Trieu Ly, Packing Department

Since I opened Macrina in 1993, so many amazing people have helped make the bakery what it is today. In honor of our 25th anniversary, we are spotlighting a few key employees. Each fills an essential role at Macrina. 

Trieu Ly is an amazingly disciplined and meticulous person. I admire the pride he takes in his job and the entire performance of the packing department. His gentle personality and touch, both with baked goods and co-workers, make him a treasured member of our team. He’s consistently accurate and kind. He’s one of our best.

Leslie

 

Between all the kneading, proofing, hand-shaping, baking, and delivery of our various products lies one essential step: packing. While easy to overlook as a major step in the process, it’s every bit as important. About 20 people work in our packing department. Our baked goods and pastries are delicate and must be handled with care, and our customers count on us for precision. Their businesses depend on what they order arriving on time and in excellent condition. Trieu Ly fills a critical role in this process.

Trieu in the Packing Department

We hired Trieu to as a packer ten years ago. By personality, he’s neat and organized. Through a translator, he says, “If you’re messy you waste lots of time looking for things. Efficiency is important. I think of the most efficient way to move through the bakery so I gather what I need to pack without wasting steps. At home, I’m the same. Just ask my wife.”

Trieu’s supervisor, Cong Son, backs this up. “Trieu is very organized, neat and careful at his work station,” says Cong. “In ten years, he’s made very few packing mistakes. He also helps me train new employees.”

Trieu and the packing team come in the evening and work late into the night, so that our products are fresh and ready to go in the morning. This schedule works well for Trieu because his wife works at a hotel during the day. When their two boys were younger—the youngest is now 19—this allowed them to have a parent around at all times to help with the many challenges and needs that come with raising children.

At Macrina, Trieu stuffs bread into bags and readies them for drivers. Pastries are packed by order. One of Trieu’s challenges and small joys at work is to look at an order, visualize how he will pack it, and choose a box that will fit without wasted space. “It’s like a puzzle,” he says. “You need to get all the delicate pastries into a box so that they don’t slide all over in delivery. And you don’t want to have to resort to a second box.”

Trieu’s Journey

When Trieu came to America from Vietnam, he had very little. “I had only two shirts and two pairs of pants,” he says. “Macrina helped my family and me a lot. They helped with living expenses, utilities, rent, and more.” 

The story of Trieu meeting his wife is more adventurous than most. The Vietnam War displaced a significant number of Vietnamese citizens. About a million and a half refugees wound up in camps in Thailand, including Trieu’s wife. In 1989, Trieu got a ride into Cambodia, then traveled by foot into Thailand, a month-long journey in all. He and his wife met, fell in love, and married. For a time they stayed happily in Thailand, but eventually, the Thai government forced them to return to Vietnam. Life for returning war refugees in Vietnam was not good. Trieu’s brother, also a refugee, had come to Seattle in 1986. He sponsored Trieu and his family’s resettlement in the U.S. 

“I’m very grateful to America for giving my wife and me an opportunity to work and to get a good education for our kids,” Trieu says.

He dreams of exploring more of America. His list includes skiing at Snoqualmie Pass and a California vacation. “In America, if you follow the rules of the road the police won’t pull you over,” he says. “In Vietnam, I used to get pulled over for a bribe no matter what I did.”

Trieu stays close to family, spending time with the kids when he can and visiting with his brother frequently. In his free time he spends hours tending his garden, and you guessed it, cleaning and organizing the house.

Meet Our Family: Tramy Thi Le

Immigration Heritage Month

This June marks the first Immigration Heritage Month, which was initiated by Welcome.us and officially recognized by the U.S. House of Representatives. We take pride in our racially and ethnically diverse family, knowing that we aren’t all so different. Each of us found our way to Macrina through our love of good food and people.

Led by Vietnam-native Tramy Thi Le, our Wholesale Department is made up largely of Vietnamese immigrants. Managing a team of professional bakers requires a wealth of patience, a heap of resilience and a healthy dose of humor. In Tramy’s case, it also requires expertise in two languages.

Tramy and her husband moved to America from Vietnam nearly 14 years ago. The couple was ready for a big change and a better life, and they were willing to make some sacrifices along the way.

Tramy credits adjusting to the chilly Pacific Northwest climate from balmy Vietnam as the biggest hurdle, not the language barrier. “I went to school to learn English as a second language at Seattle Central Community College. After I finished school, my husband’s friend was doing social work and knew where I could find a job. He introduced me to Macrina Bakery.”

Tramy’s previous career as a teacher didn’t exactly set her up with the knowledge she needed at Macrina to craft everything from scones to cookies for our expansive list of wholesale partners, but her love of cooking gave her a foundation from which to build. Tramy’s incredible work ethic fueled her passion and she spent six years learning everything she could in the Wholesale Pastry Department. She soon landed the job of Wholesale Pastry assistant manager and then moved up to general manager.

“Right now, I manage 20 people and many of them are Vietnamese,” she says. “Professional baking is fine for me, because I have so much experience now. I know each of the products; its color, ingredients, when it is ready. That’s all easy for me. But, the big challenge is training the new people. Some people don’t speak English well, or they only speak a little bit.”

Not only does Tramy bridge the gap between our wholesale partners and the bakery, she serves as a liason for our team members; translating, teaching and even transcribing recipes from English into Vietnamese. But, Tramy says, she wouldn’t have it any other way. “Macrina is like my home. We’re very busy all the time, but I’m very happy here. I just come in every day and smile.”

Helping Link: Fostering Our Diverse Culture

Macrina & Helping Link

Helping Link teaching an ESL class at our bakery. Photo provided by Helping Link.

We wholeheartedly embrace cultural diversity here at Macrina. Not only is this core value evident in the food we create, it’s exemplified by our employees. A large portion of our wholesale bakery and pastry teams began working for us shortly after moving to America from Vietnam.

Wanting to support our employees as they transitioned into their new lives, we teamed up with Helping Link. This nonprofit organization assists Vietnamese immigrants through a myriad of social services.

“We began working with Helping Link in 2009,” says Macrina Bakery co-owner Scott France. “We were looking for a way to provide ESL classes at the bakery for our Vietnamese employees, and Helping Link was able to come to the bakery to teach classes after work.”

In 2012 alone, the organization helped more than 1,000 participants access things likes employment, housing and childcare, and they provided classes ranging from citizenship to technology.

We are honored to be a sponsor of Helping Link’s 20th Anniversary Gala, which takes place on September 22 from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Mercer Island Community Center. Those wishing to purchase tickets to the Gala or provide a donation can do so here.