McDonald’s doles out letter jackets to 3 former employees

RIO RANCHO — As part of McDonald’s national “1 in 8” initiative, three community leaders in the metro area were recognized as former employees on Oct. 26 at McDonald’s on NM 528.

It is believed that one in eight Americans has worked at McDonald’s at some point in their lives, and many go on to successful careers — ranging from astronauts to teachers, to playwrights and business owners.

Working at McDonald’s offers critical life skills beneficial to any career later in life, and a trio of former McDonald’s employees — including one who worked at that very same McDonald’s 32 years ago — were honored with letterman’s jackets.

Gregg Hull, the mayor of Rio Rancho; Jaime Gallardo, the director of membership with the Rio Rancho Regional Chamber of Commerce; and Sarah Moulton, former volunteer programs manager at Ronald McDonald House and now an administrative assistant at Holman’s, were each presented with limited-edition jackets designed by Kendall Hurns — also a McDonald’s alumnus and founder of lifestyle brand Robotic Minds Concept.

Everyone among the “1 in 8” membership gets access to unique programming, such as opportunities to attend exclusive events, mentorships with notable alums and reunions with former team members.

Hull beamed when he donned his new jacket, saying, “I always thought they were so cool, but I never got one.”

Mouton, coincidentally, also worked at an Arizona McDonald’s, probably not far from the one that employed Hull; she worked at one in Tempe, another Phoenix suburb. She later worked as a teacher and a librarian.

Working at this Rio Rancho McDonald’s, Gallardo said, “(made me) realize customers always come first” and also showed him “more importantly, how to work as a team,” which comes in handy at the RRRCC.

A report released Oct. 23 by the New Mexico Department of Workforce Solutions revealed that unemployment filings in New Mexico remain steady at 3.7%. McDonald’s, one of the largest employers in the state, provides Archways to Opportunities in which employees may access free tuition, English as a Second Language courses and earn their high school diploma, along with other opportunities for advancement.

Hull remembers his days at Mickey D’s in Mesa

He was 16, rode his bike two miles and on Saturdays, rose before 4:30 a.m. for what the City of Vision mayor termed his “first W-2 job.”

Remember the old McDonald’s slogan, “We do it all for you”? At the McDonald’s on the northeast corner of Alma School Road and West Guadalupe Road, young Greggory Hull did it all for them.

“That particular McDonald’s job taught me a lot of skills because I don’t think people realize how many jobs there are inside McDonald’s,” he said. “I started off with the maintenance crew, where I’d have to mop the floors, clean the walls, clean the bathrooms, get the store ready. I’d come in at 4:30 in the morning. … From there, they teach you food preparation, food handling, how to be sanitary around certain things, register accounting, inventory and one of the less-desirable jobs at the end of the night when you’re closing. You’d have to go through the waste bin, where if you didn’t sell that hamburger and it went into the waste bin, you had to do the waste count — that inventory had to be subtracted at the end of the day.”

He referred to prepared burgers that didn’t sell beyond a certain time and had to be tossed. Other chores he performed: cleaning the lobby, cleaning the bathroom, cleaning the parking lot, cleaning the drive-thru, hosing down the driveway, getting up on the roof and cleaning the grease filters from the grills.

“I worked there about a year and a half,” Hull said, starting at about $2.75 hourly “and I think by the time I left there I was making close to $5 an hour.”

Even today, Hull uses at least one of his burger days skills decades later: “Being at the register and learning how to talk to people is a skill that I very much use today, communication skills.”