The Spring Semester sessions are coming to a quick close. Another full school year is behind us, with only the summer months remaining. Like every other year, there are changes. This year there have been some changes that have an effect on everyone.

Employee safety has been heavily emphasized throughout the year, in mail outs, safety programs, and in the newsletter. The most recent addition to company safety was the Safety Shoe program Great Western recently introduced. Through the efforts of unit safety meetings and information supplied, the overall company accident rate has decreased. Sure the company is not where we want to be in regards to safety but through the efforts of the Unit Directors, accidents are being reduced through awareness programs.

The hourly employees received supplemental insurance programs in regards to health insurance, dental insurance, and term life insurance. This was an added benefit to the hourly employees.

Another benefit for the all employees, both management and hourly, was the introduction of the safety shoe program in which Great Western Dining will make a contribution to the purchase of safety shoes. From initial comments from some units, this was received very well by all the employees of those units.

Great Western raised the contribution to the 401K program. The contribution was raised from $.25 to $.50. Although the stock market did not perform well this year, long term this investment will reward those who contribute handsomely. Even with the market down, more shares can be purchased with the amount of money that is placed in the funds. The end result will be a larger holding in the funds when the market rises.

The Company's Newsletter was enhanced with the addition of Food Service 101, which is an educational tool to help the Unit Directors in understanding and knowledge. Hopefully this was well received and widely read by everyone.

Steve Bucko, Jr. was made Vice President of Operations, and Ron Mancuso was made Vice President of Administration. Since Steve will have total responsibility for operations for both the North and South Regions, this opened a position for Marty Williams to be promoted to Area Manager.

One thing that never changes is that Great Western needs Unit Directors and hourly employees that do their best and always try to improve upon their skills. Thank you all for your hard work and efforts throughout the year. Keep up the safety meetings, and make safety ever important to everyone. Remember that everyone makes mistakes, but always learn from the mistakes to make you a better person in the future.

May
4th	Brant Hatler	FSD	Amarillo College
8th	Tina Brant	Accounts Payable	Home Office
8th	Jay Menze	FSD	Butler County Community College
11th	Monica Rowden	FSD	Iowa Central Community College
24th	Tom Owens	FSD	Pratt Community College
26th	Joyce Blackburn	FSD	Audrain County Jail
30th	Tina Flieger	FSD	Camp Horizon
June
6th	Steve Rowden	Asst. FSD	Iowa Central Community College
23rd	Delores Joyce	Asst. FSD	Dodge City Community College
30th	Prudy Roderieck	Asst. FSD	South Plains College
July
4th	Ron Oliver	Asst. FSD	Kansas State University, Salina
4th	Bob Matej	Asst. FSD	Newman University
9th	Betsy Koechner	Accounts Receivable	Home Office
11th	Warren Hunt	President
17th	Jeffery Landreth	FSD	Columbia Senior Center
24th	Bill Walsh	Asst. FSD	Ranger College
27th	Carol Coleman	Asst. FSD	Seward County Community College
31st	Steve Bucko, Jr.	Vice President of Operations

Announcements

1. Great Western Dining Service is pleased to announce that Charlie Curry has started working as of April 26, 2001. Charlie's immediate assignment is management of New Mexico Junior College in Hobbs, New Mexico.

   As soon as Charlie can find a replacement and train the individual, he will become an Area Manager in the Southern Region. Charlie comes to Great Western with excellent credentials since his past employment involved many years with Marriott and Sodexho Marriott.

   He is a native Texan from the Midland/Odessa Area, Andrews, Texas to be exact. He had worked the east Texas market area for Marriott and has many management and client contacts in the area. His credentials denote strength in the areas of management training, catering, junior college operations, mid-size school operations, and facility renovations. Charlie will be a big asset in educating and training managers for their own personal development.

2. This will be the last newsletter for the fiscal year. The newsletter will resume in August. If there are any additions in content of the newsletter do not hesitate to let us know about your ideas.
3. We want the newsletter to be yours. Give us the idea, and we will develop the idea. You will not have to do any of the work.
4. Great Western has acquired a new summer camp. The base camp is in Conroe, Texas with one facility on the Gulf of Mexico. The camp is sponsored by the Houston Chapter of the Girl Scouts of America.

