A message relating to our workmen compensation insurance. Great Western Dining Service still has workmen compensation insurance through the state pools. This means that the individual states either assign an insurance company or have their own insurance coverage for workman compensation.

This year Liberty Mutual Insurance company will administer the insurance in the states of Kansas and Iowa, while the state of Texas has renamed their state administered insurance Texas Mutual. Texas Mutual has our coverage for the states of Texas and New Mexico. The state of Oklahoma like Texas administers their own insurance under the name of ComSource Oklahoma. Missouri Employer Mutual has our workmen compensation coverage in the state of Missouri.

Shortly, these companies will be sending representatives to our various units on inspection tours. These individuals will be making suggestions to facility management on the findings of their inspections. I will get the formal written report on their inspections.

I have discussed with a couple of the representatives some of our pro-active programs that are in place out in the field. The Shoes for Crews shoe program, the safety glove program, the safety manuals, the injury procedure packet, and the injury investigation follow up have been discussed by telephone by me with them. They were very impressed with the programs.

Please cooperate with the field investigators if they tour your facility. Show them our programs and the documentation on the safety meetings that you have held. We want to stress that Great Western field management is pro-active in reducing the cause of workplace injuries.

Each of you did a good job last year, and be proud of the results that you attained. The results were accomplished by your involvement and hard work. Last year Great Western had fewer claims and not as large of claims that was prevalent for the three years prior. This year and every future year we must keep safety awareness in the forefront of our operations. Through your individual efforts you are making the entire program a success.

Keep up the good work.

October
6th	Martin Williams	District Manager	Kansas District
17th	Ron Mancuso	V.P. of Administration	Home Office
17th	Neal Green	FSD	Seward County Community College
20th	Sam Villearreal	Asst. FSD	South Plains College
28th	Carol Mitchell	FSD	Seminole State College

Announcements

1. Jennie Fuls has joined Great Western Dining as the Food Service Director at Odessa College in Odessa, Texas. Welcome aboard Jennie!
2. Jeannette Butler has joined Great Western Dining as the Food Service Director at Southwest Collegiate Institute for the Deaf in Big Spring, Texas. Welcome aboard Jeannette.
3. Diane Hubbard has transferred to New Mexico Junior College in Hobbs, New Mexico as the Food Service Director. Formerly Diane was the Assistant Director at Barton County Community College in Great Bend, Kansas. Congratulations Diane!

4. Below is a list of the Home Office personnel and the positions they hold. This may help you when you are calling to ask a question or give information.

   Michele Stone - Payroll & Personnel
   Betsy Koechner - Accounts Receivable
   Tina Brant - Accounts Payable
   Stacey Diehl - Accounting Assistant
   Theresa Franken - Administrative Assistant
   

Pat on the Back

• Carol Mitchell:
  Seminole State College
  

  Carol, Please pass on to your staff how much their hard work during the past couple of weeks of "special events" has been appreciated. Considering that in a 10-day period, we had two faculty in-service banquet-type meals, a retirement reception, a reception for two U.S. Congressmen, a catered luncheon for 120 students in the residence hall, a Chamber forum luncheon that blossomed from 130 to 175 people, a luncheon for our Board of Regents, and a 7 a.m. catered breakfast for 100 community golfers... their work has been incredible! (Of course - those are just the events I was involved in. I know you had other stuff going, also.) I certainly enjoy working with you and your staff. Everyone is positive and always willing to help. Thank you for all you do!!!!

  Sincerely, Lana Reynolds FSD

• Lee Jones:
  Western Texas College
  

  Lee, When Christy Brown returned the keys for the July 19-22 Emmaus group, she asked that I be sure that the "highest praises" be sent to the Kitchen staff of Great Western Texas Dining. These people went "above and beyond" the call of duty, due to the fact that the schedule they gave them was extremely difficult to keep. They had to keep food warm longer than usual and never complained. Their service was always cheerful as they met everyone's needs. They were asked to come out of the kitchen for the group to applaud them and were given a standing ovation but it simply didn't seem to be enough. Thank you Great Western Dining Service!

  FSD

• Bryan Glover:
  Frank Phillips College
  

  Dear Brian, The 14th annual MS Wild West 150 Bike Tour was a huge success. On behalf of the Board of Trustees of the Panhandle Chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, I want to thank you for volunteering your time for the MS Wild West 150. Without the generosity of people like you, it would be impossible to have such a successful event. The Panhandle Chapter provides services to more than 600 families living in the Texas and Oklahoma Panhandles, as well as two counties in eastern New Mexico. Our Chapter is also active in special events including the MS Walk and the MS BeefaThon. A portion of the funds raised by the MS Wild West 150 Bike Tour goes to research while the rest will stay in the Panhandle area to assist the many families who face the daily problems caused by multiple sclerosis. I hope that you had a great time and I hope to see you next year at our 15th anniversary Bike Tour. Again, I thank you for your help.

