Crest Ink - Volume 27 - Number 04

The Crest Ink is a quarterly newsletter that celebrates the success of Crest Foods and our employees.

Crest Ink

Ingredient Division Warehouse Finds a New Home Volume 27 • Number 04 October, November & December 2015 Ashton, IL 61006

Martin Vega, Rick Lucas, Joe Loomis, Tom Balch, Joe Richardson, Tom Saunders, Adam Drew, Art Ruiz & Henry Bunger

The crew at the ingredient division warehouse is getting used to their new home. Activity in this facility will range from receiving of all ingredients and supplies for the Dairy Ingredient Division and Consumer Products Division as well as the associated QA sampling of these supplies, staging of all batches to be mixed in the Ingredient blending facility, weighing of all the minor ingredients for each batch, shipping of all finished Ingredient Division product and final assembly and shipping for all consumer products. This is a veteran group of employees and many of them can remember when the warehousing function for this group was housed in a corner area of an already too full building. Much growth has brought us to the point of needing a 120,000 square foot facility to meet our needs…and we’re already thinking of how we could add on if needed.

In This Issue 2015 Supplier of the Year page 9

Year-End CIP Winners page 5

2016 Wellness Program page 13

Saturday, August 15th was a great day for the final move in! Food was catered in for some rest and relaxation after the long and hard move into the new Ingredient Division Warehouse. Thanks for everyone’s help!

Getting to Know: Ingredient Division Warehousing Tom Balch (Freight/Warehouse Manager) Years at Crest : 32 Interests: Gardening & Classic cars Most people wouldn’t know: I am a milk bottle collec- tor and have over 1000. Henry Bunger (Weigh-Up) Years at Crest: 18

Rick Lucas (Shuttle Driver) Years at Crest: 13 Interests: Motorcycles, being outdoors and customized semi-tractors Most people wouldn’t know: I am the youngest of 9, and have 8 sisters. Joe Richardson (Weigh-Up & Sanitation) Years at Crest: 9 Interests: Photography & running Most people wouldn’t know: My mother, granddaughter, and myself all have the same birthday. Art Ruiz (Picking/Staging) Years at Crest: 8 Interests: Being outdoors, going on walks, and drinking beer in the park or by the river Most people wouldn’t know: I’m a loner that doesn’t enjoy crowds or unscheduled visitors. Tom Saunders ( Lead Shipping/Receiving Coordinator) Years at Crest: 26 Interests: Spending time with family, gardening, music Most people wouldn’t know: I have 12 brothers & sisters. Martin Vega (Weigh-Up) Years at Crest: 7 Interests: Spending time with family & friends, relaxing and cooking out. Most people wouldn’t know: He likes to garden.

Interests: Collecting sports memorabilia (I have a large collection that takes up 1 bedroom & part of my base- ment). I love coaching youth sports, and currently coach Junior High basketball, little league baseball, softball and AYSO soccer. Most people wouldn’t know: I played semi-pro base- ball. Adam Drew (Shipping/Receiving Coor dinator) Years at Crest: 21 Interests: Spending time with family, 4-wheelers Most people wouldn’t know: I really love my wife for letting me buy a new 4-wheeler... Joe Loomis (Picking/Staging) Years at Crest: 22 Interests: Spending time with family & watching dirt track racing Most people wouldn’t know: I used to handle explo- sives in the military.

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Construction Update by Jeff Meiners It’s been quite a busy year for new construction at Crest and in true Crest fashion, we found ourselves in a hurry for each of our projects to be completed. We started off with the renovation of the original Crest Foods building on Main Street to make a Consumer Products research laboratory and believe it or not, this project was completed with out ever uttering the word rush. After that, things got a little hectic.

The re-built section of the Warehouse

Over the fall and winter we added on to our main production facility in town creating a new space for the storage of unused production equipment and in turn space for several new production lines. Of course this turned into a rush project as we suddenly faced production deadlines for our new cup line that was to be housed in this area. We got it done, but just barely. The next project in the works was the new Ingredient Division warehouse. This is a 120,000 square foot stand- alone facility that sits to the north of our existing warehouse. Once the Ingredient Division could move, their old 93,000 square feet of space would be taken over by the Packaging Division warehouse that was bursting at the seams already. No rush – we had nothing but time. We broke ground in the fall and the winter was reasonably mild so we were ahead of schedule. Then the tornado hit – packaging lost 100,000 square feet of space and we needed the space occupied by the Ingredient Division as soon as possible so the sense of urgency to finish went up greatly. The move to this facility was completed in August after an intense effort by all involved in getting this building ready of occupancy. The paint for the stripes on the floor was barely dry when the first trucks of product were being unloaded. Despite our haste, no corners were cut and it is truly a beautiful building that will serve Crest and the Ingredient Division well for years to come. Thanks to the many involved – suppliers and Crest Foods em- ployees– who worked so hard to meet such an aggressive deadline. The move by the Ingredient Division left us with just one unplanned project to finish – undo what Mother Nature so rudely did to our Packaging warehouse. We moved back into our warehouse exactly 5 months from the day the tornado hit. The amount of effort it has taken to make that happen has been almost staggering. While the rest of us could at least walk away occasionally, the folks who call the warehouse home could not escape the fact that they were operating in 100,000 square feet less space in a time when we were getting busier and busier. Many thanks to the warehouse staff for working safely and tirelessly under such difficult circumstances. While work was continuing in what was left of our facility, life on the other side of the ‘Great Wall of Crest’ (the temporary dividing wall between good and bad) was also hectic. After sorting out good and bad product and disposing of the bad, we began tearing down our twisted building so we could start all over again. While fascinating to watch, it was so sad to watch the building we had so lovingly put up be torn down piece by piece and hauled away. The foundation was still in good shape, so once the new building arrived the process of putting her back up started in earnest. Final touches included reconnecting to sprinkler and electrical systems and a few other of the bells and whistles. The roof still needs some work and we have patching to do on side walls in various spots throughout the rest of the facility, but that will happen in the coming months. Today it looks as if nothing happened at all other than the flag pole is still crooked and we are missing a few trees. Much has been written in other places about our difficult year so there is no need to be redundant. How about we end this thought by simply saying that many exceptional people performed many exceptional acts in difficult cir- cumstances to make this all happen. When one asks what makes Crest a special place to work…..the answer is always the same – it is the people. How fortunate we all are that we work in an environment that values people above everything else.

