Immigrants drive success of rural meatpacking, but poverty remains high in places with plants

In a three-part series, Harvest Public Media is examining the lives of rural immigrant children whose parents work for Tyson Foods processing plants. The first story, which ran Monday, goes to Noel, Mo. (map); the second story, which ran today, to Garden City, Kan. Harvest reports: "The largest packing houses that were once in larger cities such as Chicago and Kansas City are now primarily located in remote rural areas. As a result, many rural communities today are struggling to serve the needs of an influx of immigrants."

Of the 220 children that attend Noel Elementary School, about 75 percent are immigrants or refugees who work at the slaughterhouse, Fentress Swanson reports. But poverty runs deep, with 88 percent of children at the school qualifying for free or reduced meals, and more than 90 percent of immigrant students qualifying. While the school's attendance has dropped from 583 students to 401 since 2008, the number of homeless children has more than doubled, from 23 to 53. Tyson, in an email, told Swanson that the Noel slaughterhouse employs 1,600, and most of them are Mexicans who came to the town of 1,800 in the 1990s. Other immigrants are from Africa and Myanmar (Burma), and it's not uncommon to hear 11 different languages spoken in a town that covers only two square miles. (Harvest Media graphic)

While many say the immigrants are more than welcome to the town, some immigrants have claimed to be victims of racist attacks, especially the Somali population, which began arriving late in the lasyt decade, Swanson reports. "In August, tires on more than a dozen cars they owned were slashed. Somalis also say they are not welcome at Kathy’s Kountry Kitchen, a diner on Main Street where servers wear T-shirts saying ‘I got caught eating at the KKK.'" (Read more)

Garden City (left) resembles Noel in its make-up. "Since 1980, when the first meatpacking plant was built in Garden City, immigrants and refugees have streamed into town, lured here by the promise of steady – if brutally hard – work and a better life," Peggy Lowe writes. "Fueled by the cattle feedlots surrounding Garden City, Dodge City and Liberal, companies built their huge beef factories out here, employing thousands with better than minimum wages." The migration has more than doubled the town's population to 30,000, and Tyson employs 3,400.

As in Noel, poverty runs deep among Garden City immigrants, with more than 75 percent of students in District 457 qualifying for free or reduced-price meals. "The school district, designated as 'minority majority' status because 76.8 percent of the students are minorities, has kids who are Hispanic, Burmese, Somali, Ethiopian or are from another 10 countries. Documents are printed in several languages and signs at the district offices are printed in English, Spanish and Vietnamese." Housing has also been a problem, with 341 homeless students, or 4 percent of the student population, compared to 43 homeless students in 2007. (Read more) (Harvest Media graphic: U.S. meat plants that employ 1,000 or more people)