Dear Field Roast Family Members and Friends,
Another year has past and we once again find ourselves at the end of yet another frenzied holiday production season. We’ve been super busy mixing our doughs, grinding mushrooms and garlic, forming our holiday centerpieces into the beauty that our customers have become accustomed to expect from us. As I often say in our Monthly Community Meeting….this IS the time of our lives….and we are spending a lot of that time working together, side by side, making food for people. How amazing is that! We are so lucky!
This year has been especially significant for us because less than 1 month ago we lost 11 out of the 85 community members that make up Field Roast. I say “lost” because all of our employees workplace eligibility was randomly audited by the Department of Homeland Security. They found that the 11 of our community members were ineligible for lawful employment in the USA. We have always been diligent with our workplace verification procedures and have been using E-Verify for over more than three years – we submit all new hires to the government for verification of their workplace eligibility. When we started three years ago…all of our then current employees were “grandfathered in” as it against E-Verify policy to submit current employees…only new hires going forward.
The human face of this is only too well known to all of our employees. Today, dear customer, you should know, we are thinking about our good friends and co-workers we have lost. We are wishing them a Happy Thanksgiving as they gather around their families in homes all across Seattle. Many of them our most dedicated and longstanding employees. Employees who took the utmost care of making your sausages and roasts. Rene….our class clown, man with a huge heart, our official Field Roast DJ, father and family man and Safety Crew Leader, Marta, who for years managed our roast dipping process – getting the color just right – if you’ve had a Celebration Roast in the last 10 years…good chances are that Marta was there with you, Jorge who managed our Mix Room, coordinating production, managed our inventory process and made sure we made Field Roast just right, father of two, Francisco…a quite and deeply passionate man…who, as our lead mixer was behind most of the Field Roast made in the last 10 years, Petra, one of our original employees, whose children we watched growing up and whose husband came to pick her up almost everyday in their white van, often with some pizza for the house. Other’s include Roberto, evening mix room manager, Jose the wild footballer who always was a big force at our annual Field Roast Field Day Celebration, Elpidio, night mixer, Ismael, master mixer and cake maker and family man, Laura and Isabel who were a big part of our label room, Isabel coming back recently after a hiatus…..
Today is a day of gratitude…..and all of us at Field Roast are deeply grateful to have worked along side such wonderful and talented people…..we wish them, you and your family a special day of Thanksgiving with the simple reminder that “We are Alive….and we are Thankful”!