Community Based Prevocational Skills Class
​January was a busy month for our community-based Prevocational Skills Class. The Class got to tour Festival Foods, Chippewa Valley Outreach Center, Chippewa Valley Airport and Menomonie Market Food Co-op.

FESTIVAL FOODS
At Festival, they talked about how important their work culture is and how they focus on being a positive environment for both customers and employees. On the tour we were told there is a 10-step rule for employees; if a customer is within 10 steps of you, you need to say “hi”. Human Resources and one of the store managers gave us a tour throughout the store and took us to each department. There are 14 departments, so therefore 14 department leads. Some of the client’s favorite departments were the meat and seafood departments and the bakery. We learned that they keep their meat for 7 days and then throw it out.
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CHIPPEWA VALLEY OUTREACH CENTER 
Our class had the opportunity to volunteer at the Chippewa Valley Outreach Center in Chippewa Falls. Our class mopped the floors and sorted donated clothing and talked about how they like being able to help the organization. Overall, clients stated how they would like to go back.
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CHIPPEWA VALLEY AIRPORT
The Chippewa Valley Airport did a wonderful job giving us a tour. Dave Nelson, a Transportation Security Officer, is one of the people who gave our class a tour. He took us through security and gave explanations of how they run the security in the airport. One of the class’s favorite parts of the tour was learning about the restaurant in the airport and how they are hiring.

MENOMONIE MARKET FOOD CO-OP
The Menomonie Market Food Co-op was also very generous in giving us a great in-depth tour of their new store location. The class enjoyed walking through the aisles and learning about locally sourced food. They also enjoyed the new event space and asked many questions about potential employment.

A Special thank you goes to Representative Derrick Van Orden and Senator Jeff Smith for taking time out of their busy schedule to visit CDC to meet the staff and take a tour. Both Rep Van Orden and Senator Smith were impressed with all we do and how beneficial we were to the community. Staff was excited to have the opportunity to meet with our local representatives. Thank you for making our day!

Representative Derrick Van Order visited on January 25th 

Senator Jeff Smith Visited on January 26th