A publication for Contracts partners of Goodwill of the Heartland

Good BusinessWinter 2011 Volume 6 - Issue 3

Woofables Gourmet Dog Bakery Creates Jobs for Goodwill Workers

Packaging products for Woofables Gourmet Dog Bakery of Coralville is a task that the workforce at Goodwill of the Heartland takes very seriously.

And they should. The work completed by Goodwill Contract Services has assisted the owners of Woofables as they expand their business, now meeting the needs of customers from across the nation.

Owners Alex and Laura Taylor purchased Woofables about two years ago. At that time the majority of customers selecting the handmade gourmet dog biscuits were local residents, whose needs were met by visits to the store in Coralville. However, after finalizing the purchase of Woofables, the Taylors worked strategically to expand their online presence and sales to wholesale markets.

Their strategy paid off.

Today, about 50 percent of Woofables customers are served through a visit to the local store. The other 50 percent are wholesale customers and online customers who place orders via the internet. Both the wholesale customers and the individual internet customers generate special packaging needs for Woof-ables which in turn creates jobs at Goodwill.

Working with Goodwill has allowed us to keep focused on baking the biscuits, not packaging the product, said Laura Taylor, whose business card names her as the TOP DOG at Woofables.Taylor shares that she had

been familiar with Goodwill Contract Services from previous workplaces and was interested in hiring Goodwill workers to work on Woofables products. Once we had the need, we decided it was something we wanted to do right away. With the larger orders, we need workers who are interested in completing ongoing, consistent, repetitive work, she said.

In the production area at the Goodwills Iowa City Center, Contract Services workers package the individual Woofables dog biscuits and affix special labels for the customers.

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Woofables TOP DOG Laura Taylor showcases the offerings at Woofables

Gourmet Dog Bakery in Coralville.

Goodwill Industrial Contracts Supervisor Novelette Alexander and Tashiba Johnson package and label Woofables dog treats at the Iowa City Center.

Making the Connection

Do you recall your first job? Since 2010, Goodwill Contract Services has provided young adults with their first exposure to the world of work through a partnership with the Career Connections program.

Career Connections is partnership between Grant Wood Area Education Agency, community-based agencies like Goodwill of the Heartland, and area schools with the goal of helping high school students become productive members of the workforce while exploring their long-term career interests. Goodwill of the Heartland hires Career Connections students as temporary employees in Contract Services in both Cedar Rapids and Iowa City.

Melissa Kim, Employment Specialist at Goodwill, said the experience the students gain in Contracts is invaluable for new workers. Most of these students have never worked before, and they are learning the first steps toward achieving workplace success, specifically good attendance, listening, focus and respect. Then we help them look for a job while they are gaining real work experience in Contract Services, she said.

The students build a work history and gain references that they can take with them as they move ahead in their job hunt. Career Connections is a way for them to find out what they want to do in life, Kim said. While working in Contracts, they also earn a paycheck for their work.

Career Connections student and trainee Blake Lewenczuk, 19, of Marion, calls the experience a good one for new workers. By working in Career Connections, you get to explore the possibilities in the work world, he said.

Through his experience in Contract Services, Blake has learned that he likes jobs that offer a variety of tasks. For instance he enjoys building assemblies for Whirlpool-Amana since it includes multiple steps and requires focus on the details. In addition to gaining work experience, his time at Goodwill has allowed him to save money toward reaching his immediate goals of buying a car and getting an apartment.

An avid gamer, his dream job would be designing video games, or working with people who purchase video games. Although Blake feels he is not ready for the college-level computer science courses that a career designing video games would require, he is hopeful that the Career Connections staff will help him find a position that matches his interests.

Nancy Henkenius, Blakes supervisor in Contracts Services, said, Blake is always willing to try new tasks and never complains about any job assigned to him. He has been a big help on new projects for Whirlpool Corporation, and Proctor and Gamble, Henkenius said.

Brittany Klostermann, 19, of Marion is another of the Career Connections students currently working in Contract Services.

In the six months that Brittany has been working in Contracts, she has contributed to the completion of several projects sorting wooden core plugs for International Paper Inc., assembling gift kits for Nordstrom Direct, inspecting plastic bottles and opening

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Blake Lewenczuk builds a grill assemblyfor Whirlpool-Amana.

