PVN Hosts First Annual Culinary Team Field Day

To strengthen teamwork among the Culinary Teams from all three buildings housing the culinary program on the Presbyterian Village North (PVN) campus, these groups gathered in PVN’s McGowan Auditorium to participate in the First Culinary Team Field Day on July 20.

The event began by each teammate enjoying lunch catered by the DFW favorite King Kups Cali-Mex food truck. “It was important to me that those who serve our residents and patients didn’t have to provide or clean up the meal they enjoyed during our team-building event. That’s why I enlisted the help of Frank Hernandez with King Kups – to spoil our team a little since they do such a great job of spoiling everyone else,” Savannah Rogers, PVN Director of Culinary Services, said.

After enjoying lunch, the group of 60 teammates was divided into six teams, the goal of the Field Day was explained and prizes were displayed. “We have such a fun and competitive-natured group that I wanted to create an opportunity for the team to come together and be themselves while letting off some steam from normal day-to-day routines. We saw a bit of everyone’s inner child come out with a few of the events,” Savannah said.

Each team competed in six different events including: a pie eating contest, build the tallest structure with spaghetti and marshmallows, balloon popping relay, bubble blowing challenge and inflatable animal race. At the conclusion of the event, second and third place ribbons were awarded and the first-place team, consisting of Chef Kevin, Kendra, Jannet, Andy, Ester, Dre, Tash, Renicker and LaLa received gold trophies. As the competition wound down, each participant received a commemorative PVN Culinary Team shirt emblazoned with “First Annual Culinary Field Day” on the back.

“The main reason Alex Givens, Associate Director of Dining Services, and I love throwing culinary team building events, such as this, is to make each and every person in our department feel a part of something bigger than themselves. We are here to serve our residents but if one person doesn’t understand their importance in the mission of the culinary department, it weakens the team. If they feel appreciated and part of a team rather than just a name on a work schedule, I feel like we can touch more lives. Everyone deserves to wake up and be excited to come into work… that’s the culture we strive for here at PVN,” Savannah, said.

The next Culinary team-building event will be Culinary Harvest and Spook Fest-themed and will take place October 26.