At Ellsworth Cooperative Creamery, our team members are more than employees; they are like family. This culture has contributed to the longevity of our staff, whose careers with us often span decades. See our most recent Commitment to Craft acknowledgements.

December, 2022

Congratulations to Marti Gillespie on one year of service with us in our retail store!

Marti Gillespie – 1 Year of Service
Travis Gans – 1 Year of Service

November, 2022

Congratulations to Dennis Boettcher for 35 years of dedicated service to our organization!

Kelly Blodgett – 1 Year of Service
Josh Cammarata – 1 Year of Service
Dennis Boettcher – 35 Years of Service

October, 2022

A salute to Tom Messicci for his 43 years of service with Ellsworth Cooperative Creamery!

Tom Messicci- 43 years of service (and retiring!)
Justin Eggenberger – 5 years
Jason Fuchs – 1 Year
Andrea Boettcher – 1 Year

September, 2022

Congratulations on 25 years Norma!

Valerie Herpst – 5 years of service
Chris Johnson – 5 years of service
Amber Pinnerud – 5 years of service
Scott Kruse – 5 years of service
Vickie Anderson – 9 years of service (and retiring!)
Norman Lundstrom – 25 years of service

August, 2022

Congratulations on 5 years, Scott Tulloch!

Scott Tulloch- 5 Years of Service

July, 2022

Wow, a decade of service. Thank you, Lucas!

Lucas Huggett – 10 Years of Service
Dan Boley – 5 Years of Service
Chelsey Thompson  – 1 Year of Service

June, 2022

Congratulations on 15 years with us, Dan Daleiden!

Dan Daleiden – 15 years of service
Emily Maier – 5 years of service
Bryce Harris – 1 year of service

May, 2022

John Geister retired this month after a 50 year career with Ellsworth Cooperative Creamery. A great BIG congratulations and happy retirement!

Bill Ray – 25 years
Lisa Radkey – 15 years
Reegan Spriggle – 1 year
John Cormican – 1 year
Nathan Seipel – 1 year
Bradley Frier – 1 year

April, 2022

Congratulations to Carol Fletcher on a combined 30 years with Wohlt and Ellsworth Cooperative Creamery!

Rob Landis – 15 years
Carol Fletcher – 30 years

March, 2022

40 years of service is quite the milestone and in April we had two team members celebrating. Congratulations to Chuck Kreye and Marc Johnson!

Peter Elwood – 1 year of service
Brandon Bee – 5 years of service
Sarah Richardson – 5 years of service
Chuck Kreye – 40 years of service
Marc Johnson – 40 years of service

February, 2022
Brent Hove – 20 years
Danny McNamara – 5 years
Cassie Hewitt – 1 year

January, 2022

Not many can boast a 45-year career with the same organization. Congratulations to Brian Thalacker. We wish him all the best in retirement.

Tyler Schulz – 1 Year of Service
Robbin Randall – 1 Year of Service
Mark Peterson – 5 years of service
Brian Thalacker – 45 years of service

Join us as we officially celebrate the opening of our new retail store in Menomonie, WI!

Menomonie Store Grand Opening Event
July 14, 2022-July 17, 2022

The celebration kicks off on Thursday, July 14 at 4pm with a Ribbon Cutting by the Menomonie Area Chamber of Commerce. The festivities then continue through the weekend!

Join us for in-store specials, food samples, tastings, food trucks, giveaways, and more! Enter to win a Traeger grill, Brewer’s game tickets, and many more great prizes.

Everyone is invited–We hope to see you!

Each summer Ellsworth Cooperative Creamery gives enthusiastic college students the opportunity to put their education to good use and learn new skills through our summer internship program. The program is also a way for us to cover staff vacations, complete special projects, and build relationships with potential candidates who could fill key positions within our organization in the future. Yes, many of our interns embarked on careers with us after college graduation!

Meet this year’s interns…

Bailee Aisenbrey

Bailee comes on board as a quality assurance intern in our lab with her supervisor Emily Maier. Bailee had previously worked in the barrel room and wanted to take her knowledge of working on the floor to an internship. This made her especially interested in our internship program and how different departments impact production.

Bailee states, “On an average day I take sanitation swabs and check the cleanliness of production areas. Throughout the week, I take different kinds of swabs and samples. They are either plated or prepared to be sent out.” She also looks forward to visiting each plant because of how different the process is at each and the variety of learning each location has to offer.

Bailee will be going into her senior year at UW- River Falls where she is majoring in Food Science and Technology with a minor in Ag Business. She expresses that working closely with mentors has been essential to her learning. “Being able to ask questions and receive feedback has helped me learn about quality and production.” Bailee plans to stay in the Dairy industry and continue in Quality Assurance in her future career.