October, November & December 2015 Crest Ink 3

Year End Celebration for Ingredient & Consumer Products Divisions

The Ingredient and Consumer Products Divisions got togeth er in their brand new warehouse facility on September 17th to celebrate a strong performance for the past fiscal year. Both divisions achieved their goals for the year and a pork chop

cookout on the big grill with all the fix ings to go with it is just a little extra way to say thanks for everyone’s involvement.

Both divisions in the new Ingredient Division Warehouse

For those who have been here for a long time and have a good memory, in the 70’s the Ingredient Division was small enough that all of their work was done out of one blender in a room that is now a dump area for one of the lines in Contract Packaging. In the 1980’s they moved across the street to the building that now houses the research labs and Quality Control…our warehouse space was a dozen short rows behind what is now the research lab and we shipped and received out of one dock in the back alley. My how we have grown! Our new 120,000 square foot warehouse facility is a far cry from those early days, but it is always good to remember where we came from. Similarly, the Consumer Products Division started with a simple idea of supplying pouches of Chex Party Mix sea- soning to Ralston Purina to sell with Chex cereals. While that business is still alive today with General Mills, this division is really starting to take off with numerous new products and customers and our own imagination is really our limit here. Congratulations to both groups and we are looking forward to even stronger results in this coming new fiscal year.

Randy Reuter, Brandon & Jeff Meiners, Ed Baylor & Herb Wyckoff

A porkchop lunch was served.

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2015 Year-End CIP Winners Announced The Continuous Improvement Program (CIP) is centered around innovation and soliciting ideas and input from all

employees, which is a large part of our Culture here at Crest Foods. We’ve typi- cally had great participation in the program, and 2015 was no exception with 154 suggestions and ideas from employees. Trying to pick just three winners out of the group is always chal- lenging, but when the voting was said and done, we felt that our winners this

Marcia Breeden, Zygmunt Cichosz & Jerry Maronde year really embraced innovation and thinking differently. Not only do we want to thank our Year End winners, but we’d also like to thank all of the employees who submitted suggestions this year. Zygmunt Cichosz (Ingredient A-Shift) Grand Prize Winner • $1000 Zygmunt’s idea was to make a hopper to fit on the magnet box to dump small batches through the metal detector. We were using the particulate hopper from Room “E”. A lot of work and time was spent on installing and unin- stalling the “E” hopper, significantly reducing the amount of time and labor involved in the set up. This has been a great suggestion and improvement for the Ingredient Division, which now makes them able to metal detect smaller batches. Marcia Breeden (Parts Room A-Shift) Runner Up • $500 Marcia’s idea was to use a soft tip type material as a stylus to use on our equipment keypads. The goal was to stop the buttons on keypads from being broken by using hard objects like screw drivers. These keypads can be very ex- pensive to replace, and this idea turned out to be a creative way to fix a common and potentially costly problem. Jerry Maronde (Maintenance B-Shift) Runner Up • $500 Jerry’s idea was to replace air cylinder actuated flap tuckers with rotary flap tuckers that are machine driven. This improvement helps to improve how well flaps on cartons are tucked by providing more consistent operation and easier adjustment. Additionally, we were replacing 2-3 air cylinders a week at times which became quite costly and this improvement has gotten rid of that issue and saved Crest Foods money that we were spending on parts. We have had them in place for a while now, and it’s really proved to be a great improvement!

In August, Communication Meetings for the Contract Packaging Divi- sion were held over 2 days to cover all shifts and all buildings. These meetings covered many topics including a wrap up of the 2015 fiscal year; progress on the warehouse reconstruction; a new Healthy for Life Wellness program year; and results of the employee satisfaction survey.

October, November & December 2015 Crest Ink 5

My Ten Year Trip by Mark Smith, A-Shift Maintenance

Briella & Brendan

Donna & Mark Smith

My wife, Donna, and I decided to go to Texas over the Fourth of July to see our daughter, Tasha, and her family for my 10 year trip. We drove to Rockford to take the bus to Midway Airport. We arrived early so we could have a bite to eat and watch the airplanes. After we finally boarded we had a very nice flight to Dallas Love Field and were able to see a lot of Dallas from the air. Our flight arrived on time but our daughter and the kids arrived a little late be- cause a bad accident held up traffic. Tasha, her husband Andy and their kids Brendan and Briella live about an hour from the airport in Lindale, Texas, hometown of Miranda Lambert! Our daughter built a new home last year on 8 acres in a subdivision outside of town and what a beautiful home. It was the first time we got to see it! Andy made us breakfast the next morning then we all went shopping. Being grandparents we bought Briella a toy truck, trailer and 2 horses that she fell in love with and for Brendan and Andy, some fishing gear. Lunch was at a local restaurant called Stanley’s where they had amazing brisket! Later I got the fishing poles ready then we were off to a neighbor’s home for a cookout and swimming followed by some fishing in Tyler, Texas followed by fireworks! The next morning all the guys went fishing and caught quite a few fish. I taught Andy how to filet the fish and Donna fried some up for them to try. While we were on vacation there we also went to see Jurassic Park in 3D then to Yomato’s to watch our food being cooked right at our table. Delicious! The girl’s went into Lindale for shopping at the Pink Pistol to find some souvenirs and that evening Tasha made us her famous homemade pizza. On our last day, the guys got up early to go fishing one last time then to a nice restau- rant for breakfast. We were then dropped off at the airport around noon. It was so hard to say goodbye. We had such a great time! It was so nice to slow things down a bit and just be able to enjoy the kids and grandkids. Tasha is expecting our 15th grandchild around the end of September. I would like to thank the Meiners for such a great 10 year anniversary trip!

It took us a few different tries, but we finally made it to Magic Waters Water Park for the first time since 2013. Last year was canceled due to a rip in the wave pool liner, and our original date this year was washed out by rain, but on Saturday, July 25th, we finally had the per- fect night for our company (about 950 people!) to head to Magic Waters! We hope everyone had a fun night with family and friends and look forward to next year!

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My Ten Year Trip by Jenny Drew, Scheduling

For my 10 year trip, my family and I spent a week in July on Hilton Head Island in South Carolina. Much of our time was spent relaxing on the beach or near the pool. On one of our days there we took an hour long boat ride into Savannah, Georgia, for a day of shopping and sightseeing. And who could go to South Carolina without hitting a few golf courses? One of our favorites was the Robert Trent Jones course. The 11th hole was along the Atlantic Ocean and was beautiful. I am not a golfer but did my duty driving the cart and taking in the beautiful scenery! Thank you to the Crest Foods family for the opportunity to take this won- derful trip. It was much needed time away from the everyday chaos. It made me realize the importance of family vacations and taking time to make memories.

Ethan, Jason & Garett Drew

My Ten Year Trip by Michelle Berard, B-Shift Production

Almost every year my parents take an overnight trip to the Wisconsin Dells and go on the boat rides. They always ask me to go with them. This year I finally did, and paid their way, too! Thank you Crest Foods and the Meiners Family for a good time with the folks!

Too Young to Save for Retirement? Never! Consider having a plan to take care of your “financial health” by saving for your retirement starting now. Or if you are already setting aside money in your 401(k), think about boosting your withholdings by another percent or two. Remember you just received a raise in August. Increasing your 401(k) withholding by 1 or 2% will not even cause a noticeable impact to your paycheck. Those of you who are still very young have an advantage of many years of savings that can multiply into a very sizeable amount by the time you are old enough to retire. Visit the Mass Mutual website to use the tools there to help you plan a strategy. The website is www.massmutual.com/retire.

Bring on the ice cream! All Contract Packaging Division employees were treated to the frozen treat in August and judging from the smiles and volume of ice cream and toppings consumed, it was thoroughly enjoyed by everyone. Thank you to Culvers who prepared hundreds of dishes of ice cream and delivered it all here to Crest Foods.

October, November & December 2015 Crest Ink 7

2015 Crest Culture Award

by Jeff Meiners

Don Duffy, Mark Stuart, Perry Altensy, Steve Zera & Jeff Meiners

Jeff Meiners & Steve Miley

Crest has held a supplier recognition event for each of the last 25 years aimed at recognizing the significant contri- butions that our key suppliers make to the success of Crest each year. We have named a supplier of the year each of those years and in the last three years have started recognizing a supplier each year that uniquely supports and pesonifies our Crest culture. This year the tornado presented Crest with a unique challenge that was responded to in magnificent fashion and our suppliers were an integral part of our response to this situation. This year’s culture award winners will be presented with $1,000 each to give to a charity of their choice in their name. By picking only five we have left so many out, but this does not diminish the effort put forth by everyone…these five simply represent the best of the many efforts that turned a tragedy into a triumph: Steve Miley of Lundberg Construction has been our general contractor for many projects including the con- struction of the original warehouse. He was here within hours of the tornado hitting and has been here nearly every day since. We have not once had to ask him twice to do anything and most often he is several steps ahead of us. The dedication and commitment of the entire Lundberg staff has made many of our jobs so much easier – we would not consider a building project without them. Perry Altensy of Quality Electric is one hard working man. He is usually the first of the construction group to arrive and the last to leave. It is safe to say that he knows as much about any of our Crest facilities as anyone here. I can’t imagine how many miles of wire he has pulled at Crest. There is absolutely no doubt in our minds that he cares as much about our facilities as we do and he brought that level of care and compassion into play getting us back on our feet after the tornado. Thanks to Perry and all of the staff at Quality Electric. Brennan and Stuart has been our insurance broker at Crest Foods for a very long time. Our business relationship has developed into one of mutual trust and respect. The entire staff at Brennan and Stuart are people we look for- ward to working with because they are simply good people. Mark Stuart is the President of this company and has been involved with our account from day one. The relationship that we together have cultivated over the years helped carry us through this claim. This wasn’t a little claim…..in excess of $10,000,000 with many different carri- ers involved due to customer ownership of stored ingredients and supplies. When many ran away and pointed the finger elsewhere, these guys stood tall and didn’t flinch – they brought sense and clarity to a very difficult situation. Thank you Mark Stuart and staff, we’re proud to call you both a supplier and friends. Don Duffy and Team Eagle have been a valued supplier of plastics and tapes to Crest for a number of years. The foundation of their business has always been exceptional service. He is on this list not so much for being part