Pat on the Back

• Jay Menze:
  Butler County Community College
  

  "...thank you and Jay for the excellent service you provided at the Governor's One Shot Turkey Hunt banquet. We have had great compliments on the food this year and we have enjoyed the fact we had the banquet without problems in the food area."

  Darrell R. Whitney Vice President

• Bryan Glover:
  Frank Phillips College
  

  "Since his arrival to our campus I have personally observed a genuine change in attitude toward the cafeteria and overall food service...The reception that Bryan was responible for was excellent."

  Dr. Herbert J. Swender Office of the President Frank Phillips College

• Tina Brant:
  Home Office
  

  "I just wanted to let you know what a great job Tina Brant did in explaining the GWD business to the kindergarten class...it's a great feeling when local businesses and the school can work together for the benefit of our childern."

  Karla Wood Elem. Counselor Moniteau Country R-VI School

• Dan Karczewski:
  Highland Community College
  

  "Thank you for taking the time out on a saturday night and helping out at the dance. The students really enjoyed seeing you there. Thanks"

  Alicia Highland Community College

Meet the Managers

Jay Menze joined Great Western Dining Service in June, 2000 as the Food Service Director at Newman University in Wichita, Kansas. In January, 2001, Jay transferred to Butler County Community College in El Dorado, Kansas as the Food Service Director. He attended Omaha University in Omaha, Nebraska. Jay brought a number of years of college food service experience with him, working for Sodexho Marriott as a Food Service Director for ten years. Prior to that, he worked for AFM - Service Master as a Food Service Director for six years. Jay is married to Agnes and they have two children; Andrew, age 34 and lives in Chicago and Stacy, age 31 and lives in Las Vegas.

Gabe Jones, the Food Service Director at Grayson County College in Denison, Texas, joined Great Western Dining Service in July, 2000. Gabe attended both El Paso Community College and Kansas State University. He was also enlisted in the United States Army for four years, based out of Fort Riley, Kansas.

Gabe brings a great deal of restaurant experience to his job. Most recently he was the Sales/Service Manager for the Olive Garden in Mesquite, Texas for two years. He worked another four years in the restaurant business and was also a Customer Service Manager for a casino in Las Vegas.

Buck-a-Roo Club

Linda Harper	Venus Martin	Kenny Winchester
Paul Tharman	Bill Walsh	Diane Hubbard
Noel Joyce	Phillip Specter	Debra Marklein
Rob Lattin	Jim Alldredge	Jeff Landreth
Dorothy Harder	New Mexico Junior College

Accounts Receivable Aging Report:

1. You are receiving these reports, so follow up on them.
   Most of the time anything over 30 days should be pursued at the unit level.
2. We always need money to pay your purchases and payroll.
   If you think logically about it, we expend monies for food purchases, supply purchases and payroll a month in advance of receiving payment from the clients.
   This is a very large sum of money and a big drain on our bank accounts.
3. Your cooperation is needed in collecting monies for events that you book and on the board bills.
   This would definitely improve our cash flow, since we are always behind, because we pay first and receive our funds a month later.
4. Once people know that you are constantly trying to collect old invoices over 30 days, they get tired of seeing you, so they will be more prompt in payment.

Safety Tips

Even if we are approaching the slow time of our fiscal year, the potential of accidents is always present. Make sure that you do some of the following:

1. Keep up the Unit Safety Meeting throughout the summer. Make these meetings a habit.
2. Make people aware of safety. Have them look for hazards.
3. Accidents can be prevented when employees are aware of safety.
4. Encourage employees to purchase the safety shoes from our Safety Shoe program.
5. View your units on a daily basis for potential safety hazards.
6. An injured employee is not of any service to you, if they are hurt.
   "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."
   I am not sure of the person that made this statement, but think about it.
7. Take time to read your safety manuals again, and see if there are some interesting programs that you can introduce for your employees when the fall semester starts in August.
8. Although as a company we did a better job at reducing accidents this school year, but let us plan ahead to do even a better job for the upcoming school year.

