Crest Ink - Volume 30 - Number 01

by Cheri Kemp There are several milestones an employee can reach during their time with Crest Foods. The first being awarded money for their 10 Year Trip; the next is receiving their Crest Foods 20 Year ring and at 30 years, a “brick” that is mounted on the front of the Main Plant entrance as well as $500 to donate in their name to the charity of their choice. We currently have 274 employees actively at work who have reached the 10 year trip milestone; 128 active employees who sport the Crest Foods ring; 43 active employees with an engraved brick in the front entrance of the Main Plant and 7 active employees who have been at Crest Foods for over 40 years! Congratulations to each of these employees! The following few pages there are a few words from our newest 30 Year and 20 Year employees. an hour replacing Dean Cater who would later become the dentist in Rochelle. Ken couldn’t pass up the wage and his career in the lumber business ended just that quickly. The Crest Foods of the early 1970’s that Ken joined looked dramatically different than it did today. Our entire operations were housed in the north plant. Production lines were in the basement where the exercise room is today. The Ingredient Division was still in Forreston and our warehouse consisted of several random buildings around town that were no more than large garages. An SQF audit would have been out of the question in those days. Ken quickly became a line operator – which meant he ran the line, did QA, did maintenance and stocked the pop ma- chine in the breakroom. Over the years Ken has held many positions at Crest ranging from Inventory Control Manager to his current position of managing the Karlin Warehouse, but most likely nothing brought him the variety of experiences and the cast of characters that those early years at Crest did. When reminiscing about all those years at Crest, Ken’s conversation is almost entirely spent on the people he worked with. The cast of characters is almost endless highlighted by many of the people he first worked with and some of the crazy things that happened. Ken’s early years were associated with people who built the foundation for Crest such as Carmen Quadraro, Lloyd Pretzsch, Gary Meyers, Inez Seal, Gladys Reitz, Fern Greenfield, Florence Naylor, Guyla Pfeiffer, Dick Moeller and Mel Lawson. He has some great stories about each one and no doubt they might have had some about him. Ken has literally built a legacy at Crest. The Drew family could practically hold a family reunion in the breakroom. His sons have worked at Crest with Adam currently at the Crest warehouse and Jacob at Karlin Foods. Extended family is spread throughout the plant. The entire family, including his wife, have pitched in mowing the grounds at the Karlin warehouse. There is no denying the impact that Ken and his family have had on Crest Foods. Ken even holds the record for the longest distance ten year trip traveling to New Zealand to visit friends shortly after the con- cept of the ten year trip was initiated. We can’t thank Ken enough for what he has done for Crest and what he has meant to us over the years. We wish him only the best in retirement and hope he remembers the way back to visit us often. By the way, if you are won- dering who is taking over the crown for the current longest serving employee…ask Chris Pfoutz.

Lona Berkeley (Production A) My cousin, who worked at Crest over 30 years ago for a short time, told me about Crest Foods so I applied for a job. I had been a waitress in Oregon before Crest Foods and my husband and I had an agreement that I would only work 2 years then get to stay home and be a housewife. But, I like shopping too much so here I am 30 years later! I have seen a lot of walls go up and a lot of changes over the years but it has been awesome and a pleasure working here!

2 Crest Ink January, February & March 2018

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