  FSD Sincerely, Rusty Jack Klaus Bike Tour Coordinator

Meet the Managers

DIANE HUBBARD - FSD- NEW MEXICO JUNIOR COLLEGE

Diane Hubbard has recently been promoted to Food Service Director at New Mexico Junior College in Hobbs, New Mexico. Diane joined Great Western Dining in 1997 as the Head Cook. She was promoted to Assistant Manager and held that position for two years. Prior to Great Western, she worked at Nightgale Healthcare in Hoisington, Kansas as an administrative assistant for two years. Diane graduated from Southeast Area Vocational School in Columbus, Kansas and received a certificate in Marketing and Distributive Education. She has spent a number of years in food service off and on throughout her career. Most notably at Keller ISD, a Texas school, as manager in food service for five years. Diane has two daughters; Lisa, age 24 and Amy, age 17. She also has one granddaughter. Diane comments that she enjoys working with young adults at the junior college level.

CAROLYN BLACKBURN - FSD - KANSAS LAW ENFORCEMENT TRAINING CENTER

Carolyn Blackburn, Food Service Director at Kansas Law Enforcement Training Center in Hutchinson, Kansas has been with Great Western Dining Service since the summer of 1996 when she was hired as Director at Seward County Community College. She became director at KLETC in July, 2000. Carolyn has been in the food service business for a number of years. She started with Service Master in 1984 as Director at Garden City Community College and was transferred to Seward County Community College. While at Seward, Daka Corp. took over and she worked for them for 3 1/2 years before Great Western Dining took over. Prior to that Carolyn had been involved in the restaurant business. Carolyn has two children; Rick, age 38 and Tina, age 39. She also has 4 grandchildren and 1 great-grandchild.

Buck-a-Roo Club

Lou Murdick	Carolyn Blackburn	Paul Tharman
Linda Harper	Brant Hatler	Phillip Specter
Jeannette Butler	Jennie Fuls	Blanche Dobson
Lee Jones	Robert Lattin	Jeff Landreth
David Lightner	Chris Hoskins	Norma Edwards

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

Copy

Newman University	Highland Community College	Vernon Regional Junior College
Iowa Central Comm. College	Midland College	Odessa College
Hill College	Western Oklahoma State College	Western Texas College
Ranger College	Barton County Comm. College	Frank Phillips College
Amarillo College	Kansas St. Univ. - Salina	Pratt Community College
Clarendon College	Seward County Comm. College	Audrain County Jail
Howard College	SWCID	Northeast Texas Comm. College
North Central Missouri College	Independence Community College	Grayson County Comm. College
Hutchinson Community College	South Plains College	Seminole State College
New Mexico Junior College	Barclay College	Cloud County Community College
Kansas State Hwy. Patrol	Camp Horizon	Columbia Sernior Center
Butler County Jail	Kansas Law Enforcement Training Center

Case Study:

Roy Swift the evening dish room employee has been assigned the job to take out the trash from the dish room and kitchen areas. Roy takes all of the kitchen trash which is in plastic bags to the dumpster. He has no problem with the kitchen trash since most of it is bulky and light in weight. When it is time to dispose of the dish room trash he notices that the barrels are very heavy due to the liquid waste that has accumulated from the entire day. He asked Harry for help in the disposition of the dish room trash. Harry tells him that he should be able to do it himself. Roy tries to lift the heavy barrels that have plastic liners that are tied off. When he lifts his second barrel he has a sharp pain in his back and drops the barrel to the ground, sending debris everywhere. Could this have been prevented?

Hazardous Harry's comment: Roy is a man and should be able to lift up to 100 pounds with no problem. Anyway my district manager has me on a tight labor schedule which does not allow any extra time for providing two people to dump the trash. Roy is just trying to fake the injury since he accidentally dumped the trash on the ground. I really don*t think he has a back injury.

Cautious Carol's comment: Harry should have given help to Roy in dumping the trash. It is easier for two persons to dump a heavy barrel than it is for one person. Harry did not save any time by letting Roy do the task himself. Harry had to assign another person to clean up the mess around the dumpster. This took more time than having assigned a helper to Roy to dump the trash in the first place.

Watchful Willie's comment: Harry claims that a man should be able to lift a 100 pounds. Harry forgets that the barrel has to go to eye level and all the lifting is placed on the arms and the back. Roy could not use his legs to help him lift the barrel. He could only use his legs to get it so high then all the weight of the barrel transferred to his arms and back. Harry should have checked on the weight of the barrel and made a management decision to assign a helper.

Safety Sam's Comment: Harry blames his lack of having adequate employee time to give Roy any help. If his labor schedule is that tight, he needs to have a discussion with his district manager. Harry should explain his problem with heavy trash barrels at close down, and ask his district manager for a solution to the problem. Then again Harry should not be so frugal with trash liners and dump the barrel after each meal period, so that the weight of the barrel would not be so great at the end of the day. Harry should not make assumptions that Roy was faking the injury. True, Harry should try to administer all the comfort and aid to Roy, but if Roy wants to see a doctor then Harry must let Roy visit an assigned medical facility for treatment under the regulations of workmen compensation insurance.

1. Do not let trash barrels accumulate waste until they are too heavy for one person to handle.
2. Listen to comments and concerns of your employees, since they may prevent an on-the-job injury.
3. Check your facility to make sure there are no power cords laying in damp or wet areas that could cause an electrical shock.
4. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
5. If an employee is lifting a heavy object, make sure that the employee lifts with his legs.
6. Do not assign jobs to persons that are not capable of executing the assignment without possibly having an injury.
7. Be open minded with your employees, giving them the opportunity to come to you if they *feel that a job assignment may be beyond their physical limits to complete.
8. Safety awareness by management and employees is the key ingredient in preventing on-the-job injuries.
   
   

Food Service 401

The Resources

In today's world, resources are more easily found. The world of technology has given us an avenue to explore many things at our immediate finger tips. No matter the subject matter, expanded information is readily available to each of us.

What are the resources? The main resource to explore is the Internet. There is a world of information available within a matter of a few minutes. Access to the Internet and the web sites on the Internet can answer many questions. Access through the individual colleges is a definite plus for our facilities.

Recipes, human resources, legal, seasonal promotions, and product information are all available through modern technology on the Internet. The main area that is of extreme value to our Food Service Directors is in the area of seasonal promotions. Every holiday period has many promotions and ideas that can be easily converted for use in doing trend setters, monotony breakers, or whatever you want to call them. Normally recipes are included with the promotional material.

When time is available from the hectic schedule of operating the facility on a daily basis check into the informational world of the Internet. Enter a statement then check on the many individual sites that have information available for the topic that is being sought. Some are not the exact information that is needed, although it does not take long to discover that another site may contain the information that is being requested.

If you are having trouble finding information, contact the corporate office. We will assist you at getting any business related information for you. The corporate office is willing to obtain the information that is needed to assist you in making the job easier.

Monotony Breakers

Halloween is Wednesday, October 31. This is an event that is great fun to plan for and if you use your imaginations and other resources (see "Food Service 401" and refer to old newsletters), you can come up with a number of decorating and food ideas at little cost.

For instance, a pumpkin carving contest is a great activity to plan for. Get about a dozen pumpkins and advertise that prizes will be awarded for first, second and third place. Place a sign-up sheet a few days in advance, and the first twelve people to sign up get to carve. Have the administration, faculty and staff members be the judges.

By the way, have you ever wondered where the term "Jack-O-Lantern" comes from?

Or how about Frightfully Fun Fog?

Listed on this and the following pages are ideas for cookies and cakes. Please remember that most of the recipes are of standard serving size, so you may need to make adjustments if you want larger quantities.

Cookie Shapes: Try bats, cats, witches, jack-o-lantern, pumpkins, leaves, acorns, full moons, broomsticks, cauldrons, martians, spiders, eyeballs, tombstones and any other spooky shape that you can come up with.

Cookie Colors: Add gel or paste food coloring to any basic rolled sugar cookie recipe. Orange works great and pumpkin shapes are really easy to do. Add black gel food coloring to your dough for bats and black cats.

Colored Frostings: By mixing different food colorings you can create creepy colors lik putrid green, horrible orange, blood red, midnight black and glow yellow. Top your cookies with some of these colors.

Jack-o-lantern Pops: Following the "Cookies in a Pot" recipe (on the following page), cut out the dough into pumpkin shapes. Bake, then decorte with icing to resemble a jack-o-lantern.

Black Widow Spider Cookies: Make a batch of "Child Proof Sugar Cookies" (recipe on the following page). Add enough black food coloring gel or paste to get a nice black color (this will take quite a bit). Roll out the dough to 1/8 to 1/4 inch thick and cut into circles, using two different cookie cutters, one smaller and one bigger. Place the cookies on a cookie sheet, attaching the smaller cookie (spider's head) to the larger cookie (spider's body). In the larger circle make a small hourglass-shaped hole and fill it with crushed red hard candy. In the smaller circle make two small holes (for eyes) and fill with yellow or green crushed hard candy. Attach strips of cookies dough to the body for legs.

Mounds of Brains Cookies: Using Butter Cookies II (recipe on following page), add some black food color gel or paste until you get a gray color, then push the dough through a colander to make worm-like shapes. Take small handfuls of the wormy dough and gently shape into a brain-like shape, then bake. For an added touch, drizzle a little green colored icing over the tops of the baked brains.

Cookies in a Pot
You will need about 6 dozen dowels, cut to approximately 6 inches, with some longer and some shorter. The recipe makes
approximately 72 cookies.

Butter Cookies II
This cookie can be used in a cookie press, as a drop cookie or made into a roll and sliced. Makes 3 dozen.

Child-Proof Sugar Cookies
This recipe makes 3 to 4 dozen cookies.

Cookie Pizza
This recipe makes (2) 10 inch pizza pans (24 wedges)

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.