One unit has dropped from our Safety List this month.

These are the units that remain claim free.

Butler County Community College	Bishop Carroll High School	Western Texas College
North Central Texas College	Amarillo College	New Mexico Junior College
Kansas St. Univ. - Salina	SWCID	Angelina College
Seminole State College	Kansas State Hwy. Patrol*	Camp Horizon
Columbia Sernior Center	Butler County Jail	Audrain County Jail

Case Study: The rains have been coming down in buckets for the last few days. The walkway to the dish room has a leak in the ceiling. Hazardous Harry wanted to eliminate the problem of having water on the floor so he places a bus tub on the floor to catch the dripping water.

Betty needed dishes so she went to the dish room to pick up a stack, while on her return to the serving line she trips and falls over the bus tub on the floor that is catching the dripping water.

Hazardous Harry's comment: Golly, I was just trying to prevent an accident so water would not be on the floor, then Betty trips over the bus tub. I thought that I did something that was adding safety to my facility, but now it backfires on me.

Cautious Carol's comment: Harry did right by placing a container on the floor, except he should have placed a more visible container there. He could have placed a 55gallon trash barrel which would not have caused the problem. If no trash barrel was available he should have placed a cart , or some chairs from the cafeteria with the backs facing out around the bus tub. Betty would have bumped the barrel cart or chairs but would not have fallen.

Watchful Willie's comment: Although Harry was trying to avoid an accident by placing a bus tub which is only about 6 inches high on the floor to catch the dripping water, he created another safety hazard since the bus tub could not be seen by a person carrying a stack of dishes.

Safety Sam's Comments: At least Harry was thinking about safety, but he forgot to think about total safety of everyone. Employees are not accustomed to objects on the floor where they never existed in the past. Even if Betty saw the tub, in her haste she forgot about it, then tripped over the tub and injured herself. Harry needed to follow Cautious Carol's advice.

Food Service 401

Correction to April "Food Service 101" article, last page, paragraph two should state "Once you determine your cost factors per pound, and Cost factor per portion, any increase or decrease in pricing can be quickly determined. Remember the portion size (not cost) should be the same."

How to analyze the WCR
After the WCR (Weekly Control Record) has been completed, the Food Service Director should review the entire WCR which contains valuable information for the operation of the unit. This is the main purpose of the WCR, the intent is not simply to determine if there was a profit or a loss for the week.

Everyone can determine the manner in which they make the analysis of the WCR. The whole form should be analyzed, not just a few categories. In our lesson for this month, the analysis will start with the statistical information on the left hand side of the WCR.

The first area is Participation Percentages by meal plan. Depending on the number of meal plans at the individual facility, the total potential meals for each meal plan is calculated by multiplying the number of possible meals for the week for each plan times the number of students that are on each meal plan. Remember on short weeks this number has to be adjusted by the number of meals that are available.

Next, the total actual meals for each board plan for the entire week needs to be completed. The total actual meals served should be the door checkers count by day for each student that came into the dining hall for meals for the week from Thursday inclusive through the following Wednesday.

The WCR format in Lotus will automatically calculate the participation percentage for each plan as well as give a total participation by all plans. This statistic is important since it gives the Director the amount of participation in the meal program. The actual meals should never be compromised by adding students that actually did not come into the dining hall. In other words do not falsify this information.

This tool is important in planning the number of meals for future weeks, and is especially important in forecasting next years meal patterns. Since there is a week by week, an individual month breakdown, and a year-to-date total, this information is important when a new school year starts since participation normally remains the same from year to year with little change. This information can help planning production needs for a new school year and the current school year.

By reviewing and interpreting this information from participation, a person can estimate the number of meals that will be served for the week. The individual participation sheets will give you the information of how many meals were served for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for each week which is another tool in the forecast of production. That is the reason these figures should be accurate.

