A little charity would be welcome
By Patrick Kelley
Originally published 01:17 p.m., February 14, 2008
Updated 01:17 p.m., February 14, 2008
Finally, there is a little good news — sort of — out of Tyson Foods’ headquarters.
Last week, Tyson posted a news release on its Web site that the company had donated “50,000 pounds of much needed protein to the Arkansas Food Bank Network.” The news release said the donation brought to more than 50 million pounds the amount of food donated by the company since 2000.
That is truly generous, and should be applauded.
Now a word in Tyson’s ear: In a month or so, some of that beef, chicken and pork would come in mighty handy in Emporia.
Tyson has announced that it is putting about 1,800 Emporians out of work. Not all of them are going to find work right away and those people and their families are going to need all the help they can get to stay fed and healthy. Emporia is preparing to do what it can to support the families of the displaced workers, but the burden is going to be great and the city’s resources will be stretched.
The employees of Tyson have always been generous when Emporia needed their help, and now it is time for Emporia to return the favor.
But Emporia’s Salvation Army food pantry is fairly limited in the food it can handle. There is not much space, and cold storage is almost nonexistent. If people are generous, there should be plenty of pasta, beans, rice and canned vegetables to hand out — maybe even a few cans of tuna or chicken. What will be in short supply is fresh or frozen meat.
Tyson could fix that. Tyson could also solve the storage problem. Surely there is enough cold-storage room at the Emporia plant to set aside a corner for some donated meat.
We’re not asking Tyson to step in and solve the problem of hunger in Emporia — just that the company, which still has a plant in Emporia, join the rest of the community in doing what it can to help.
After all, these workers and their families are our neighbors.
And they were once Tyson employees.
trashman (anonymous) says...
Great Idea ! What you don't realize is that the plant itself
doesn't have freezer space, that's all next door at the Cold
Storage facility. So that would have to be the location for
any frozen meats.
February 14, 2008 at 3:28 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )