Don’t Forget About the Teachers by Al Duthie With the school year of 2016 beginning, all the attention and thoughts naturally turn to the students (kids), espe- cially all the younger students. But, please, let’s not forget about all those teachers who have diligently prepared for another successful, fun-filled learning year. Unfortunately very few parents have witnessed all the prep time in- volved by teachers to get their classrooms ready, organize files, and began lesson plans for the year. I think some parents and the general public believe that teachers can simply show up on the first day of school and start in teach- ing. It’s not quite that simple! And don’t get me started about the people who incorrectly think that teachers don’t work after or before school hours or on weekends. We all owe a lot to the teachers we had in school. Besides our parents they really had the most influence on us in terms of how to learn and desire to learn. The best teachers, often without us knowing it, forced us to think for ourselves, and figure out things by using logic and certain methods or steps in the process. Teachers often taught us to enjoy reading and by reading we learned more on subjects we were interested in. Teachers taught us to ask more questions to go deeper into a subject. Teachers taught us to research from appropriate references and sources. Teachers taught us to work well with others, help others in the process, and to work hard to succeed. And above all, teachers taught us to have a passion for learning. What we learned in our school days we often carried into our everyday lives as adults. That includes the need to stay motivated to never stop learning throughout our lives. Also, teachers helped us attain the desire to mentor others, either professionally or personally, by passing on career or life lessons. And, of course, teachers helped us appreci- ate the fact that working hard (studying in school terms) pays off and most often leads to success. When we do take the time to reflect on our past teachers we all realize that, as students, we took them for granted. However, that does not mean as parents or grandparents we should take them for granted. Teaching is a noble While training is by no means a new idea at Crest Foods, FSMA has encouraged us to reevaluate our Training Pro- gram and to make it even more robust. Essentially, training concepts that were shared through job shadowing and word-of-mouth have now been rolled into documented training modules. We have built more “intentionality” into our Food Safety Management System and, within the Packaging Division; have identified ten specific programs which support that system and about thirty-some training modules to make sure that employees have a more thor- ough understanding of those ten programs. Additionally, our Ingredient Division is on a similar path. The result of these efforts will not only facilitate FSMA compliance, but will create a more robust system to meet SQF certifi- cation requirements, customer requirements and of course to provide safe, quality food for the consuming public! Training Initiative by Jeff Friday As many of you are aware, the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) was signed into federal law on January 4, 2011. While the Act became law on that date, the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) has allowed a significant pe- riod of time for companies to comply with the law and for their own agency to issue rules and other documents to clarify their interpretation of that law. One significant change, driven by FSMA, is that training is now mandated by the law. In the past, food manufacturers were merely expected to not contaminate the food supply. Hence, it was implied that training would facilitate that outcome. Now, training must be formally conducted with written records to prove it.
20 Crest Ink October, November & December 2016
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