US (ME): Backyard Farms workers conclude three weeks of community service projects

Tomato grower Backyard Farms says it plans to rehire all of its employees and will return some of them to work by October, following furloughs that are scheduled to begin after Labor Day, a spokesman said last Friday to the Online Sentinel.

Problems with crops at the commercial greenhouse, including a white fly infestation that required the company to destroy nearly half-a-million plants, has disrupted operations and shut down production. The company plans to have tomatoes ready for distribution in January, said spokesman Perry Chlan.

Backyard Farms, which employs about 200 people, won't say how many workers will be furloughed, but in the weeks leading up to the changes they have offered an unusual alternative to the regular greenhouse work as operations are slowing, Chlan said.

Last week, employees from the greenhouse concluded three weeks of community service projects at Lake George Regional Park, where about a dozen of them painted cabins and cleared and marked trails.

They spent six days at the L.C. Bates Museum in Fairfield, painting and puttying windows and assembling thousands of kits for students to learn about the natural sciences in the museum's school visit program.

"The work they have done has been incredible. We've never had this much help in the museum," said museum director Deborah Staber. "They cleaned the classrooms in the museum, went through and cleaned all the glass and gave the place the best vacuum it's ever had."

She said that some of the volunteers also said they plan to come back next week to volunteer while on furlough.

"I think they had fun and really enjoyed it. They were just wonderful, hardworking people," Staber said.

Source: Online Sentinel

Publication date: Mon 2 Sep 2013