1

April 2014

Volume 5, Issue 7

Cont. on Page 3

Please help us congratulate Beatriz Bedoy for being selected as Employee of the Month for April 2014. Beatriz serves Affil-iated well in the position of Warehouse Person in our HBC Department. She was hired as an Order Selector in HBC and moved to her new position in October, 2013. Israel Guajardo, HBC Supervisor, tells us that Beatriz always comes to work with a smile on her face, works well with others and always goes above and beyond her job duties.

Beatriz has three children; Angelica, age 26; Ariana, age 25; and Sergio, age 19. She loves to have family get togethers that are her own little “fiesta.” She enjoys cooking, cleaning,

and shopping. Beatriz says her true love is singing, especially while she’s, cooking and cleaning.

Employee of the Month of April- Beatriz Bedoy

Randy Arceneaux, President and CEO presents the “Employee of the Month” award to Beatriz Bedoy

2

LaGree’s Food Stores, AFI #’s 842 - 899 - 1326

The Easter Lily

On March 15th and 16th all LaGree’s Food Stores locations: Cripple Creek, Divide, and Pueblo, CO held a Diaper Drive for God’s Littlest Angels Haitian Baby Ministry. For each package of Western Family Mega size

diapers that our customers donated LaGree’s matched their Donation!! There were prizes that our customers could win for donating as well as face painting and balloons for the kids.

All together we will be donating 476 packages of diapers!!! That is over 24,000 total dia-pers!!!!

This will provide the orphanage with 3 months’ worth of diapers!!!

We would like to thank our staff at all the locations for their hard work in make this event such a success. We’d also like to thank Tammie Coffee and Randy Arceneaux for their support.

Megan LaGree Courtesy of Megan LaGree / Owner

Easter Lily

The magnificent white lily known as the Easter Lily has long stood as a symbol of purity, hope,

innocence and peace. Also called the Bermuda lily, the Trumpet lily, and Jacob's Tears, the Easter

lily is a biblical flower commonly associated with the resurrection of Christ.

In Christian tradition, the Easter lily signifies rebirth and a new beginning. It is said that beautiful

white lilies sprang up in the Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus wept in the last hours before he

was betrayed by Judas. Another legend claims that the white lilies grew from the repentant tears

shed by Eve upon her departure from Paradise.

The lily is mentioned frequently throughout the bible and serves today as a beautiful reminder of

the significance of the Easter season. Easter lilies grace homes and churches each spring as a symbol

of purity, joy, hope and life.

Excerpt from: www.edmontonsun.com

3

Panhandle Transportation Group’s Driver Safety Banquet 2013

One Year Awards Pedro Barrientes Andy Carswell

John Cloyd Luis Garcia

Roberto Lanzo Victor Lira

Daniel Lowe James Mitchell Adam Simpkins Michael Water

Two Year Awards Anthony Alfred Travis Bowen Pete Gallardo

Darryl Henderson Garrick Hendrix James Jackson Socorro Lucero Juan Martinez Mark McCoy Jody Peralta Rick Royal Fred Smith

AB - Rocky Towery

Three Year Awards Donald Fritz

Fabien Gonzalez Roy McKeever Steve McNeal Santre Taylor

Four Year Awards Derrick Coleman

Zach Connell Chris Cummins James McCann Eduardo Rangel Michael Turner Kevin Williams

Five Year Awards Jorge Chavarria Lindsey Cook

James Davisson John Lybrand

Miguel Mendoza

Six Year Awards Chris Kite

Seven Year Awards

BT Coudy Travis Hale

Jason Kettler Matt Lowe

Wayne Syms

Eight Year Awards Jesus Aguirre Victor Holmes

Adam Marroquin John Miller Shawn Mills

Nine Year Awards Cruz Chavez Jerry Mayhue

Ten Year Awards

Craig Byrd Mickey Hayes Bill Richardson

Ten Year Awards cont. Ed Winston

Eleven Year Awards Tommy Hall

James Whooten

Twelve Year Awards Danny Auburg

Loyde Hazelwood Glen Hill

Les McLaughlin Chris Trammel

Thirteen Year Awards Samuel Balderas

Fourteen Year Awards Pete Garcia

Fifteen Year Awards Ronnie Beard

Sixteen Year Awards Randy Cook

Kyle Hall

Seventeen Year Awards Mario Alonzo Dale Freeman

Eighteen Year Awards Derick Collins Jimmie Sorrell

Nineteen Year Awards John Hamula Boyd Helton

Harvey Massey

Twenty Year Awards Wendell Fox

Matt Wilkinson

Twenty One Year Awards Luther Carter

Twenty Three Year Awards Johnny Johnson

AFI Truck Rodeo Winners Les McLaughlin - 48’