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of the reconstruction on a daily basis, but as an example of the “part of the family” attitude they have when work- ing with us. Don lives in the Chicago suburbs and was here within hours of the tornado hitting with as many rolls of plastic as he could cram into his service van. Nobody called – Don just knew that if a tornado hit, we would need to cover as much stuff as possible. Many simple gestures such as this played a big role in our tornado re- sponse. While this is an award for suppliers, we thought it would be appropriate to include our employees in this recogni- tion as well. The response to the tornado by our collective group of employees was overwhelming and proves together we can accomplish anything when the need arises. Not to diminish the efforts of anyone, we simply thought we would pick one person to represent the efforts of all employees. Steve Zera ’s name is at the top of that list. His involvement with this project started on the evening of April 9th and there hasn’t been a day since then that he hasn’t been totally immersed in getting us back to where we were before this all started. To say that he has done a phenomenal job and put his total heart and soul into this would be an understatement. He represents the drive, determination and heart of many at Crest and we thank him and you all.

2015 Supplier of the Year Batory Foods by Ed Baylor Crest Foods Purchasing Department is honored to announce it’s 2014/2015 Supplier of the Year. This year the day was marked by the attendance of over 80 Crest suppliers and Crest Foods management, at the annual banquet and golf outing which was held on September 11th. Many of you may have read in previous years, this day is set aside to recognize our top suppliers in appreciation for the past year, based on their excellent performance, service, and dedication to Crest

Ed Baylor, Jim Scopa & Kevin O’Dell

Foods. Crest suppliers are a key cog in the wheel that keeps Crest running smoothly day after day, by providing on time deliveries, competitive pricing, valuable market updates and projections, all while moving forward bringing in- novative new ideas, and exciting opportunities to the table. This year’s Supplier of the Year has excelled in all of the previously mentioned categories while stepping up to the challenge of working with multiple Crest Foods Dairy Ingredients Division departments. This supplier service has been on target performing above and beyond expectations by providing not only excellence in the normal day to day activities, but in rush situations including next day service on truck load volumes , or even same day deliveries on smaller quantity items. This supplier has also been directly involved with communicating on volatile market situa- tions, and projecting potential issues. This supplier is a relative new comer to Crest and has certainly gained our respect and shown that they understand Crest Culture and in the way we do business. In closing we believe what has really sets this supplier apart is the personal touch and commitment to doing what it takes to get the job done on time every time. This year’s Crest Foods Supplier of the Year is Batory Foods, located in Des Plaines Illinois, and represented at Crest by Mr. Jim Scopa. Congratulations Jim, and everyone at Batory Foods.

October, November & December 2015 Crest Ink 9

Crest Happenings

Thank You To all my friends at Crest Foods: I would like to give a big thank you to all my Crest friends and employers for the beautiful plant you sent while I was recuperating at home from surgery. I am doing well and really appreci- ate the thought. Pam Furman New Arrivals Congratulations to Jon (Building Maintenance) and Rachel Haas on the birth of their daughter, Shiloh Gwen. Shiloh was born July 28th and was 7 lbs. 2 oz. and 20 inches long. She is joined by big sister Marian age 2. Congratulations to Seth and Amber Malcolm on the birth of their son, Oliver Seth. Oliver was born July 6th and weighed in at 7 lbs. 10 oz. Oliver is the grandson of Darcy Zera (Accounts Payable Manager) and Steve Zera (Engineering Manager) Congratulations to Jacob (Director of Operations at Karlin Foods) and Kelle Drew on the birth of their twins, born August 4th. Nolan Davis and Norah Marie are the grandchildren of Ken Drew (Karlin Warehouse

Manager). They were welcomed home by two year old big brother Lucas. Congratulations Congratulations to Irene Garza (Production A-Shift) and Mike Roberts on getting married August 3, 2015. They were married in Sturgis, SD during a motorcycle rally. Jamie Wilcox (Consumer Products) and Mike Cooper will be getting married October 10, 2015. Congratula- tions on your upcoming wedding! To Joe Loquasto (R&D Project Manager) on his July 2, 2015 engagement to Meriel Harwood. They are plan- ning their wedding for September 2016. Hope Friday, daughter of Craig (Warehouse A-Shift) and Teresa Friday, graduated from Ashton-Franklin Center High School in May as Valedictorian. Hope will be attending Sauk Valley Community College as a Sauk Scholar to major in business. Craig and Teresa would like to congratulate their daughter on her accomplish- ments!

Congratulations Steve Starke!

