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Job Opening….Kitchen / Server

image2.jpgIf you, or someone you know, is looking for part-time employment, you can stop by St. Anne’s or visit www.stannesguesthome.org/employment.html to apply.

Hours: Mon., Thurs., Fri. (4-7 p.m.); Every other weekend: Sat. & Sun. (6:45 a.m. – 1:15 p.m.)

Kitchen (minimal cooking) / Server

JOB SUMMARY
Prepares meals according to the menu and sanitary standards set forth by state requirements. Assists in serving the meals while being attentive to resident needs and preferences and maintains the dietary area in a clean sanitary manner.

JOB RELATIONS
Is responsible to the Dietary Supervisor.

JOB REQUIREMENTS
1. Education: High School.
2.Training/experience: Previous cooking experience preferred, will provide on-the-job training for institutional cooking.
3. Physical demands:
A.Ability to tolerate walking, standing 90-95% of the time.
B.Ability to lift or transfer a minimum of 50 lbs.
C. Ability to frequently bend, stoop, stretch, pull, and climb three-step ladders.
4. Ability to tolerate disinfectant soaps.
5. Verbal and auditory abilities to respond and communicate effectively with the residents and staff members.
6. Ability to taste and smell foods for quality and palatability.
7. Visual acuity and observations skills in responding to resident dietary needs.
8. Hand and finger dexterity and upper extremity mobility in manipulating kitchen equipment and supplies.
9. Ability to tolerate temperature changes–heat near ovens and stoves; and cold in walk-in cooler and freezer.
10. Ability to work with limited floor space.
11. Valid driver’s license.

BEHAVIOR
1. Maintains strict confidentiality regarding resident’s personal life and activities as well as the internal affairs of St. Anne’s.
2. Uses tact, patience and sensitivity in dealing with residents.
3. Works as a team member in the dietary department.
4. Maintains a positive attitude.

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

1. Serves meals as prepared by the A.M. staff in accordance to the menu. May have to prepare minor dishes for a meal.
2. Assists supervisor with food supply inventory.
3. Monitors foods in storage for compliance of sanitary requirements.
4. Performs sanitary maintenance tasks on stoves, counters, cupboards, cooler, freezers, storerooms, equipment, and general areas.
5. Carry out instructions for residents with special nutritional needs.
6. Report to supervisor any concerns that may arise regarding resident’s eating habits.
7. Place food on plates in an attractive manner.
8. Monitor food waste.
9. Observes safety and infection control policies and procedures.
10. Observes sanitary standards as set forth by state regulations.
11. Reads department’s policies and procedures manual annually.
12. Assists staff with Resident Work Therapy Program.
13. Completes the daily check list at the end of the shift.
14. Go to the grocery store for immediate grocery needs.

Information regarding salary and benefits to be discussed with supervisor.

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It Takes Special People…

coffee timeThe following poem was printed in our resident newsletter, The Broadcaster, in March of 2015.  The source is unknown, but it is a lovely tribute to those who work with the elderly and the challenges they face.  Thank you to all the staff who serve our residents on a daily basis!

 

It takes special people to care for the old
It takes great compassion, hearts of pure gold.
It takes being able to see beyond age,
To see beyond bodies, to overlook rage.

It takes being able to look deep inside
The hearts of the aged, where youth still resides.
It takes understanding to look through their pain.
And help them remember they’re people, again.

It takes lots of patience to wipe away tears,
To reach through confusion, to intercept fears.
it takes being willing to give of yourself
To those who are feeling they’re left on some shelf.

Indeed it’s a calling from heaven above,
to work with the aged and show them God’s love.
Though rewards on this earth,
indeed may seem few,
God is laying up treasures in heaven for you.

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We Never Know…

Reprinted from Our Franciscan Fiat

Last evening, I was again working as personal care aide here at St. Anne’s Guest Home.  I often take the back stairs and pass hurriedly by some residents’ room on my way to tend to the needs of a few of their floor-mates.

IMG_1012If I know the person is there, I try to call out a friendly greeting to them.  If time allows, I stop and exchange a few words, asking how they are doing.  I think it is important.  It’s not that I’m so special and they should feel privileged to see me, or anything of that sort.  However, it is an opportunity to cheer a person up, or simply show them that someone genuinely cares about them and is interested in them.

