Tyson closure creates uncertainty for Perry food pantries

by Michael Crumb

Food pantry leaders in Perry are facing uncertainty following the closure of the Tyson meatpacking plant there earlier this year.

Tyson announced it would close the plant after 60 years in the Central Iowa community, eliminating about 1,300 jobs.

Who loses their jobs, who transfers to other Tyson plants elsewhere and how many of those who are laid off stay in the community of about 8,000 people will determine how the Tyson closure affects local food pantries and the folks who visit them, leaders said.

Lou Hoger, the volunteer coordinator of the Perry Emergency Food Pantry, said increases in food pantry traffic over the past year or two have primarily been a result of increased food costs and inflation. It wasn’t clear how the plant’s closure could affect food insecurity in town, he said.

In the months before the plant closed, in late June, Perry saw an influx of refugees from Africa and Haiti, which caused a surge in pantry traffic until those new residents got jobs — often at the Perry Tyson plant — and started collecting a paycheck.

Hoger said he didn’t see an increase in food pantry traffic in the months after Tyson announced the plant would close. He said it’s because many locals — and many pantry visitors — don’t work for Tyson.

“We have several construction companies in and around Perry, and their employees don’t work for Tyson,” Hoger said. “I was meeting with [the pastor] of one of our churches, and not one of her church members is planning to leave Perry. Every one of her church members owns their own home here. They probably use our pantry less because they are more stable economically and socially.”

“We’ve had a gradual increase not so much because of the plant closing but because of immigration,” he said. “What I have heard from someone who works as a case manager with the Haitians, he told me almost all the Haitians will be leaving Perry because they don’t own homes. They will walk away from their leases and be relocated by Tyson to some of their other facilities. That would lower our numbers at the food pantry.”

Conversely, people who work at Tyson who may be 10 to 15 years into a mortgage likely aren’t going to walk away from that home, so if one person in the home is able to find employment but another doesn’t, that could increase numbers at the food pantry, Hoger said.

“So it’s very difficult to gauge exactly what the impact of the loss of those jobs is going to mean,” he said.

The local pantry is part of the Food Bank of Iowa network, whose leaders said they have been in contact with Hoger to ensure Perry’s needs are met if the plant’s closing increases food insecurity, which has already been at record levels.

The Food Bank of Iowa also operates two mobile pantries in Perry.

Officials at the Food Bank of Iowa said despite Tyson pulling out of Perry, the company has continued to donate to the food bank and its partners.

Tami Valline, the coordinator of the food pantry at Perry High School, echoed Hoger’s uncertainty about the future effect the closure could have on food insecurity in the community.

The pantry primarily serves students during the school year but occasionally provides assistance to families upon request, Valline said.

Traffic at the pantry has increased steadily since the COVID-19 pandemic as food costs and inflation rose. It’s unclear how the Tyson closure will affect that when school resumes in the fall, she said.

“We don’t have a gauge yet on how many of our families will be moving out of the district due to Tyson closing,” Valline said. “I don’t think we have a firm grasp on that until we get closer to school starting.”

She said some of those families have already found other jobs, at other Tyson plants or with other employers nearby.

If families stay in Perry and only one parent works, that could increase traffic at the pantry. If those parents find other jobs in the community, they may not need the pantry as much. But if those new jobs don’t pay as well, those families might visit the pantry more often.

No matter what happens, Valline said, the pantry will be ready when school starts this fall.

“We’ll stock the pantry and make sure it’s full when school starts,” she explained. “If more people need access, we’re ready to go and meet that need.”