Lidia Soto

I have been working in the retail grocery store industry for 11 years, and my journey into this field happened in an unexpected way. My family and I were running a bar and restaurant business here in Sonoma County, and when my parents retired, we sold the business. Oliver's Market came to me and said they wanted me to work for them, even though they didn't have a specific position at the time. They literally called me while I was in Tennessee for my nephew's wedding and asked if I could interview that Tuesday before Thanksgiving, and I started on December 29th. Within the first three months at Oliver's, I noticed gaps in training and food safety, and with my science background, I ran with it. Now I handle health and food safety compliance for Oliver's Market, managing food safety programs for five perishable departments across our four stores in the county. I deal with all compliance matters, from Sonoma County Department of Ag visits checking organic labels in our produce, bulk, and meat departments, to health department inspections twice a year at each store, to USDA inspections of our grind logs since we have full butcher departments where we cut and grind. I also handle ABC (alcohol beverage control) and weights and measures. One of my proudest accomplishments is that I've brought this little grocery store into the 21st century. We've gone from paper to digital on everything - all my HACCP logs are digital, my auditing program is digital with a new company I just brought in, our grind programs are digital, and I brought in a program to help us keep our temperatures where we take them twice a day and upload them to get a daily report.