Last night, as I went past a particular resident’s room, I was in a hurry.  I didn’t have lots of time to stop and visit.  I did, however, make the effort to give a friendly greeting, hopefully, showing that I cared…

I have found myself hurrying past a room with a quick ‘hello’ and then stopping, turning around, and giving them a few extra seconds.  It sometimes strikes me: “Nothing you have to do is that important that it can’t wait 30 seconds.  Go back there and show them they’re important.”

~ ~ ~

This morning, at about 3:45 a.m., I woke up to the sound of the phone ringing at our convent.  Sr. Rebecca got around to answering it before I did.  She carried on a bit of a conversation with the caller.  When they had hung up, I learned that one of our residents had just died, the one whose room I had passed on my evening rounds just hours before.

Although I hadn’t had much time to visit, at least I had made the effort to greet him.

We never know what will be our last opportunity to do good to another person, or even what effect a kind word or gesture can have.  I guess this is a lesson to me never to neglect any opportunity to serve Christ in another person.  We’re not guaranteed another chance.

Sr. Christina M. Neumann

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Checking in…on ‘the Scoop’

St. Anne's ScoopI would like to take this opportunity to check in with the readers of our ‘St. Anne’s Scoop.’

Would you please share your thoughts?  What kind of posts do you most enjoy?  What do you think about the frequency of it?  Do you have any suggestions?

Also, if you would ever have a topic of pertinence that you would be interested in writing about for publication on ‘the Scoop,’ please let us know.

Thanks, and happy reading!

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Not ‘monkeying around.’ Banana Bread Day is coming up!

Easy Cake-Mix Banana BreadIf a person wanted, one could celebrate almost every day of the year.  One such random observance is ‘Banana Bread Day’ on February 23rd.

This observance would not have existed prior to the 1930s, when banana bread became popular as resourceful housewives sought to use whatever they could during the Great Depression.  The availability of baking powder and soda around this time also led to banana bread’s growing popularity.

Below is a highly recommended recipe, originally printed in the St. Paul Pioneer press almost 30 years ago.

Another recipe, used by our dietary staff, uses a yellow cake mix.

Banana Bread (from Pioneer Press [11/2/1988] )
2 mashed bananas
1 cup sugar
½ cup butter
2 eggs
½ cup sour cream
2 cups flour
½ teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chopped nuts

Cream butter with sugar; beat in eggs and mix until fluffy.  Sift flour with baking soda  and salt.  Stir in flour mixture.  Stir in mashed bananas, sour cream and vanilla.   Stir in
nuts.  Place in greased and floured 9 x 5 loaf pan or 2 smaller loaf pans. Let stand for 10 minutes.  Bake at 350º for 30 to 45 minutes or until done.  

Heavily butter your pans otherwise it will be difficult to remove the loaves. Let the cooked loaves rest for 10 minutes after removing them from the oven.  Then run a table knife around the outside of each loaf.  Turn the pan(s) upside down and gently shake the loaves out.

(A special thanks to Bernadette Dutke for sharing this recipe.)

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World Day for the Sick

Who of us likes to be sick?  No one, right?  Nonetheless, winter seems to be a time when many of us spend days not feeling too well.  St. Anne’s, in fact, has had a number of residents in this condition recently, whether it be a cold or serious cardiovascular condition.

Today was declared ‘World Day for the Sick’ by St. John Paul II in the early 1990s.  This was over a hundred years after miraculous events in Lourdes, France, where many people travel, to this day, hoping for healing at the sight where Mary appeared to St. Bernadette.  February 11 is, in fact, the memorial of Our Lady of Lourdes.

February is also International Friendship Month.  With these two observances in mind, might we take a look at our own interactions with those we know who are sick?  What might we do for them?  Today can be a call to us to truly be friends to the sick.

During Bible Study last week, we made valentines for the skilled nursing residents at St. Gerard’s in Hankinson.  Today, as we also mark ‘Shut-in Visitation Day,’ might also be a time to consider stopping in to see someone who is unable to get out much because of sickness or ill-health.

We don’t have to limit the word sick only to those with intensive physical symptoms.  There are many others, including here at St. Anne’s, who could use our special friendship and concern.

 

 

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Do you need a lift?…a little history of the Elevator

P1010002.JPGLast Sunday evening, we had a little excitement here at St. Anne’s. Actually, it is not the first time in recent history that the elevator made life a bit more interesting around here. Our head maintenance man, Jeff, came over, however, and all was well once again. In the meantime, we got a little bit creative, escorting residents to the apartment wing to use that elevator since the one on the basic care side was not being cooperative.

In light of these recent events, we thought it would be fun to share a little history of the elevator, a device taken much for granted by many people.

