential Programs and Services dining halls and one at the Community Kitchen of Monroe County.\nWhen preparing a meal at one of the RPS kitchens, students have to work from the beginning of the process: planning the food, fitting the institution's budget, placing orders and producing and serving the meals. Dietetics seniors will put together six meals this semester, including four brunches at Collins Living-Learning Center and two special meals for Halloween and Thanksgiving in various residence halls.\nThe process varies, however, when students work at the community kitchen.\n"It's a very different food-service operation," Getty said. "There are constraints when you work with donated food. You have to decide what to do with corn and green beans."\nGetty said she believes the food-serving rotations are one of the biggest challenges but also one of the most fun experiences for students in her class which has proven to affect dietetics students' future career paths.\n"It makes for a long day," Getty said. "But you get this sense of 'We really did this.' Most (students) don't intend to go into food service, but once they get out, some do it. It's a challenging field"