On Saturday evening July 18th Steve Starke (Tech Service) and Kristy Rouse were mar- ried in an informal wedding before family and friends. The double ring wedding and wedding reception occurred in their backyard and actually even included fireworks set off by a next door neighbor. The short ceremony was followed by a light dinner, good conversations, and dancing to live music by a very good local band named “Last Call”. The band’s drummer was a neighbor of Steve at Steve’s previous house. Fun was had by all 218 people who attended! Steve and Kristy overcame weather obstacles because the day before the wedding the huge tent erected for the reception was blown down and heavy rain caused a mud pit where the tent stood. Steve managed to have 20 bales of straw brought in to spread on the wet, soggy, muddy ground and the tent put back up so the reception location was saved. And then the day after the wedding another storm front moved through the area and knocked down a tree right near where Steve and Kristy stood for the wedding cer- emony! But Mother Nature spared them their special day, as it should have been! Crest Foods was represented by Tech Service and some Sales people living close enough to drive to the wedding. I’m sure everyone here at Crest would say congratulations to Steve & Kristy and to many years of happiness together!

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Crest Happenings

Congratulations to the following employees on their recent promotions at Crest Foods!

Randy Reuter Mix Facility Manager

Dennis Horton C-Shift Sanitation Manager

Justin Guenther Ingredient Division Production Manager

Jennifer Lebrick B-Shift QA Line Supervisor

Kelly Stevens QA Quality Engineer

After living in the United States for almost ten years I decided it was time to make some sort of commitment, so I finally asked America if they would have me as one of their citizens. With some help from Crest Foods, I was able to turn in my application and only in a matter of three short months I was swearing in as an American. It was incredible partaking in such an event! One hundred and eleven people from forty one different countries taking the citizenship oath together was truly an experience! I won’t lie; I may or may not have choked up just a little. I want to thank Crest Foods for helping me in being able to continue my journey through immigration to my end goal of citizenship. It’s truly exciting being able to call myself an American, though I think saying “zee” instead of “zed” will be a Canadian habit I’ll never be able to kick!” - Stina Kanaras (B-Shift Production)

A Baby Shower for Kena

Kena Rivera (Production A-Shift) is expecting a baby boy in September. Her fellow employ- ees at the West Facility held a pot luck lunch and baby shower for her during their lunch hour. Kena said baby Santiago Rivera will be one well-dressed little boy! Dear Co-workers: I want to thank each of you, that during this stage of my pregnancy have made me feel special, dear and safe. As a woman it is one of the best times I have lived and you have made it more enjoyable with all your kindness. I am so blessed to have every one of you in my life thank you so much. Kena & Santiago Rivera

In memory of Andrew Ruiz, former Crest Foods employee, his family is donating an 8 foot bench (much like the one pictured) to be located at the main plant. There will be a plaque honoring Andrew on the bench so watch for this to be installed this fall. Thank you to Andrew’s family for remembering his friends at Crest Foods. Andrew’s Bench

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Happy Retirement, Ron & Shirley!

Ron Miller’s Retirement

by Karen Yardley

In August the Sanitation Department saw the retirement of a member of our team who had been with us for just over 10 years. Ron Miller, C Shift Sanitation Manager, came to us from the Production department and had been our lead on C Shift ever since. While his retirement did not come as a surprise, the timing did! We had originally made plans for a smooth transition including some training time for Dennis Horton to work alongside Ron with Ron leaving at the end of October. Unforeseen issues required Ron to retire effective im- mediately and we were forced to put those plans into play now. We wish Ron all the best in the next phase of his life - lots of time to read, ride and shoot! And most importantly, time for family including those new grandchildren!

Shirley Oltmanns Retires

by Herb Wyckoff Friends and coworkers gathered recently to congratulate Shir- ley Oltmanns on her retirement from the Ingredient Division R&D department and to express our appreciation for the many contributions to Crest Foods over the years. Shirley joined Crest Foods in August of 1990 starting as a lab technician, progress- ing to Lead Food Technologist on her way to her final position of R&D Project Manager. Throughout her career, Shirley’s hard work and dedication to Crest was demonstrated in many ways. Shirley was responsible for providing training to many of the technicians that have worked in the department and scheduling pilot plant runs. She also directed many product development projects that lead to new product introductions by Crest custom- ers. On top of her job responsibilities, Shirley became a Weight Watchers Leader and conducted meetings for employees as part of Crest’s employee wellness programs. Her history of past projects, knowledge of Crest customers and overall experience in product development will be missed. Earlier this year, Shirley “test drove” retirement by transitioning to a part time position. It must have gone well as Shirley decided

to retire this summer. She is keeping busy with volunteer work, traveling with her husband Terry and spending time with family, especially her grandchildren. We wish Shirley the best and hope she has a long and wonderful retire- ment. Shirley & Terry Oltmanns

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Healthy for Life 2016

August first may not seem like the beginning of the year to most people, but that date is the beginning of the Crest Foods fiscal year. Along with that designation comes the kick off of our new Healthy for Life wellness program. Crest Foods will again be contributing toward the cost of gym memberships or exercise classes for all eligible em- ployees. Last year we found this to be something many employees took advantage of by using our own personal trainers at the Crest Foods Fitness Center; joining work out facilities like the YMCA or Anytime Fitness for exam- ple, or taking Zumba or Yoga classes. We encourage eligible employees to look into this option. We also encourage our employees to take advantage of the services offered through our nurses office right here at Crest Foods. Heidi McGlown, RN, has quickly fit right in and her services are much in demand. During the next few months, we will be exploring some additional options we can offer through the nurse’s office so watch for in formation on that. Remember, she can do your testing for glucose, A1C, cholesterol and monitor your blood pres- sure. If you need testing for your lipid profile for an upcoming doctor’s visit, set up a time to see Heidi. You can save yourself the cost of a lab visit by having your lipid profile done here free of charge. This option is also avail- able for your spouse. In addition the nurse can treat soft tissue injuries and discomfort; help you navigate through the medical system if in doubt where to start; help you monitor blood pressure; glucose or weight; provide first aide treatment and more. We find this service to be greatly appreciated by our employees. The nurse has an office both in the Main Plant and the West Facility. Her hours are posted in all buildings or she can be reached by calling extension 268. If you are interested in any of these Wellness options at Crest or have any questions, please contact Cheri Kemp.

