ASHEBORO — Mountaire Farms is extending its goodwill program to include a new spring event that will provide Easter meals for people near its plant in Siler City.
It’s called “Easter for Thousands” and the company will expect employees and community members will participate in the endeavor Saturday morning.
“We noticed a need in the community,” said Sasha Duncan, the community relations manager for Mountaire Farms of North Carolina. “It’s something that we’ve done in the past at Thanksgiving and now has expanded to Christmas and Easter.”
The participants will pack and have ready to distribute approximately 3,000 boxed meals that will go to areas in need in multiple counties, including Chatham, Lee, Moore and Randolph.
Each meal box contains a Mountaire Farms roaster chicken and the fixings that feeds a family of four during the holiday period.
Duncan said elected officials from Siler City and Pittsboro along with state Sen. Dave Craven are among those anticipated to be on hand.
There are about 1,800 employees of Mountaire Farms in the region.
“We’re really trying to introduce the community to our employees,” Duncan said.
Mountaire Farms opened in Siler City in April 2019. But for more than two decades, the company’s processing plants in Delaware and Maryland have been involved with similar outreach programs.
Mountaire Farms is partnering with Piggly Wiggly in Siler City to fill the boxes.
“Not every day you purchase groceries for 3,000,” Duncan said.
Volunteers will gather at 7:30 a.m. and the event will begin at 8 a.m. with a brief ceremony. Then it’s an assembly-line set-up in the plant’s employee parking lot with packing and loading the meals to groups that will be arriving to distribute the meals. This might last up to 3½ hours.
Duncan said requests from at least 76 organizations were accepted, so there will be quite a line of vehicles involved in the pick-up. In Randolph County, those organizations include some based in Asheboro, Franklinville, Ramseur and Staley.
Each box will have a Mountaire Farms roaster chicken along with plenty of items for side dishes.
Mountaire Farms has impact throughout the region, Duncan said. The company has contract farms in 17 counties in North Carolina, including Chatham, Moore and Randolph counties.