As we travel down the WCR to Total Other Meals served, this information is derived from the participation sheet. Again this is important information, since employee meals, casual meals, guest meals are again listed on the participation sheet by the meal period for each individual day. When all of this information is combined from past history, it makes forecasting production a little more accurate than guessing the number of patrons that will consume meals at each meal period and for each day.

The next item that is analyzed on the WCR is the Food Cost per Meal. In order to determine the Food Cost per Meal served on the board program, we must calculate the net cost less catering and snack bar sales. There are predetermined percentages for each of these categories. Do not change these percentages for snack bar and catering sales unless directed by your area manager.

Since the percentages will be constant throughout the year, it will be easier to determine a constant food cost per meal served for the board program. Since the calculation of food cost per meal served is done automatically by the Lotus program, a director can determine if the plate cost is correct or not. If there is a large variable in the plate cost, then the menu for the week is not in sync with the program. If it dramatically increased there is a problem, either in the menu, in the inventory taken, in food waste, or poor production planning.

The next secton determines the number of meals per labor hour worked. In this section all production working hours, not including management should be listed, unless management is holding a full time production slot. Employees working hours for snack bar and catering events should be deducted from the total hours that are on the payroll sheet. This will give the adjusted hours for employee working hours related to the board operation. The net hours will divide into the total amount of meals served to give a meals per labor hour. If the meals per labor becomes a larger number, then labor efficiency was improved. If the meals per labor hour becomes a smaller number, then labor was not as efficient as before, meaning too many labor hours were used and corrections should be made in the labor schedule.

The next section is Average Cash Sales per labor hour worked. In this section the labor hours for snack bar personnel are recorded. The sales for the snack bar operation are divided by these labor hours worked. This dollar figure is useful in determining the amount of sales related to the wage dollar figure that is paid for snack personnel. Let's give an example.

The total sales of a snack bar for the week is $1000. There are 4 employees working in the snack bar, so let's give them names, an hourly rate of pay, and a number of hours each worked in a week.

Betty	$6.00 per hour	20 hours per week	= $120.00
Lou	$6.00 per hour	10 hours per week	= $60.00
Diane	$5.50 per hour	5 hours per week	= $27.50
Lois	$5.50 per hour	10 hours per week	= $55.00
	TOTAL SNACK BAR WAGE		$262.50
	TOTAL LABOR HOURS		45.00 HOURS
	THE AVERAGE LABOR DOLLARS P/HR		5.83 PER HOUR WK.
OOPS, WE FORGOT TO INCLUDE PAYROLL TAX ON THE AVERAGE HOURLY WAGE, SO LET US SAY THAT PAYROLL TAX IS 20% FOR THIS AREA.
		THE AVERAGE WAGE PER HOUR FOR SNACK BAR	$5.83
		PAYROLL TAXES RATE 20%	1.17
		THE CORRECT AVERAGE HOURLY WAGE IN SNACK BAR IS	$7.00 PER HOUR
		THE TOTAL SNACK BAR SALES WAS $1000 FOR THE WEEK.	$1,000.00
		THE TOTAL LABOR HOURS WAS 45 HOURS	45.00 HOURS
		THE SALES PER LABOR HOUR FOR SNACK BAR (DIVIDE $1,000 BY THE 45 HOURS)EQUALS	$22.22 SPLH
IF WE ARE SPENDING $7 FOR EVERY HOUR WORKED AND TAKING IN $22.22 THIS MEANS THAT THE LABOR COST PERCENTAGE IS $7.00 DIVIDED BY $22.22 OR A PERCENTAGE OF 32%. AS A RULE OF THUMB A 35% LABOR COST OR LOWER WOULD BE CONSIDERED VERY GOOD, UNLESS THE SNACK BAR IS HIGH VOLUME AND NOT LABOR INTENSIVE. IF YOU WOULD ADD THE FOOD COST % FOR SNACK BAR, LABOR COST % FOR SNACK BAR, PAPER AND JANITORIAL SUPPLIES COST % FOR SNACK BAR, THE 1% FOR REPLACEMENT ONLY TIMES SNACK BAR TOTAL SALES, 1.7% FOR LIABILITY INSURANCE, THEN SUBTRACT THESE PERCENTAGES FROM 100%, YOU WILL GET A PERCENTAGE OF PROFITABILITY OR OF LOSS BEFORE ADMINISTRATIVE EXPENSE FOR SNACK BAR OPERATIONS. EXAMPLE BELOW
TOTAL NET SNACK BAR SALES		100%	$1,000.00
SUBTRACT:
TOTAL FOOD COST		38%	$380.00
TOTAL LABOR COST		32%	$315.00
TOTAL PAPER SUPPLY COST		5%	$50.00
TOTAL JANITORIAL SUPPLY		1%	$10.00
REPLACEMENT COST		1%	$10.00
LIABILITY INSURANCE		1.7%	$17.00
TOTAL OF ALL EXPENSE		78.7%	782.00
NET PROFIT OR LOSS		21.3%	218.00
IF YOU NOTICE THE PERCENTAGE FOR THE CATEGORIES WERE ROUNDED EXCEPT FOR LIABILITY INSURANCE, THAT IS WHY THE TOTAL OF ALL EXPENSES IS 78.7% INSTEAD OF 78.2%, AND THE SAME IS TRUE WITH NET PROFIT. WE ARE SIMPLY TRYING TO DETERMINE IF THE SNACK BAR IS A PROFITABLE OPERATION, AND OBVIOUSLY IT IS. THIS IS A QUICK DETERMINATION TO UNDERSTAND IF THE SNACK BAR IS A PROFITABLE OPERATION.