Nurse Heidi works with Mark Hussey on alleviating some soft tissue discomfort.

Cytlalik Cadenas, Bernice Evans & Alfonzo Alvarado in our Fitness Center

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Trial By Fire by Cheri Kemp

When a person starts a new job, by the third or fourth month, most likely they feel they have a handle on all the duties and responsibilities that go along with the new position. By then the new job jitters have probably subsided somewhat and routine begins to set in. In January of 2015, we had three employees move up into new po- sitions with all the new duties that go along with a promotion. They were Steve Zera who became En- gineering Manager after the retire- ment of the former Engineer ing Manager Jim Spangler; Jerry Lawrence who replaced Neil Hen-

Brian Schafer, Elton Turner, Steve Zera, Jerry Lawrence & Ben Kinn

ert as Packaging Division Warehouse Manager and Ben Kinn who stepped in to fill the spot Jerry Lawrence vacated with his promotion, making Ben the Packaging Division Warehouse Floor Manager. In addition, within the last 10 months Brian Schafer had replaced Pat Hilliker as Facilities Manager and Elton Turner had replaced Marty Barclay as QA Director. By April 9th, 2015, each one of these gentlemen had finished a good day’s work here at Crest Foods and went home expecting to return the next day to their usual work routine. However, at approximately 6:15 PM on April 9th, Mother Nature decided to shake things up and challenge each of these men, and many other employees, with the task of totally rethinking how to do their jobs. Crest Foods was one of the lucky ones- when it comes to tornado strikes- because we only suffered property damage. Thankfully there were no injuries despite the fact we had a second shift working in the facility when it was struck. When we lost over 100,000 square feet of warehousing space, a new plan had to be put into effect within hours to: warehouse product; to protect good product from becoming damaged; secure the building; set up a system to find relocated product; and contact many, many outside contractors such as carpenters, plumbers, electricians, insurance companies, suppliers and customers, just to name a few. So this is just a preface to the enormity of the job that each of these people had facing them. Make no mistake about it that they, along with dozens of great employees and contractors around them, dove head first into uncharted territory. Here are their stories: Brian Schafer, Facilities Manager: Upon arriving at the warehouse my first priority was to make sure all employ- ees were accounted for and that no one was injured. Thankfully everyone was OK. Next on the list was to shut down the pump for the sprinkler system. Luckily three warehouse employees, who had just gone through a tornado, had shut down the sprinkler system. They did not know for sure what to shut off but were able to figure it out and in doing so they saved the building from major water damage. A big THANK YOU for their quick reaction. Getting the electricity shut off to the building as well as the natural gas line was the next major priority. Per Mar Se- curity was notified and the fire alarm system was taken out of service. Franklin Grove and Ashton Fire Depart- ments responded and assisted, so a Thank You goes to them for all of their help. I met with Jeff Meiners and Steve Zera a short time later and we started to assess all of the damage and started to plan how to secure the building for the night. Everyone from our department (Building Maintenance) was called in to help.

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Steve Miley from Lundberg Construction arrived and with his wealth of knowledge plans were being made for that night as well as the days to follow. Several rolls of plastic were hung from ceiling to floor to help keep the weather out for the night. With help from Steve Miley, several outside contractors were called in to start working the next day. The following week was spent building walls, patching walls and roofs, restoring electricity and sprinkler sys tems, fire alarm, and securing the building the best we could. A huge THANK YOU goes out to all Crest employees as well as all of the outside contractors, who I won’t try to list in case I miss one, for all of their help. It’s hard to believe that 100,000 square feet of building was destroyed and 5 months later a new building is in its place and almost ready to move into. Incredible!!! Thank you again! Steve Zera, Engineering Manager: To say that dealing with the tornado event was a “trial by fire” might be an understatement. In my 30 years at Crest, the worst I’d ever seen was a flood at the old warehouse and a roof membrane blowing off in a blizzard. As bad as those events were, they don’t compare to the tornado this year. When I got the call and pulled up to the warehouse and saw the damage, my thoughts were going in a hundred di- rections. As people asked “what should we do?” or “now what? I realized that I had to make some big decisions for the first time without Jim Spangler’s help (Jim Spangler retired on December 31, 2014 and Steve stepped into his shoes). It was extremely important to make sure we dealt with anything that could be potentially harmful and dan- gerous, for example, natural gas leaks, live electrical issues, structure failure, and making sure the affected area was secured and people and product were protected. From there I immediately called our general contractor, who knows as much about our entire facility as anyone. He was here that same evening, helping to assess the damage. By this time, Brian Schafer, Facilities Manager, had al- ready made sure the utilities were turned off and secured. That evening, I called several of our contractors and explained our situation. The next day we had everyone on site working on building electrical, gas, HVAC, and ad- ditional damage assessment. At this point we had two goals: secure the damaged area and make it safe; and do what was necessary to get the warehouse back to a usable state so we could continue doing business as usual. So, by the next day, the “great wall” started going up, walls and roof panels were patched and replaced to keep the weather out. My department worked on making sure we could be operational as soon as possible regarding equip- ment and building functionality and worked through the weekend along with many others to make that happen. As it turns out, we lost only one day of production and use of the remaining part of the warehouse was restored for Monday morning. For me, having worked with Jim (Spangler) and Pat (Hillilker) for a long time, I already had relationships with the people we needed on site to get back on track. Having Brian Schafer in his new position was huge for me. He knows our facilities as well as anyone and is able to make quick, sound decisions in an emergency. The night of the tornado, Jeff Meiners got everyone together with a plan going forward. This did more for our ability to get through this than anything. It was important for everyone to know their role and for everyone to know who to go to. It’s been 6 months since the tornado and we’re back into the warehouse. From the highway everything looks com- plete, but we still have areas of roof and siding to replace and structural pieces to identify and replace. By the way, we also built a new Ingredient Warehouse at the same time. The events of the last six months gave me more train- ing than I thought I could handle. I just hope we never see another tornado again. Elton Turner, QA Director: I live an hour away so I was one of the last members of the team to arrive on site for the initial response. The entire team had assembled and as we talked through our initial activities, I remember looking around the room and seeing the resolve and commitment on everyone’s faces. I knew at that moment that we had a great team and would rise to the challenge. My first activity was to walk the warehouse to understand the magnitude of the affected area, including ingredients, packaging, and finished product. The next task through to the