Brittany Klostermann opens packages of car fuses in preparation for repackaging.

Working with Goodwill translates to a good use of resources. We get to help individuals who want to be part of the workforce Taylor said We can keep baking biscuits and selling the products. It is a great solution for everybody, she said.

When one visits the Woofables retail store, it is apparent that the Taylors have gone whole dog to meet the needs of discriminating canines and their owners. In addition to high-end dog food, dog supplies and collars

and leashes, the store offers an array of eye-appealing and healthy treats for dogs, using natural ingredients (no additives or preservatives), and cut each biscuit by hand, with care.

The gourmet truffles in the counter case rival in appearance to the ones you find at a high-end candy store. There are fancy treats frosted with carob icing and other elaborate treats for special occasions.

Every flavor in the regular array of 16 different kinds of handmade dog biscuits has its own shape. Beefy Bones are shaped like bones. Bacon and Eggs biscuits are shaped like pigs. The Liver Lover biscuit is heart shape. Quackers are shaped like ducks. Puppermints, the breath-freshening biscuits, are shaped like molars. Bananables, made with bananas and other natural products, are shaped like bananas.

Creating the unique shapes for the biscuits is part of the experience that customers enjoy. We listen to what our customers want for their pets, and we try to

produce products that meet their needs and wants, Laura said.

We try to appeal to both the customer and to the pet, she said, and the new products have raised the level of excitement for both. The team at Goodwill is equally excited about the opportunity to help this local business grow.

www.woofablesbakery.com

Making the Connection... continued

Woofables... continued

Woofables employee Kat Jackson decorates specialty dog treats with a combination of

carob and yogurt glazes.

packages of car fuses for Lil Drug Store Products so that the contents may be sorted and repackaged.

Brittany appreciates the fact she is gaining exposure to working through her completion of many tasks in Contract Services. She recognizes that finding the right job is a process where one sorts out what they want to do for their career.

As part of her process, Brittany completed an internship at a plant nursery and really found it enjoyable and

enlightening. I learned I want to work with plants,she said.

The Career Connections experience helps transitioning high school students like Blake and Brittany discover their work interests through job shadows and internships. Meanwhile, temporary work in Goodwills Contract Services helps this new generation of workers earn money, build transferrable skills, and refine their career goals.

Woofables employee Danielle Garvey mixes dough and hand cuts

each dog biscuit.

Goodwill of the Heartland ContractsJessica Schamberger1441 Blairs Ferry Rd. NE Cedar Rapids, IA 52402319-573-0000

Thank You!

Goodwill of the Heartland Contract Services would like to thank the following businesses for their partnership in 2011. Because of your collaboration, 200 individuals with barriers to employment have had the ability to learn valuable job skills, earn a paycheck, and contribute to our local economy.

AlphaGraphicsALPLA Inc. American Prosthetics & OrthoticsFrontier Natural ProductsInternational Paper Company Inc.J.M. Swank Co. KapStone Container CorporationLC Pump LTD.Legacy Manufacturing CompanyLil Drug Store ProductsNordstrom DirectPMX Industries, Inc.Procter & Gamble Rockwell Collins Square D Schneider ElectricTru Art Color GraphicsU.S. NameplateWhirlpool CorporationWoofables

To learn how your business can partner with Goodwill, take a virtual tour of our Contracts operation at

www.goodwillcontracts.com

Constantly improvingthats the Goodwill way. A recent improvement event focused on 830 square feet of production space in the Iowa City Center Contracts area. The space contains work cells for the Whirlpool-Amana drain hose and literature kit assemblies and a variety of sporadic contract projects for other customers.

Event goals were to enhance the overall organization of the area and the storage of literature kit components, remove obsolete supplies and equipment, and to increase available production space to package oils for Frontier Natural Products.

The results:

Opened 373 square feet of production space. Reduced the square footage allocated to the literature kit project by 38%. Reduced the square footage allocated to the drain hose assembly work cell by 41%. Reduced the space designated for inventory storage in those work areas by nearly 50%. The redesigned work cells and inventory storage areas are now footprinted to maintain the improvements made during the event and prevent project sprawl. New project layouts and open floor space allow for better access to the work stations, especially for those using mobility devices. Room for more contract projects.

What can we do for your business?

Before After

Change for the Better