Since the statistical side of the WCR has been completely analyzed it is time to look at the actual column in which all sales and expenses are recorded in dollar amounts. In the column to the right of each sales cost center and each expenditure cost center a percentage figure is present.

For sales cost center the percentage indicates the per cent for that cost center and how it relates by per cent to total sales. In the expenditure cost center, each is broken down into sections for food cost, labor cost, and fixed and general cost. The percentage figures after the individual expenditures are very important. In the process of making an analysis, one can determine if an individual expenditure is out of line against total sales. As an example, let's say food cost is 5% higher this week than normal. Each individual line item, meat, dairy, frozen, produce fresh, groceries, bakery, milk, ice cream,and beverage is represented by a percentage figure.

Looking at the indivdiual line item percentage will indicate which one of these items used was at a higher cost than normal. There may be a combination of several of each food line item that ran higher this week than normal. This tells the director to start searching for several areas that may have caused the problems in food cost.

• Are the employees using recipe cards?
• Are they following production sheets?
• Is there a theft problem?
• Are there too many leftovers?
• Are leftovers being utilized?
• Are produce items being wasted or high rate of spoilage?
• Was the inventory not accurate?

The unit director should already know about the use of recipe cards, production sheets, and if there is over production. If this is the case then it definitely will be reflected in the percentages as well. One area cross checks another area in the reporting system. Area managers and the corporate office observes the WCR's to determine the problems that the unit is experiencing. Red flags get raised all over and tells supervision much about the unit and the unit director.

The same is true in the labor cost arena. If hourly labor increased in percentages and sales did not increase, then the unit director did not write a good labor schedule for the week. If sales are down, especially board sales, and labor is the same and the labor percentage increased significantly, then everyone knows that the unit director did not use the labor reduction procedure in making corrections.

If fixed and general cost %, especially in paper and janitorial, increase significantly, this is a red flag.

• Was there an inventory error?
• Was the dish machine down?
• Is the unit director using paper products instead of china?
• Is the automatic feeders on the dish machine not properly working?
• Are employees not mixing chemical cleaning concentrates properly?
• Is there a theft problem with paper and cleaning supplies?

Basically the purpose of this lesson for the month in Food Service 101, is to stress the importance to the unit directors to analyze the WCR by each line item and category plus all of the statistical information to make sure the unit is running efficiently. Red flags will be raised if only you analyze and look for them. The WCR is a tool to help the unit directors. It is not just an exercise in determining profit or loss.