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early morning was to tap into the expertise of our QA Team. I met with Rick Rice of Engineering and secured a drawing of the warehouse. Next, Dawn Summers, Candy Koch, Kristina Stover of QA, and myself all sat down together and completed following: • Developed a “Heat Map” of the warehouse with designations for Hot, Warm, or Cold Zones based on facility damage and associated Food Safety Risk for all contents within the structure • Confirmed contents in each location (from our inventory system) for each zone of the warehouse • Based on our heat map, inspection criteria and supporting inspection, paperwork was quickly developed for all locations and inventory. The purpose being either product protection, recovery, or destruction. Inspection teams were identified and supplies (flashlights, clipboards, markers, etc) were gathered. On the floor guidance and support was provided to our employees by the QA Team for inspection and dispositioning of ingre- dients, packaging, and finished product. By this time Jerry Lawrence. Warehouse Manager and team had worked out the logistics plan for alternative storage. The next task was to develop a robust plan for Witnessed Destruction. This effort was supported by Jeff Friday, QA Compliance Manager, Dawn Summers, QA Lab Systems Manager and our IT Department and they did a great job. There were many long days that followed the tornado but even so, the commitment and energy level demonstrated by our employees was incredible. Regarding both human and food safety, everyone was on the same page. Every one of our employees did an outstanding job and I’m both apprecia- tive and proud to have worked beside them. Jerry Lawrence, Warehouse Manager : Once it all happened, I was amazed by all the things I DIDN’T have to worry about because the whole plant jumped in and did what was needed. This allowed me and my warehouse staff to do what we needed to do. I was also inspired by the trucking companies and any other service or suppliers we needed. The trucking companies had trucks, trailers and anything else we needed right there for us. I want to say this is not about me – it is about these guys in the warehouse who have been working long days ever since the tornado. They came in every morning to a full warehouse with 50 trucks on the receiving schedule, but we are getting it done. There are times you are not sure if you are doing the right thing; I was not always sure if I was doing what they wanted me to do because I was being pulled 15 different directions. There was a time when I won- dered if I pushed my drivers too hard. We have a great crew out here. They always came through for Crest Foods. When Ben Kinn was made the Floor Manager, he was the right choice. When I was dealing with the tornado dam- age, Ben ran the daily stuff in the warehouse and did a great job with that. There were a lot of good choices made with all the management changes in Brian Schafer, Steve Zera, Elton Turner and everyone else. It all just fell into place and it still is. Several times there were things that happened – you are trying to look out for the best interest of the company - but the most inspirational part were times when Jeff, Mike, Steve, Erika Meiners and all the other Meiners made them- selves visible to people. A few nights they kicked me out of there and told me to go home - they were going to take care of it. My warehouse people have even commented about it - that seeing the Meiners coming in and work- ing here was inspirational. The Meiners were our cheerleaders. Seeing the employees as a whole and all the depart- ments being willing to step up to help while they were under duress too. Employees from other departments are still stepping up and coming out here to help us get back in order and there is no way to say how much that is ap- preciated. Ben Kinn, Warehouse Floor Manager: The night of the tornado I received a call from Ray Van Drew that a tornado had hit and part of a wall came down. I was there by 7:30 that night, and when I pulled up I could see the docks were damaged and that it was more than part of the wall had come down - the west side was gone but I could not see the full scope of the damage until I walked inside and saw the roof missing.

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When I walked in I just took it all in and was amazed at what a tornado could do. Once the firefighters let us go in to certain areas, we started moving product into a dry area. We were spending 18 hours a day there to secure what we could. I really appreciate all who came out to help. It was so needed. To see everyone work together was awesome.

