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September 2014

Volume 5, Issue 12

Randy Arceneaux, President and CEO presents the “Employee of the Month” award to Jon Vanderford

“No Spring nor summer beauty hath such

grace as I have seen in one autumnal face.”

~ John Donne…(1572-1631), Poet

Fall Begins: September 23, 2014

Please help us congratulate Jon Vanderford for being selected as our newest Em-ployee of the Month. Jon began his career with AFI in the Print Shop. He currently works under the direction of Monty Scott. Monty credits Jon for working with a posi-tive attitude and says that Jon “strives for excellence” in everything he does. Jon works as an operator on the press that prints the grocery ads for our member stores so one can only imagine how beneficial it is to care about the quality of your perfor-mance. See Employee on page 7

Employee of the Month - Jon Vanderford

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It was a “Star Studded Day” as our Affiliated Stars graced the Red Carpet at

our Fall Food Show 2014. The Red Carpet Gala, “Premier of Savings” was a

GREAT success.

Thanks to all our Retailers, Vendors and Employees for all their support, hard work

and attendance.

The grand prize winner of $5000 was, Richard Shelton, Checotah, OK, the sec-ond place winner of $2500.00 was Craig Downing, Beaver, OK and the 3rd place

winner of $2500.00 was Tamara Robertson, Wink, TX.

Congratulations to all our winners! The Affiliated Family News

Tamara Robertson and Randy Arcenueux; President and CEO of Affiliated Foods

Photos courtesy of: Dale Thompson, New Accounts and Mendy Eslinger,

Advertising Dept.

Fall Food Show 2014 - “Premier of Savings”

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2014 Service Awards - Our Employees...The “Keys” to Our Success

L to R: Jimmy Ross, Director of Warehouse Operations; Billy Stovall, Director of HPL, J.D. Dorris, HPL; Roy Ezell, Food Service Buyer, Danny Hernandez,

Inventory Control and Randy Arceneaux, President and CEO.

Randy Arceneaux, and Danny Hernandez, Thirty –Five Years of Service

Five Year:

Santiago Aguilar

Sonia Avalos De Patino

Consuelo Balderaz

Buford Baze

Richard Cantrell

Adrian Carranza - PTG

Zach Connell - PTG

Lindsey Cook - PTG

James Davisson - PTG

William Drerup

Troy Eggen

Beatriz Garcia

Teresa Harris

Jacob Harter

Amy Hood

Phillip Laub

Michael Lopez

Tiffany Martinez

Mark McCoy - PTG

Erick Nunez

Michelle Pearson

Michael Piedra

Jose Rangel - PTG

Eric Rodriguez

Luis Salas

Roberto Sanchez

Michael Sasueda

Emmanuel Torres

Rene Torres

Michael Turner - PTG

Manuel Urenda

Jimmy Walker - PTG

Craig Ward

Kevin Williams - PTG

Ten Year:

Jesus Aguirre - PTG

Jeffrey Allwein

Angela Archer

James Canales

Edward Chavez

Juanita Delgado

Venus Fairchild

Donna Fox

David Hase

Mickey Hayes - PTG

Donnie Henry - PTG

Freddy Jimenez

Charles King Jr.

Jose Mani-Rodriguez

Jerry Mayhue - PTG

Stephanie McDonald

Thong Phommavong

Jimmy Price

Bill Richardson - PTG

Armando Rivas

Jeff Robinson

Donnie Shamblin

Ralph Telles

Tracey Tomlinson

Erica Urena

Jeffrey Williams

Edward Winston - PTG

Fifteen Year:

Ralph Avalos-Mendoza

Brian Ayres

Samuel Balderas - PTG

Clay Blackstock - PTG

Craig Byrd - PTG

Congratulations, to all the recipients! AFI, PTG and HPL

David Campsey

Leonard Carrasco

Tim Cates

Dewaine Doran

Yolanda Escamilla

Israel Guajardo

Tommy Hall - PTG

Glen Hill - PTG

Les McLaughlin - PTG

Rick Scroggins

Rick Sims - PTG

John Stevenson

Manuel Urenda - PTG

Twenty Year:

James Burks

Jackie Cannon

Derick Collins - PTG

Steve Hanes

Boyd Helton - PTG

Tim Johnson

BH Massey - PTG

Larry McDuff

Delia Mirelez

Glenn Peters

Lori Riojas

Luis Sanchez

Monty Scott

Kelly Skinner

Rodney Thompson

Twenty-Five Years:

Shannon Doss

Carolyn Duckworth

Andy Halencak

John Lybrand - PTG

Judy Osburn

Dennis Toole

Thirty Year:

JD Dorris - HPL

Roy Ezell

Juan Gonzales

Thirty-Five Year:

Danny Hernandez

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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 employ-ment. The Warehouse Management 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.

