An Investment in the Future of our Youth by Holly Gleissner, Consumer Products Project & Tech Manager
WACC CEO Class with tour guides Brandon & Gaven Meiners, Jared Stumpenhorst, Jon Bakener and Amy Wilcox
Dixon High School Food Science Class
Crest Foods is always looking for ways to be involved in the community and to encourage our youth. Two new rela- tionships began this year with the Whiteside Area Career Center and Dixon High School, Dixon, Illinois. In January, Crest Foods became an investor in the CEO program at Whiteside Area Career Center. The CEO (Cre- ating Entrepreneurial Opportunities) program is a one year course offered to area junior or senior students to help them gain the knowledge and skills necessary to own and operate their own businesses. The course takes place at area businesses and includes tours of local industries with guest speakers from different business backgrounds. Another unique opportunity with the CEO program is the ability to become a mentor to these young adults as they explore their business interests and future, entrepreneurial potential. This spring, the CEO class came out to Crest Foods for a tour of our West Facilities, where they learned about warehousing, manufacturing and blending. Also beginning in January, the Science Department at Dixon High School started offering a semester-long Food Science class and Crest Foods happily agreed to participate by teaching a lab and inviting the students to tour our facilities. Emily Plapp with the Ingredient Division R&D group and Holly Gleissner from the Consumer Products R&D group, worked with Karen Chamberlain, the Food Science teacher at Dixon High School, to coordinate a sensory lab to help her students delve deeper into the five senses. On the afternoon of February 27th class began with a brief talk about the senses, the many ways the food industry can potentially tap into each sense, and how careers in the food industry might be associated with each area. Then we moved on to the more exciting and inter- active portion! The lab was designed with 4 stations to highlight sight, smell, taste, and touch. The sight station demonstrated some of the tricks our minds play associating color with certain flavors. Flavored chocolate and root beer were used to show the importance of smell when eating, how aroma enriches the experience, and also how it can play a part in product development. Our taste station showed how challenging it can be to introduce a new flavor to a cookie and how other sensory cues can be an important way to help consumers identify and accept novel flavors. The importance of touch was showcased using a variety of dairy and non-dairy yogurts to help the students learn how the mouthfeel of a food is affected by different ingredients, fat content, and also particulates present in the food. On May 20th, the same students took a trip to Ashton and, with the help of several volunteers, took a whirlwind tour of the Dairy Ingredient R&D lab and pilot plant, Consumer Products’ R&D facilities, and one of Crest’s manufacturing facilities. Our hope is this exposure will help the students have a better picture of how food is developed and manufactured. The ultimate goal was to help them see the food industry in motion and all the opportunities it can offer.
July, August & September 2019 Crest Ink 7
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