Monotony Breakers

America is a melting pot of all races, colors and creeds. If you have a camera, you could take pictures of a number of groups of students with a balance of people among the different races. Have a few of the pictures developed into 8"x10" and decorate your area with red, white and blue streamers and balloons, and hang the pictures that you have taken. You can run this for week or a few days, depending on your inventory levels and how much food you need to move out by the end of the school year.

Remember, the main idea behind this promotion is to run out of your odds and ends plus any large items that need to be moved. If this is done with flair, it will not appear to be just running out of odds and ends. For cheap items, you could set up chaffing dishes in the dining room and let them self-serve. Title the promotion:

America the Beautiful
The Land of Many Ethnic Backgrounds

Offer foods representing different ethnic origins; Irish, English, French, Italian, Hispanic, German and Oriental to name a few. Following are some ideas that will incorporate all types of quantities of leftovers and small amounts of fresh product.

Cash Operations

The same dilemma is present for Snack Bars as in the board operations, quantities of food that has to be moved before the unit shuts down. On items that you are really overstocked, package them and offer as specials to reduce the inventory.

Make sure your signs state "While it Lasts" or have a back-up special when you run out. You can do several items from the board operation menu program, such as tacos, chalupas, nachos, pizza, plus different types of sandwiches. This could be a double-edged sword by not only reducing inventory in the board operation, but also helping move items through the snack bar, without having to purchase additional items.

If you want to be successful at this, do it with flair! Decorate the snack bar in the same manner as the board operation, making sure the signs look professional.

If you are long on muffin and cakes mixes, make different styles of oversized muffins, and have your advertising signs state "Take Home for Later Enjoyment". Give them a package price that is a little cheaper than normal individual prices. Display the product so that it is tempting and irresistible.

Muffin Varieties

Oat	Banana	Bran	Chocolate Chip
Blueberry	Applesauce	Nut	Plain
Cherry	Cranberry	Pineapple	Raisin Bran

Make cupcakes if you have a lot of cake mixes to use.
Buy wrappers at Wal Mart if you don't have any.
There are a number of varieties that you could make:

Devil's Food (with or w/out nuts)	Yellow (with or w/out nuts)	Marble
Chocolate (with or w/out nuts)	Add chocolate chips to any of the mixes	White w/ Blueberries
Yellow w/ coconut or pineapple	Add fruit to a white mix (like cherries, pineapple or strawberries)

ANY DIRECTOR WHO GIVES THE COMPANY A REFERRAL FOR AN APPLICANT, FOR A FOOD SERVICE DIRECTOR POSITION, AND THAT PERSON IS INTERVIEWED AND HIRED BY THE COMPANY, WILL RECEIVE A SAVINGS BOND IN THE AMOUNT OF $100.
(The person being referred cannot be a result of an advertisement for employment in a newspaper. One other word of caution: please make sure that the person is qualified, so we are not wasting our time and efforts.)
Thank you.

People Development Incentives
We are looking for Manager Trainees!

Qualifications:

1. Prefer a person who has cooking skills or past food management experience.
2. Appearance should be neat and tidy.
3. Should be able to communicate well.
4. Should have indications of being intelligent.
5. Willing to be trained in production areas.
6. Willing to relocate outside of the state of their residence.
7. Preferable areas: Missouri, Texas, Iowa, Kansas, Oklahoma.
8. Has ambition to grow into a management position.

How do you find these people?

First, look inside your own facilities.

Second, look at people that apply for positions, ones who answer ads or even walk-ins. Sometimes people who simply walk-in for an application are showing strong signs that they need employment. Even if you do not have a position open, extend the courtesy of a few minutes of conversation.

1. From that, you can determine if the person communicates well and has indications of intelligence and is neat in appearance.
2. From the conversation, if you see some possibilities, do not make a commitment, but forward the resume to the corporate office, with a brief note attached.

Lastly, you may have knowledge of a good person working for another establishment. Seek out this individual, talk briefly with him/her to see if there is any interest that they may want to grow. Then set up a formal interview time to get a good read on the person to see if he/she meets the qualifications. If the person does, send the resume to the home office and an official interview will be set up.