Roslind Anderson

Roslind is interning as our Production Supervisor, working with Jarrod Luther. She is studying Dairy Science (Farm Management) with a minor in Food Processing Technology at UW- River Falls and will graduate in the spring of 2023.

Roslind has been working at Ellsworth Cooperative Creamery since December of 2018. She originally started in the retail store excited to share her knowledge of being a dairy farmer with customers. From there she went to light packaging on holidays, then finally to the production floor.

“Growing up on a dairy farm, I always knew that I wanted to have a career in the dairy industry. Working for Ellsworth Cooperative Creamery has shown me a different side of the industry and guided me towards my future.”

“I’m a versatile employee and a fast-paced learner. I have been able to use these skills as a supervisor, understanding how to solve problems in a timely manner. For each mentor I have had, I learned new things. Each one has a different supervisory style and demonstrates different qualities, which has helped me find my own style.”

Roslind plans to continue her career in dairy production as she enjoys working in the manufacturing industry.

Sam Erickson

Sam chose Ellsworth Cooperative Creamery for his internship because, “Dairy is a huge part of our world today and any chance to help it stay running and thrive is something I want to be a part of,” he states.

Sam grew up 20 minutes away from the creamery which sparked his interest early on. His internship in the Health, Safety, & Environmental department has exposed him to a variety of projects. Some of his day-to-day tasks have him in production areas overviewing safety measures and contacting people for information such as lab results or quotes. “I like the variety the position offers whether it’s map-making or running around on my feet all day, it’s a great time.”

Sam is studying Conservation with a minor in Ag Business at UW- River Falls and after this summer he will be completing his senior year. “Ethan Hofland is my mentor, he has shown me the entirety of both Ellsworth and Menomonie locations for production and wastewater. He also gives me insight into the inner workings of his tasks and operations going on inside the plant. He is great at working through issues and explaining his steps piece by piece, so safe to say I would be lost without him.”

Jordan O’Connor

Jordan comes to the Ellsworth Cooperative Creamery as a fresh face. As our Hospitality & Marketing intern, Jordan has been working on a wide array of marketing tasks and spending some time in the retail stores. Some of her projects include product promotions, website updates, and preparing for the Menomonie official grand opening!

Jordan is the intern of John Freeman, Sr. Director of Sales/Marketing/Retail, and she states, “I have been able to learn more than I could imagine, every day. I have been allowed to take the lead on retail events, marketing projects, and product promotions. John has been extremely helpful and patient with all my questions and guides me in directions to best succeed.”

As her internship comes to an end, she will be continuing into her junior year at UW- River Falls majoring in Business Administration- Management. In her spare time, you can catch her on the UWRF Women’s hockey team playing goalie. “I am thrilled to be working for Ellsworth Creamery and I am confident that my skills and future career will be greatly benefited from this opportunity.”

The fryers are packed away as another marathon Dairy Month has come to an end. Each weekend in June teams from Ellsworth Cooperative Creamery attended Dairy Breakfasts and other events where they deep-fried and served up cheese curds to attendees.  Were you among them?

Attending these events take a lot of work and coordination. Through all weather conditions, teams hit the road—sometimes in the early morning hours—to ensure the fryers are set up and the oil is hot so cheese curds can be served up to guests as the event begins. They make it look easy, mixing up the secret Fry Krisp beer batter, and frying up tens of pounds of curds at each event, all while answering questions and holding conversations with attendees. Then there’s the clean-up at the end and the packing away of the equipment so it’s ready for the following weekend’s event.

The month-long dairy celebration culminated with the Cheese Curd Festival, which took place in Ellsworth on the last weekend in June. 25,000 cheese curd fans attended the event, sampling various cheese curd foods served up by 20 food vendors and ice cream, milk, and cheeses during the various tasting events. The most popular vendor of the event is Cheese Curd Central where festival guests purchase boats of deep-fried curds in three flavors—Natural, Cinnamon Sugar, and a specialty flavor, which for this year’s event was Pizza! One highlight was a visit from Twin Cities Live’s, Kristin Haubrich, who broadcasted live from the festival. Kristin got a lesson in cheese curd frying from our own Dean Hines and Shane Bamman. Needless, to say, they were a hit!

We know how precious weekends are, and we thank our staff for giving up theirs to promote Ellsworth Cooperative Creamery and our products through these events. Please join us in thanking the staff who commit themselves to show up with a smile every weekend in June for Dairy Month events. Their participation exemplifies their passion for dairy and our products.