The Texas Food Processors Association held their 23rd annual meeting at the St. Anthony Hotel in downtown San Antonio. The attendance was the best in three years. The program was outstanding, the social events were great and the scholarship auction on Thursday night raised over $15,000.

After a brief business meeting, Dan Sowards, Director of the Manufactured Foods Division at the Texas Department of Health kicked off the program with an update on happenings with food and regulation at the state and national level. He presented information on the goals and objectives of the Texas Food Safety Task Force that is looking at uniform laws and regulations (duplication), communications and education. Customer service, status of Federal preemption legislation and partnership agreements with F.D.A. and low acid/acidified foods were topics of discussion.

Duncan McNaughton, Director of Grocery Procurement for H.E.B. Grocery Company gave a most enlightening presentation on their future growth of the grocery business including expansion into Mexico. H.E.B. has grown from $4.4 billion in sales in 1993 to $7.3 billion in 1999. They are the 12th largest food and drug chain in the United States. Their Central Market Stores do $2.5 million per week in sales. They have six stores operating in Mexico with five more to open this year and 40 more by 2004. Their success can be attributed to focusing on innovation, marketing to South Texas, strong consumer franchises and efficiency.

Mark McClellan, Director of the Institute of Food Science and Engineering gave a very interesting talk on the institute and how it can work with industry in problem solving and many exciting programs being implemented.

Violence in the workplace was addressed by Branch Walton of Vance International. Everyone in business is vulnerable and there are many forms of violence or revenge including threats, harassment, theft, vandalism, tampering and rumors. He stated that you should have a zero tolerance non-harassment study. Interestingly enough homicides in the workplace are not at an epidemic level, in fact they are down.

Rich Sweeney, President of Sweeney & Associates talked about tapping the potential of your employees. Your best results come from managing people properly and spending quality time with that employee. Coach for exceptional results and identify and mentor future leaders in your organization.

Jerry Parsons, Extension Horticulturist from San Antonio had the luncheon crowd highly entertained with his satirical look at the way people look at food and eating.

At the luncheon, Executive Director Al Wagner presented the associations Hall of Fame Award to Ron DeVoe, former operations manager for Ranchstyle Inc., of Fort Worth.

Also recognized were the scholarship winners from Texas Tech University and Texas A&M university. The five Texas Tech and eight Texas A&M Food Science students received a certificate presented by Anne Connally of Canyon Specialty Foods and Paul Klinksiek of Van De Walle Farms. The students received their scholarship money last December.