30th in the International

Pete Garcia - 28’ 16th in the International

Amarillo College Graduates

Mark Marroquin Jamison Jones

Daniel Worsham DeMarkus Morrow Emmanuel Pineda

Moris Marquina

with prayer, introductions were made for our Amarillo College Graduates, New Driv-ers and a speech was given by our President, Randy Arce-neaux, followed by Safety Awards Presentations.

Also in attendance were Tam-my Coffee; Vice President, Dale Thompson; New Ac-counts Director, Jimmy Ross; Director of Warehouse Oper-ations, Rick Sims; PTG Safety Manager; Billy Stovall; HPL

GM; Scott Erwin; PTG Opera-tions Manager, James Dorris; Day Dispatch Counter Su-pervisor, and Jaime Ferrel; Dispatch Manager.

Congratulations to all our

Drivers for helping to make Affiliated Foods the, “Home of All Things Fresh”!

Thirty Year Awards Randy Miller

1 MILLION

MILES

DRIVERS

Jesus Aguirre Tommy Shelley

2 MILLION

MILES

DRIVERS

Randy Cook Steve Luck

Million Mile Club

On Saturday, February 1st, 2014 our AFI Drivers were honored and presented with Safety Awards for their dedi-cated service to Affiliated Foods.

The Banquet was opened

4

James “Jr.” Wooten Retires

Plains Dairy Announces Award

Courtesy of Mary Reed / Plains Dairy

L to R: Greg Meador; President, Shawn Crowell; 5 Year Service

Award, Roy Mende; Production Manager.

Dennis “Grandpa” Davidson Retires

Congratulations to James “Jr.” Wooten on his retirement from Panhandle Transportation Group. James started driving for Affiliated Foods on December 9, 1999, and concluded his service on March 15, 2014. That is 15 years of dedicated service for our company.

James received a check for years of service, a Panhandle Salvage card and a plaque which was presented to him by Billy Stovall, General Manager of High Plains Logistics. We would like to wish you a GREAT retirement...May all your future endeavors be fulfilled and happiness be yours. Thank you for a job well done! The Affiliated Family News

A coffee and donuts reception was held on Friday, March 28, 2014, for Dennis “Grandpa” Davidson in the HR conference room.

Friends and co-workers all came to wish Dennis a great retirement. Dennis was pre-sented with a watch, a check for years of service, a Panhandle Salvage card and a plaque which was presented to him at the Stock Holders Meeting Dinner on April 9, 2014.

Dennis was a forklift operator in the Inventory Control Department under the supervi-sion of Manuel Calderon. Dennis began his career with AFI on November 20,1973 and worked thru March 18th, 2014. That is over 40 years of dedicated service to AFI.

Dennis, it’s time to just sit back, relax and enjoy your retirement.

Wishing you many, many happy years...The Affiliated Family News

L to R: Gene Blackburn, HR Director; Randy Arceneaux, President; Dennis “Grandpa” Davidson, Manuel Calderon, Inventory Control Supervisor and Mike Ortiz, Inventory Control

5

At Affiliated Foods, when we hire a new order selector there is a working standard that must be met in the first 60 days of employment. The Warehouse Man-agement System calculates time for each store order based on Engineered Labor Standard. This time standard must be met at 100% by the first 60 days. Once the selector achieves 100% of standard and keeps that standard or above, they become qualified order selectors. This process helps orders to be pulled in a

timely manner. April...Above and Beyond…

Courtesy of Jimmy Ross / Director of Ware-

house Operations, David Trimble / Assistant Director of Warehouse Operations, Enrique

Barreras / Dry Grocery Supervisor, Ralph

Telles / Perishable Supervisor and Israel Guajardo / HBC Supervisor

Perishable Qualified: Terra Molina, Elizabeth Velasco, Tesla Martinez, Kristina Hood Perishable Top Pay: Ivan Orozco, Austin Shirley,

Emory Weatherton, Larry Hattig, Abiel Rodarte, Martin Hernandez, Dakota Gonzales, Oscar Machado, Willie Riley, Dearius Poindexter

HBC Qualified: Terra Molina, Elizabeth Velasco, Tesla Martinez, Kristina Hood HBC Top Pay: Elizabeth Cortez, Sonia Rodriguez

Grocery Qualified: Jordan Dixon, Johnny Brown, Luis Robles, Demetirus Clark, Aaron Soliz, Hunter Hucks, Irvin Mata, Jonathan Tarrango

AFI’s Warehouse Incentive Program

Easter Funnies

So I lay them and you get the credit...NO fair! Ref...Jim Hunt @ facebook.com What Easter Island Heads do for Easter???

6

EOM cont. from page 1...

Spotlight on the Warehouse Newcomer of the Month

Silvia Gutierrez

Silvia Gutierrez works in the Sanitation Dept. under the supervision of Freddy Jimenez. When commenting on Silvia, Freddie said.

“She is a great employee, with a great attitude that rubs off on everyone around her. She

always has a smile on her face and is one of those employees that you wish you had two or

three of! Silvia is a definite asset to our company.”

Awesome! Thanks, Silvia, for a all you do!

Congratulations!

Employee of the Month Beatriz Bedoy

Courtesy of Jamallh Clark, AFI Recruiter

She can’t imagine her life without music and singing; they really make her happy.

When asked about the most influential people in her life she talked of her parents. Her parents taught her to work hard and how to get along with others. Beatriz is currently planning a vacation to Las Vegas and is very excited to see the action in the big city. She plans to continue smiling, singing, and doing the absolute best job possible. Beatriz is pictured above being presented with a plaque by Randy Arceneaux, President of AFI. She selected gift certificates from Jorge’s Mexican Cantina. Beat-riz will also receive an additional 250 Safety bonus points. Congratulations, Beat-riz! Thanks for all you do! The following employees were also nominated this month. Congratulations to all! Ralph Bouyi, Josh Cerda, Kayla Duran, Joseph Jaramillo, Tim Marshall, Fernando Mendez, Juan Ramirez, Oscar Silva and Ketsana Thammavongsa

Courtesy of Rita Koontz / HR

Shout Out

The Easter Bunny at the grocery store

giving a shout out to his peeps!

The US Seasonal Drought Outlook 2014 for many Southwestern states is predicted to persist or intensify from March thru June...Please begin to pray for rain now!

- - - - - Anyone who thinks that sunshine is pure happiness….Has never danced in the rain! ~ Unknown

7

Spring is in the Air That’s right Ladies and Gentleman spring is here and it is time to spring clean and get your departments in shape. The next cou-ple of months are just like spring training so let’s get our Deli departments cleaned up and in shape for business. I had the oppor-tunity to work with Rene Cervantes the Deli Supervisor for Lowe’s Supermarkets and we did a little item and display changes in different Lowe’s Stores. We added new sandwiches, salads, and new containers and the little things we worked on make these departments pop. At the Deli on Mesa and Balboa Lowe’s store # 83 Affili-ated #1683 , Ruben Rodriguez the Store Manager came up with a clever idea on putting in a self service open cold case that really made his department look good and offers a wide range of items that he did not have before. Rene Cervantes and I worked on setting up the case and it has given this store a very nice new appearance and did not cost very much as the case was just sitting in storage. So look around you and see what you can do to make your deli departments look better, increase sales and also more profitable. Angel the Deli Manger of this Lowe’s Store is very excited about the new case and has kept it looking nice and also added a touch of his own. Included are pictures of the case and the product at store #83 at Mesa and Balboa in El Paso Texas, it really looks good and customers like it. Thank s to Rene, Ruben and Angel for a great success story at Lowe’s Store #83 Affiliated Store #1683.

Sometimes we tend to look at our hot and cold cases and feel we are tired of having the same menu or the same items on dis-play day after day. Don’t be afraid to try new items or just simply create your own recipes. You can add different meats, Spic-es, Salsas, and Chile depending on what your customers like. Always cater to your customer and give them what they want.

Here are some food types that you can offer or add to your menu, you can add Lasagna, Spaghetti, Meat Balls, Salisbury Steak, Pork Chops, Stuffed Baked Pota-toes, Ribs, Chicken Wings, Turkey Legs, Enchiladas, Chile Rellenos and Jalapeno Poppers. Last but not least you might want to try the Chinese Food that we carry by Innovation cuisine. For those of you who attended the food show in Amarillo you saw the large variety of Chinese food that we have available for you in our warehouse. These items are very easy to prepare and hold up in the case very well, you can sell it cold or hot. I have included the full line and order item numbers.

