Oser Communications Group

Joey Widmer Film Festival, which produces the posters that decorate the hallway outside Plowman's office; the 17 people involved this year in the annual Day of Caring, participation in the local United Way chapter, the annual Central Point Street Cleanup and a major sponsorship for the local Boys & Girls Club. "It's not enough for just David to be involved," he said. "We try not just to say we're community-minded and green, but we have some things we can say we've done." Helen McCann works just down the hall from Plowman's office. She's been with Rogue Creamery for 31 years – well before Gremmels arrived on the scene – and her title, according to the company website, is "Original Rogue." She's actually a second-generation Rogue Creamery employee, since her mother worked here for 60 years. "There's nothing that Helen hasn't done at Rogue Creamery," Gremmels said. Her accomplishments include that she's the fastest blue cheese wrapper in history, he added. "I just think it's a wonderful place to work," she said. "I love the people. I love my boss. And I love cheese, too." While I was visiting with McCann, Production Supervisor Chris Shannon stopped in to feed her some production data. He's been with the company for six years. He grew up in the neighborhood and had been employed as a roofer for a family-owned company When he went looking for another job, he started his search locally, and he was glad to hire on in the warehouse at Rogue Creamery. He started out the way most Rogue Creamery employees start out – wrapping and boxing cheese for shipment, but he didn't stop there. It wasn't long before the company noticed his hard work and sent him into a cheesemaking apprenticeship. "They saw that I was a hard worker and sent me over to make because make is a hard job – more of a manual labor job," he said. When he started work here, he didn't know much about cheese, but he knew about the company's reputation for community involvement and its commitment to environmental sustainability. "They're always here for their employees," he said. "And I love their products ... I wanted to be part of that." Midway through my day at Rogue Creamery, Gremmels walked with me a few blocks from the office and warehouse facility along Oregon Highway 99 to Rogue Creamery's creamery building and retail shop, where I was due to meet Production Manager Brian Moss and Quality Control Supervisor Emily Aldrich for a tour of the cheesemaking facilities. Gremmels has worked with the city of Central Point and other businesses to turn the stretch of highway through the center of town into an artisan corridor that celebrates local food and wine and that's also the home of the annual Oregon Cheese Festival. Lillie Belle Chocolates, the Ledger David Winery and Rogue Creamery joined together with the city and state to build sidewalks along the highway and reduce the speed limit on the highway from 50 to 35 miles per hour to make the area safer for pedestrians as well as bicyclists. The property owners granted easements and planted trees, and children who used to walk to school along the railroad tracks that parallel the highway can now use the sidewalks. "It was just a critical mass of small businesses that said they wanted to jump in," Gremmels said. He persuaded the city to cooperate by inviting the city fathers down to the Oregon Cheese Festival site just a little way down the highway from City Hall. There, they could see for themselves that the festival was bringing people into the community, bringing their money with them. That demonstrated for them what they might not have known before – that Rogue Creamery is more of an economic powerhouse than its modest location along the highway would suggest to people who aren't familiar with the strength of the artisanal food movement. "There's power in cheese," Gremmels said.

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