Waste & Sustainability Wave Team Update by Steve Zera, Randy Reuter, Scott Storey & Emily Smith Our efforts to enhance our sustainability (recycle) program are going well. We continue to look for new opportuni- ties to minimize the amount of waste we send to the landfill and recycle or reuse what we typically consider gar- bage. The goal is to eliminate as much of the cost as possible of sending this material to the landfill, and instead recover revenue by selling this material for reuse, to recyclers. Most are aware of our cardboard and office paper programs. We’ve been recycling cardboard for over 20 years and office paper for the past 2-3 years. Most don’t realize that we generate as much as 200 tons of cardboard a month and 1-2 tons of office paper. Recently, we added paperboard (cartons) to our list of recyclable items. These are being mixed with our cardboard, so there’s no change to our procedure. It can all go into the same containers. It’s difficult to determine the amount, but we’re estimating 2-3 tons a month. We continue to collect and recycle stretch film, not a big money maker, but a big deal knowing it’s not going into the ground. One of the most significant, recent changes is our ability to recycle empty paper ingredient bags. Until recently, these items were not acceptable for recycle because of the poly liner inside the bag. Technology has come up with a way to separate the two, creating a huge opportunity for us. We are now recycling a total of 5000# per day of empty ingredient bags, (that’s over 600 tons a year). Fifteen hundred pounds is from the Ing. Div. and 3500 pounds from the Mix Facility. As a result, we’ve converted the Mix Facility garbage chute and compactor to a recycle only system for cardboard and bags. What’s new for us? Some of you already know that we’re trialing a product recovery program on lines 15-21 as well as QA post-testing product waste recovery. We send a lot of powder to the landfill as a result of leakers, over/under weight, seals, flaps, overflow tubs, changeover cleaning, and the list goes on. We also collect full totes of powder from our dust collection systems. We’re working with a company that separates and recovers the product for use in animal feed and other by-products. The sobering facts are that we generate approximately 350 tons (700,000 lbs.) of powder from dust collection each year, and based on our production recovery trial and projections plant wide, we can expect to generate 2000 tons of

powder a year, that’s 4 million pounds! That’s 133 days a year that we wouldn’t send garbage to the landfill at all! Again, these are all assumptions made based on a one month trial in one area of the plant. The reality is that we generate too much product waste for many reasons, all of which create huge opportunities for us to be better at what we do. In the meantime, we’ll con- tinue to look at new opportunities to minimize our waste output and to be as “Green” as possible.

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Technology at Crest Foods by Rick Rice Over the past few years, but with greater momentum lately, we have been introducing new technology into the fold at Crest Foods. Some of it you might have noticed while other changes are quiet and behind the scenes. There are plenty of new things out there in the land of technology but it doesn’t always make sense for us here at Crest. The careful balance that we try to achieve is to bring improvements that help impact our bottom line without causing such a ripple in how we do things that we hurt that same bottom line. This article outlines just two of our newest innovations. One of our latest projects, the cup filling equipment on Line 24, is one place where the innovation is helping us in ways beyond the obvious. Sure, we are filling cups at a little over 90 cups per minute with a machine that we have never used before but some of the hidden features, first tried on Line 24, will pave the road for future success. Line 24 is the first Crest-built line to include a completely plug and play connectivity. You might notice when you walk by the line that there are very few visible cables. Well the reason for this is we pre-installed connection boxes in the ceiling that provide not only the power to the various pieces of equipment but also provide connection points for an Ethernet network as well as multi-use input/output connections. The cool thing about all this is it can be disconnected from the box in the ceiling and the equipment can be moved completely out of the room without the need for technicians and tools. Line 24 is also the first place that we have used a new type of drop detect sensor that is practically unaffected by product buildup on either the lens of the sensor or the drop tube itself. This means that we have fewer stops for faulty drop detection as well has less need to maintain the clear window that we do on our existing lines. Finally, Line 24 is the first line that is capable of providing us with production status information. This is important because, in order for us to stay competitive, we need to understand how our lines are performing. Data that we can collect will give us indicators of not only if a piece of equipment is going to fail but when that might actually happen. Another project that we completed in the last year was the new blender in our mix facility. Now you might think that isn’t very special as we do have 11 other blenders in our system but, like Line 24, we have some new technology that will help lead the way to better productivity. Mixer 7 is the first blender to implement a safe-off power system. This allows us to safety prevent movement of the blender for dry-cleaning purposes without shutting down power to the whole system. How does this help? Well, in the past, when we want to clean the ribbon on a blender, we had to use a big stick, or a metal bar to physically turn the ribbon to get at all the surfaces. We did this because, with the power off, there is no way to turn the ribbon electrically. The new system will safety turn off the power to the blender from the access platform while we clean a surface and then we can close the lid, re-energize the system and by pressing a button, have the ribbon automatically turn 120-degrees to expose the next section for cleaning. When the open the lid again the power automatically shuts off to the blender and won’t turn on again until the blender lid is again closed. Mixer 7 is also the first blender to utilize a new rotary discharge valve instead of the usual slide gate style. With this technology we are able to accurately control the flow of product during a discharge into a drum or tote or, in this case, a super-sac but utilizing a trickle position on the valve where it is only opened part way. Combined with a new model of scale indicator, we were able to introduce a completely automatic discharge function on Mixer 7. By enter- ing the desired target rate and pressing a single button on the screen, the operator is able to fill a drum/tote/super- sac to within 2 pounds of desired weight. This is repeatable time and again. The system even does the math for the operator so that we have eliminated mistakes in calculations of what is actually discharged from the blender for each dump.

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