Cargills Assisted Housing Program

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Cargills Assisted Housing Program
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Background

• Our facility at Schuyler is one of Cargills 8
  beef-processing plants in North America and was
  established in 1968.
• We are currently the largest employer in the
  county with over 1900 employees from a wide range
  of backgrounds and nationalities.

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Employment Challenges

• Maintaining such a large workforce requires both
  local and long-distant recruiting.
• During busy hiring times we must look outside the
  area to meet our hiring goals.
• We have achieved this through mobile recruiting
  in areas with high unemployment

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Employment Challenges cont

• The amount of work this entails has required us
  to hire a full-time recruiting specialist.
• We have also assigned a relocation specialist at
  the facility that manages the relocation process.

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Relocation

• New hires are provided with resources and
  contacts for housing in the area.
• Air or bus travel is provided by Cargill and new
  hires are given the option of taking loans.

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Relocation cont

• New hires are often relocated in groups of 20 to
  30 per week.
• Many of them choose to room together due to
  limited housing options and to lower cost.

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Housing Challenges

• Schuylers population increased by 33 during the
  90s while households only increased 7.
• Our new hires often arrive with little or no
  money and many leave family behind to come to
  work.
• Very few new hires arrive with their own
  transportation and due to the difficulty and cost
  of transporting, possessions such as furniture
  are often left behind.

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Housing Challenges cont

• For this reason, our focus has been on rental
  properties and apartments rather than homes for
  sale.
• Most of our new hires do not have the means to
  purchase a home upon arrival.

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Housing Challenges cont

• Many of our candidates come from larger
  metropolitan areas and are accustomed to having a
  wider range of housing choices than this area can
  offer.
• Finding available housing has been very difficult
  as the Columbus, Schuyler, and David City areas
  have been depleted of available rentals.

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Housing Challenges cont

• Our local businesses stand to benefit from an
  influx of new consumers however, without housing
  our businesses are losing out on this
  opportunity.
• Example We recently had a group of approximately
  100 new hires that were scheduled to move into
  the area but we could not find housing for the
  group.

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Cargill and the Communitys Response

• Area businesses, community and government
  representatives are working together for
  solutions
• Housing forums have been held and reference has
  been made to Schuylers Housing Assessment and
  Strategy Plan (available _at_ www.ci.schuyler.ne.us).

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Cargill and the Communitys Response cont

• Our PR Dept has met with the Governor and the
  Mayor of Columbus.
• A shuttle service has been started that is
  available to bring employees from Fremont
  Columbus.

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Plans for Future Challenges

• At the moment, the Fremont area has provided us
  with much needed housing opportunities.
• Schuylers community leaders are also working
  with various housing consultants toward long-term
  solutions.

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• Visit our websites
• http//www.ichoosecargill.com
• http//www.cargillmeatsolutions/Schuyler/employmen
  t.htm
• http//www.cargill.com
• http//www.cargillmeatsolutions.com