September 2014...Above and Beyond…

Courtesy of Jimmy Ross / Director of Warehouse Operations, David Trimble / Assistant Director of Warehouse Operations, Enrique Barreras / Dry Grocery Supervisor, Ralph Telles / Perishable Super-visor and Israel Guajardo / HBC Supervisor

AFI’s Warehouse Incentive Program

Affiliated Food Service “Wicked Fall Food Show 2014”

Grocery Top Pay: Brandon Jackson, Tchimwa Sougang, Erasmo Gutierrez, Erik Gonzalez, Rene Yarborough Grocery Qualified: Jonathan Cooskey Perishable Top Pay: Robert Reyes, Fredy Correa, Jonathan Ortiz Perishable Qualified: Jamar Jenkins, Orlando Olivas, Oscar Arellanez, Asafh Granados, Lazarus Perez HBC Top Pay: Delisa Urenda, Paola Lupercio Oroz-co HBC Qualified: Rachel Fabela, Shambriosha Munroe, Tiana Dominguez, Emily Duckett.

Above & Beyond

Amarillo Civic Center North Exhibit Hall

Tuesday & Wednesday October 7th & 8th

10:00am thru 4:00 pm Wickedly Hot Deals!

See You

There!

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Did you know? One in 3 children in the United States is overweight or obese. Childhood obesity puts kids at risk for health problems that were once seen only in adults, like type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, and heart disease.

With the beginning of a new school year, we want to highlight this month’s awareness, Childhood Obesity, by providing tips and tricks to help your children stay active and healthy!

Children will learn healthy habits from those who are setting an example for them at home. Make sure that you are helping guide them in the right direction by providing fruits and veg-etables as snacks, checking proper portion sizes, and limiting sugary or processed snacks. Also try to ensure they are drinking plenty of water and staying hydrated.

When making meals, get your kids involved in planning and cooking. They will have fun and you will be showing them how eating healthy

is easy! www.choosemyplate.gov provides snack ideas as well as recipes for nutritious meal plan-ning! As a family try and get out and get active! Walk-ing around the neighborhood, visiting the park,

and throwing a baseball in the front yard are all examples of how you can limit TV time and re-place it with activity time. If your children are old enough to participate in school athletics, this could be the year to encour-age them to do so. Studies show that becoming active and making healthier eating habits at a young age can help prevent diet related illnesses in their adult life. We want to see your children grow into healthy young adults, so please join us in the fight against Childhood Obesity and togeth-er we can all pass down healthy habits that will help our children live a healthy life.

Rebekah Blythe – Benefits Manager

Source: National Health Information Center, September

2014 Toolkit – National Childhood Obesity Awareness

Month

Easy as your...

A. Be aware of what you eat! B. Balance your food selection! C. Control portion size!

Courtesy of Cynthia Mauricio, WHSE Admin Asst.

Newcomer of the Month Juan Cabrales

Meet Juan Cabrales: Forklift Opera-tor, he works in Perishable Receiving under the supervision of Rodney Kel-lison.

Juan started with AFI on July 15, 2014. In just a short time he has made a great impression on every-one he works with. We look forward to seeing him have a long and suc-cessful career with AFI.

Riddle: David’s father had three son’s …….. Snap, Crackle and ?

Answer on page 8

September 2014 - Childhood Obesity Awareness Month

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What’s going on??

We just finished the Food Show in Ama-rillo and I want to thank all of you who attended and hope you enjoyed it and had a great time. As I spoke with some of you that attended I got some very good responses and saw a lot of you wheeling and dealing with some of our vendors. I know Michael from Roswell from Farm-ers Market was looking for a better price on frying oil and believe she got a good deal on pallet quantities from B&H, way to go Michael. You would be surprise what kind of deals you find at these shows. I also got some very good feed-back on our Specialty Cheese Display. For those of you that did not attend this show it was a massive Display that drew a lot of attention. You name any kind of cheese and we had it. According to Inter-national Dairy – Deli – Bakery Associa-tion research, Specialty cheese accounts for almost two thirds of deli cheese sales and more than sixty five percent of cheese purchases from the service deli counter were accompanied by a deli meat purchase. People are going up scale with specialty cheeses such as Gouda, Brie, Blue, and Goat Cheese as they are finding the taste and different flavors that are out there. We did a lot of different things in the Deli / Bakery area at this show so if you missed it you will have to wait till next time.

I would also like to congratulate Mr. Victor Castillo and Mrs. Ceci Castillo on the new Deli area that they put in the front center of the store at Rio Grande Supermarket in Canutillo Texas. Mr. and Mrs. Castillo still have the kitchen with the Charlie Biggs items and the bakery on the right side of the store which con-tinues to do well but also put in the new

kitchen in the front center of the store by the checkout counters. The new kitchen offers fresh tortas and burritos made to order of a large variety of items with an assortment of salsas and pico de gayo with fresh in store made flour tortillas. They also have lunch plates with rice and beans and aguas frescas. The chile rel-lenos are in store made from scratch along with the caldo de res and menudo on the weekend. Victor and Ceci are pleased with the new island that has more than doubled the sales in the pre-pared food category in this store. Norma, April, Martha, and the rest of the crew do a very good job so expectations are high and sales should continue to climb. I have included some pictures of the latest addition to Rio Grande Supermarket in Canutillo Texas. I would like to thank Victor and Ceci for allowing me to include them in our Newsletter.