23171 - Vegetable fried rice 23172- Pork Egg Rolls 23173 – Mongolian Beef 23180 – Vegetable Spring Roll 23181 – Black Pepper Chicken 23183 – Vegetable Lo Main 23198 – General TSO’S Chicken 23199 – Sesame Orange Chicken 23200 – Sweet and Sour Pork 23201 – Caramelized Ginger Pork 23206 – Teriyaki Chicken with Vegetables 23207 – Thai BBQ Marinade

Pick a few items and give them a try and add and try different items and see what sells for you. You will never know unless you try. Thanks to all of you for everything you do. See you in your stores.

Thank You, Bobby

For the month of April: We have April 13 which is Palm Sunday and April 18th which is good Friday and Easter is on the 20th . All those are good weekends for extra sales; picnic cakes and cookie trays should be presented on a display along with big cookies and cupcakes. The principal thing is the Spring Food Show on April 10th in Amarillo, TX at the Civic Center.

SUGGESTIONS AND IDEAS… 1.) Are you connecting with your custom-ers? – Now more than ever, the in-store bakery/deli offers the opportunity to con-nect with shoppers on a more personal level by showcasing the wonderful products available. As soon as your customer walks in they need to see freshness… a table full of a variety of cookies, a showcase of beautiful cakes and a deli with fresh salads and new sandwiches. Take advantage of seasonal products along with the full variety of different cakes in different colors and sizes that are offered by Affiliated. Deco-rate them to suit the season or holiday – get creative and entice your customers with colors and fresh products. 2.) In the Hispanic culture confetti eggs are a popular item for Easter. If you have a big Hispanic market area, check what area or department of the store these are displayed and ask if you can merchandise some of the Easter cakes, cupcakes or cookies in the same area or have that department merchandise them on your displays. 3.)Spring weddings are also popular and if

you offer wedding cakes in your bakery make sure and have a nice display present-ed in your bakery and have your staff trained on how to sell these high profit items. If you do not offer wedding cakes, then make sure and have a display with wedding shower cupcakes and wedding shower cakes and be ready to take orders for these; again make sure your bakery associates know how to sell. 4.)Are the associates in your bakery con-necting with your customers? If not they should be. The associates taking cake orders are salespersons and that’s what they should be trained to do in order to increase sales in the bakery; not just stand-ing around waiting to see what the custom-er may need or maybe avoiding the cus-tomers altogether. Have them sample any new items that you have in your bakery. Jaime

Jaime Ortega / Sales Manager / B/D

jortega@afiama.com

Bobby Pena / Deli Specialist

rpena@afiama.com

AFI Bakery / Deli News

8

1401 Farmers Avenue

Amarillo, TX 79118

806-372-3851

“THANK YOU” to all who have contributed to the success of the Newsletter”! A special thanks to Dale Thompson and Kevin Fortenberry for their continued support and help!

The Affiliated Family News / Cathy Gallivan / afinews@afiama.com

1 pkg. Shurfine Cheesy Tuna Skillet Meal 2½ c. water ½ c. Shurfine Milk 1 (6 oz.) Shurfine Canned Albacore Tuna, drained ½ c. Shurfine Ranch Salad Dressing ½ c. Shurfine Sour Cream ¼ c. green onions, sliced 2 c. Shurfine French Fried Onions

If you have any thing to contribute please e-mail the “AFI Family News” @ www.afinews@afiama.com

Courtesy of Val Clawson / DeJarnett and Western Family

In a large skillet, combine pasta and sauce mix, water and milk. Bring to a boil, cover and simmer for 5

minutes or until pasta is tender. Add tuna, ranch dress-ing, sour cream and onions. Sprinkle french fried on-ions on top and serve.

Tired of boiling your Easter eggs, then bake them instead! What?? That is right bake them!

The first thing to do is place your washed eggs in a muffin tin, so they do not move around.

Preheat the oven to 325º, put them in the oven and bake for 25-30 minutes, remove. Cool and peel.

The eggs are easier to peel and the taste is much better! Wow!!! What a great idea and without the mess! Reference www.pinterest.com, www.ehow.com

Cheesy Ranch Tuna Surprise