News

Employees of the Year

2008 - Laurie Crocker

2008 - Owen Fitzgerald

2008 - Timothy Lord

2008 - Bruce Stauder

Employees of the Month

December 2008 - Terrell Norris Terrell has been employed by Willow Run Foods as a Professional Driver since January of 2008. During his first few weeks Terrell was making friends and winning over customers with his warm personality and genuine concern with doing an excellent job. Over the past 11 months, Terrell has demonstrated that he excels at his work; the following is just a short synopsis of his achievements: He’s always available, in fact Terrell is on call 24/7 and responds with a positive attitude and exemplary cooperation. Currently achieves 100% of his on-time bonus. No accidents, achieves 100% of his Safety Bonus. Has no over-speed violations. Excellent log compliance. He is very well liked for his obvious commitment to Willow Run and one of his greatest achievements to date is his outgoing personality, warm demeanor and the enjoyment he takes in working at Willow Run Foods. Terrell is an excellent Professional Driver who is well deserving of being recognized as Employee of the Month. Nominated by Len Basso

November 2008 - William Cogshall Bill started in the Yard department in September of 2004. He takes a lot of pride in his work and is very detail oriented. His best attribute is his communication with the Warehouse and Transportation departments. Some of his responsibilities include helping our Professional Drivers dispatch in a safe and timely manner, alerting the Warehouse and Transportation departments of possible unsafe damage or operation defects in trucks and trailers before they leave the yard. Bill can also be counted on to rescue drivers, coordinating with Ryder and the Transportation department, to help a driver in need during breakdowns and other problems they might encounter while on the road. He also prepares trailers for the next days lineup, washes and fuels trailers, and is very knowledgeable in overall truck and trailer operation. Thanks Bill for your hard work and dedication! Nominated by Joe Canfield

October 2008 - Fahim Carter Fahim joined Willow Run Foods in May 2006 as a Class A-CDL Professional Driver. He has proven himself time and again to be invaluable to our operations. He completes his scheduled runs as assigned and has worked the weekend since being hired without complaint. Throughout this past summer Fahim has volunteered for extra runs and covered vacancies. He dispatches on time, runs on time and delivered over 30,000 cases last quarter. Besides being a great driver, Fahim is also an excellent employee. You can always find him in uniform and ready to dispatch on time. His paperwork is always in order and neatly filled out. Fahim’s dedication to following procedures and his professional manner are greatly appreciated. High idle times, accidents and over speeds are not an issue with Fahim, and he never misses a safety meeting! Nominated by Tim Porter, Steve Zelenyak, Mike Krassin

September 2008 - Michael Dunham Michael began his employment at Willow Run Foods in June of 2006 as our PC/LAN technician. His responsibilities include cleaning and maintaining the health of our PC, Server, Fax and Printing equipment. Michael takes great pride in ensuring our equipment is running optimally. He also monitors other aspects of our environment from disk space allocation to server performance. Recently, we experienced a power blip which caused a piece of networking equipment to temporarily fail. Michael’s knowledge and experience prompted a quick response to re-route the network traffic through secondary devices. By doing so, the crisis was averted and we were operational within minutes. Luckily this occurred during the early evening. However, had this happened during the peek hours of business-it is good to know we’re in good hands. Beyond Michael’s technical abilities, his personality is enjoyable and witty. Nominated by Michael Albertson

August 2008 - Jim Vollrath Jim has been with the company for over five years now and in that time he has displayed many of the characteristics that go along with employee recognition for outstanding contribution. Jim has many different duties within the maintenance department including painting, racking system cleaning and repair, cross contamination prevention and clean up and safe storage of hazardous cleaning agents. While these duties are very important and can be very time consuming, Jim still finds time to assist with snow removal, dock leveler cleanup, exterior maintenance, exterior dock cleanup, pressure washing, and keeping the driver shed in great condition for our drivers. Jim is one of the few employees trusted to operate some of our expensive equipment including the floor scrubbing machine and scissor lifts. He is a major contributor to our audit success, is loved by all his co workers and always puts the best interest of Willow Run Foods first. Nominated by Joe Canfield and Dave Zelenyak

July 2008 - Terry Walsh Terry joined Willow Run Foods in September of 2005 as a Driver’s Helper. He has proven himself time and again to be a valuable asset to Willow Run. He always arrives to work on time, with a positive attitude, and sets the example by always being in complete uniform, and making sure his routes run smoothly. Recently with the start up of our new Sonic business we chose Terry as one of our dedicated Sonic Helpers. This choice was very easy because Terry has always been one of our “Go to Guys”. Terry always attends the Quarterly Safety Meetings and never fails to make himself available for extra routes and in emergency situations. We have never had a single complaint about Terry, and Drivers requesting a helper often ask if he is available. His dedication to following procedures and professional manner is greatly appreciated by all who work with him. Nominated by Tim Porter and Steve Zelenyak