Elevators, actually, are not the modern novelty you might think them to be. An elevator system may, in fact, have been in use when the ancient Egyptian pyramids were made.

As early as 236 BC, Greek mathematician, physicist and inventor Archimedes, made an early version, operated by “hoisting ropes wound around a drum and rotated by manpower applied to a capstan,” according to history.com. Nor did the Romans neglect vertical motion technology, Did you know that, beneath the Colosseum, they had rooms, pens and tunnels, made accessible by man powered elevators through vertical shafts. The Romans were not the only early civilization having used elevator contraptions. Around 1000 AD, a lifting device was used in Islamic Spain in order to bring up a large battering ram in military endeavors.

By the 1600s, elevator devices were found in palaces of England and France.

Closer to our own era, an elevator system was also used in France by Louis XV. Anyone having read St. Therese of Lisieux’s Story of a Soul may recall her use of the image of an elevator or ‘lift, as a spiritual analogy. By her time (later in the 1800s), stem or water-powered elevators could be purchased. In 1852, Elisha Graves Otis made a monumental invention for elevators, creating a safety break. Other inventions during this industrial century also advanced elevator technology.

Along with luxury for the rich, in more modern times, elevators also served a very practical purpose when stem-powered elevators were used in coal mines. The writer of this post can remember, as a child, being sent far down into the earth in an iron-ore mine in northern Minnesota.

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It’s Really Christmas All Year

By Sister Elaine Marie Roggenbuck

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Yes, according to the liturgical calendar, the Christmas Season is over.  However, “Wise Men Still Seek Him.”  And, Christmas cards and letters are still being delivered by the mail carrier wishing that the gifts of our Savior bless the recipient with peace, joy, good health and success all this coming year. A number of homes still have their outdoor colored lights plugged in lighting up the neighborhood with the Christmas spirit.  At the same time Sister Rebecca, the floor staff, and activity department are gathering up the various Christmas decorations, carefully packing them away in marked totes and boxes to hibernate until the next Christmas season next December.  In their places numerous cute snowmen, in various array, are appearing with Sister Rebecca taking them out of her carefully labeled storage boxes, and setting them around everywhere, offering much delight, and even giggles, as to their design.  They also remind us that we are in the North Dakota winter season, but their enjoyment helps us overcome the cold temps and just enjoy the many graces and gifts of our Savior, plus left over chocolate, Christmas cookies, and new warm socks.

So it is in St. Anne’s Convent where we Sisters live.  Sister Rebecca and Sister Christina decorated various areas, with Sister Rebecca putting up both Christmas trees, in the parlor and in the community room.  Most everything is still up, although Sister Rebecca did make a few changes with more cute snowmen.  Sister Elaine again this year set up the Spanish stable in our Chapel which is a precious gift that our St. Anne’s Guest Home staff gave us a number of years ago.  It is of a really unique Spanish design, adobe stable, three tall palm trees, figurines wearing cloth clothing, jewelry, beautiful, and artistic, sheep with woolly covering, each depicting that Christmas night when Jesus was born.  Each statue, be Jesus, Mary, Joseph, shepherds, wise men, sheep, donkey, all tell the story.  My absolute favorite figurine though is the camel.  He’s got personality!  Many years ago my Mother and I visited the Sioux Falls zoo and there was a live camel.  He looked at us with a snide look as if to say “Who do you two North Dakota gals think you are?”  Since then I have always delighted in the Christmas crib’s camel.  But, this guy, has real reins, a really fancy cloth under his saddle, and a look on his face that you can’t help but love, because it says, “Hey I like you. You’re kinda special.”

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Yes, Christmas continues all year.  The GIFT of our Heavenly Father, His Son, our Savior, keeps on giving every day, healing, forgiving, strengthening, loving. Remember, “Wise Men Still Seek Him” day after day, and God makes it Christmas day after day.

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Today is National Poetry Break Day.

I’d like to share a poem I wrote in honor of today’s observance.

This day is set as “Poetry Break Day,” and that is nation-wide,
Whether in North Dakota, or Hawaii you abide.
Today’s a day to take a break and enjoy this form of writ,
Or why not try and compose a poem, if you’ve got the grit!

A poem can be a special way to tell some one you care,
Why not jot one down when you’ve got time to spare?
Reading poetry can surely be a way you can relax –
Wouldn’t you rather read a poem than file income tax?

Here at St. Anne’s, I wonder if folks will take the time
to stop their daily goings-on to enjoy a rhyme.