Thank you Bobby

Labor Day is September 1st so make sure to have a display of patriotic picnic cakes, cupcakes, cookies and prepare for the Labor Day weekend. For those member stores that are in areas near parks, lakes, ponds, etc. where families go and have their Labor Day picnics, take advantage of this by preparing and displaying items for those picnics. Check your sales from last year and see what items sold and then order more of those. Also Sunday, September 7th is Grand-parent’s Day so remind your customers by making a display with some big cook-ies, cupcakes and cakes for the occa-sion. You may also want to make a PA announcement to make your customers

aware of the upcoming occasion and tell them you have some gift ideas on display in your bakery.

September is a good month to reinvent your department; observe what is selling and what is not. Decorate your area, use the PA system, try new items, give out samples of these new items, but continue to merchandise the regular items. Look at your numbers from last year; what items sold well for back-to-school? Or-der more of those items that did sell and make sure to make a display using these same items. Think of new ways to attract customers to your bakery; how about baking some cookies at peak times, the smell of fresh baked cookies will get the customers to the bakery. Make an-nouncements and give out samples of those fresh baked cookies.

Your order guide is your way of knowing when there are price changes; continue checking your order guides and your invoices for price changes; check your ingredient prices, but also check sup-plies; when the cost of your supplies is going up then your prices should go up too; and if your prices remain the same

this will in the end affect your profit. Re-member also to keep your product con-sistent. Make sure the weight of our products is what it should be, especially those items made from scratch, such as breads, rolls or any Mexican pastries.

The Affiliated Fall Food Show was last month and now is the time to take some of the ideas you saw in the bakery area, such as new products or displays or new tables, trays, etc. that you saw and use them in your bakery. Remember that all those display items are available to pur-chase also.

Jaime Ortega / Sales Manager / B/D jortega@afiama.com

Bobby Pena / Deli Specialist rpena@afiama.com

AFI Bakery / Deli News

Cont. on page 7

#915 Rio Grande Supermarket, Canutillo, NM

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Sweet and Savory cont. Did you see some new ideas for cakes or cupcakes that you might want to incorpo-rate in your bakery? Let us know and we can have a technician go out to your store

and train your associates on how to make those. We are here to help you increase your sales so let us know

how we can help.

For this month you should start preparing for the up-coming holidays. Check your sales from last year and see how many pies you may need to order for this year; all pies, but pecan and pumpkin especially be-cause these are usually the biggest sellers. Dinner rolls; did your run out? Do you need more than last year? How about cream cake or cookie platters? You need to make your plan to increase sales compared to last year, but this all needs to be ahead of time; re-member you should always try to sell more than the previous year. If you ran out of products last year, then it makes sense to order more for this year. Also, if you need help with ordering, ideas on making product or

making a display, or merchandising, please call me and I can plan to go or send one of our technicians to help.

Remember go for those sales and sell, sell, sell!

Jaime

#915 Rio Grande Supermarket, Canutillo, NM

Employee... from page 1

Jon has been married to the same wonderful woman, Janelle, for thirty years. They share four children; Scotty, age 22; Jenny, age 19; Courtney, age 16; and Laura, age 11. Jon says his family is truly a bless-ing from God. His life is filled with activity surrounding the kids and church. Jon considers himself a handyman around the house and he loves to fix things. Jon’s favorite meal is steak and potatoes. His favorite movie is Paint Your Wagon, a 1969 Western musical, starring Lee Marvin and Clint Eastwood. He gets a lot of laughs watching them try to sing. The most influential man in Jon’s life has been Jesus Christ. Jon says that Jesus has filled his life with blessings and he know he has eternal life with Christ in heaven. Jon is doing his best to guide his family in a manner consistent with his beliefs. Jon says he wants to do his best work at AFI for the glory of God and feels the people he works with help to bring out the best in him. Jon plans to continue working with the goal of raising his kids and making them self-sufficient. He will receive an additional 250 safety bonus points and a designated parking space for the month of September. Jon selected gift certificates from Jorge’s Mexican Cantina. AFI says “Thanks for all you do, Jon.” Congratulations!

Courtesy of Rita Koontz, HR Employee of the Month - Jon Vanderford

Employee of the Month - September

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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

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

Tomato – Basil Bruschetta Ingredients 1 can Shurfine Petite Diced Tomatoes with Sweet Onions, drained ½ c. fresh basil, chopped 3 large cloves of garlic crushed salt to taste 1 Baguette, cut into ½” slices and toasted (20 total slices) Instructions Combine tomatoes, basil, garlic and salt. Spread tomato mixture evenly over toasted ba-guette slices. Serve immediately

Check out your local Affiliated Foods Retailer for those great garden fresh tomatoes.

Courtesy of Val Clawson, DeJarnett and Western Family

Answer from page 6.

If you are thinking “POP”...WRONG!

His name is

“David”