June 2008 - Jamie Scott Jamie Scott started his career at Willow Run Foods on October 21, 2002 in our receiving department as a PM Receiver. He became very valuable in all areas of the warehouse including freezer, cooler and dry sections. He also became very efficient at catch weights, which is a key component during the PM shift. In time Jamie showed he was proficient enough in these categories to cover for the PM receiving Team Leader when needed. Currently Jamie works a mid-shift position, due to his excellent attendance and work ethic; he was moved to help fill voids in freezer/cooler receiving. Jamie also received training for food safety with AIB which is a third party audit service. Jamie makes himself available to work where ever and when ever he is needed.We as employees/owners here are very fortunate to have such an employee as part of our team. Nominated by Dave Zelenyak & Pat Virgil

May 2008 - Timothy Lord Tim has been working for Willow Run Foods for eleven years. He started working as a dry selector in the warehouse and soon after transferred to the cooler, when a position opened. Tim soon became the best cooler selector at Willow Run Foods. His errors were the lowest of all cooler selectors and he was also the number one cooler selector as far as the amount of cases that he picked. After a couple of years of picking cooler, a shortage of freezer selectors occurred and Tim requested to be transferred to the freezer. Once again he learned quickly and was a tremendous help in the freezer area. Because Tim did such a great job in every department he worked, he became a Team Leader as soon as there was an opening. As a Team Leader Tim is very versatile. He does everything he is asked to do and does his best when he is doing it. He is accurate, quick and can always be counted on if you need him! Nominated by Eric Zollbrecht

April 2008 - Curtis Ross Curt came to Willow Run Foods from a retail computer business in the fall of 2002. He has become knowledgeable in all aspects of Inventory Control, and is especially thorough with a critical part of our operation, catch weights. He oversees the rotation of catch weight product every day, and once a week does the thankless job of checking the actual weights of particular items. Curt is a dependable employee capable of working by himself but is willing to help out others if needed. He works well with other departments and will stay late if necessary to complete any task. Curt seems willing to undertake any project that he is asked to do, does a good job with daily and weekly paperwork, and his background with computers and printers comes in handy for his department mates. Nominated by Kevin Brown/Rich Koffs

March 2008 - Donald Baker Don started working for Willow Run about three years ago. He started as a dry selector. Soon after he started, there was a shortage of loaders. Because Don was doing such a good job in the dry we felt he would make a great loader. He seemed very excited about his new job opportunity. He caught on quickly and soon became one of our top loaders. Don does such a good job loading that we have drivers come in and ask if he can load all of their runs! Don is a great employee who understands that our goal here is to give our customers great service, so he does everything he can to make sure he is putting out the best load possible. Not only does Don work hard, he has NEVER missed a day. By setting a great example for other employees to follow Don is an excellant choice for Employee of the Month. Nominated by Tony Nanni

February 2008 - Bruce Stauder Bruce started with Willow Run Foods, Inc. on April 5th, 2003 as a Professional Class A Driver. Bruce has always been considered a calm, collected individual who enjoys his work and conveys a sense of professionalism to everyone he interacts with. Bruce regularly attends our Quarterly Safety Meetings and obtains the maximum Quarterly Safe Driving Bonus. Parts of his ongoing driving responsibilities include being a mentor, coach and teacher to new drivers in the role of a Driver Trainer for the past 8 months. Bruce does an excellent job in this capacity as he is always in proper uniform, completes all necessary paperwork, consistently makes accurate deliveries and obtains all appliciable bonuses, has excellent customer service skills and the ability to successfully prepare each trainee/driver for release to regular duty. Nominated by Len Basso

January 2008 - Roger Hurlbut Roger started working in the Information Systems department in July 2000. He currently holds the position of computer operator. In his position he interacts with just about every department. His daily duties include processing customer credits, researching issues with paperwork, process route extracts (pick labels, outs, shopping list, catch weight sheets and open orders) and daily ACH process, just to name a few. Recently, he has been responsible for training our newest computer operator which has been a tremendous help. Roger is a very dependable worker with an impressive attendance record. When Roger is not at Willow Run Foods, he serves the U.S. by being involved with the New York Guard serving as a Captain with the 102nd Engineers. Nominated by Joyce Darling and Francine Spicer