This Small Town Gets an Impacting Notice of a Recall for Boarshead

Several people walk into a store with a sign that reads “CornerStone Crossroads.”

CornerStone Crossroads has already felt the economic impact of the Boar’s Head plant’s closure.Credit...Cornell Watson for The New York Times

 

By Eduardo Medina

Reporting from Jarratt, Va.

 

Alexander Stith said the Boar’s Head deli meat plant in Jarratt, Va., is the economic heart of the small rural town. He had trouble counting the number of people he knew who work or had worked there.

So when he read reports that nine deaths from listeria infection had been linked to the facility, he grimaced.

“It’s a tragedy that started here,” said Mr. Stith, 64. “There’s so many people around here who work there. And it’s going to deeply affect us.”

The national spotlight on the plant has created a sense of unease in Jarratt and larger neighboring towns, where residents said good-paying jobs are hard to come by. Some said they feared what would happen to the plant after a federal investigation found black mold, water dripping over meat, puddles of blood and dead flies there. 

“I mean, look around at Jarratt, there’s not much here already,” said Melanie Prescott, whose daughter works at the facility. “So if that plant closes, a lot of people are going to be out of work.”

On July 25, liverwurst from the Jarratt Boar’s Head plant was recalled. A few days later, the company expanded the recall to include all the meat processed there. Boar’s Head has said that it is “deeply sorry,” and that it is working with top food safety experts to determine the cause of the problem, which it said was “limited to a single process” at the plant, one of several the company operates. Boar’s Head could not be reached for comment on Saturday.

The Boar’s Head deli meat plant in Jarratt, Va.Credit...Cornell Watson for The New York Times

  

For years, the plant in Jarratt was seen as a stable, albeit difficult, place to make a living in the town of roughly 600. Located about 60 miles south of Richmond, Jarratt has a tiny downtown made up of a hardware store, a soon-to-open Mexican restaurant and a small postal office accompanied by a wooden bench that Boar’s Head donated.

It is unclear exactly how many people work at the facility, but residents who have worked there said it was probably about 200. They added that the plant also employs many people from Gaston, N.C., which is about a 30-minute drive south. 

Levar Burns, 46, who works at a barbershop in the neighboring town of Emporia, said several of his customers had worked at the plant. In his barber chair on Saturday was Erin Shaw, 29, of Emporia, who worked as a packager at the plant from 2018 to 2021.

Mr. Shaw said he was surprised that conditions had deteriorated so much.

“It was a mediocre job, but it’s probably one of the highest-paying jobs in this area,” Mr. Shaw said, adding that he had made about $17 an hour at the plant.

The facility is now temporarily closed, which has already begun to have some negative economic effects. On a thin and winding road in Emporia, past white-painted houses and rusty metal sheds on acres of flat land, CornerStone Crossroads, a convenience store and restaurant, has had a drastic decline in customers, workers there said.

When the plant was fully operating, CornerStone Crossroads — also known as the Purdy Store — would serve $6.99 double-stacked cheeseburgers to about 100 plant workers every day, said Lee Beasley, a store employee. Now, it’s mostly just a handful of construction workers who stop by. 

“We’re the only store close enough that they had time to get here on their short little lunch break,” Ms. Beasley said, as a customer paid for a burger with cheese oozing from all sides. “So that directly affects us — and Jarratt.”

Beyond the financial implications, several residents expressed remorse that a major employer in town had sickened so many people in several states.

“I’m surprised, I’m disappointed, I’m sad so many people died from it,” said Russell Lewis, whose mother worked for Boar’s Head decades ago, and who lives down the road from the plant. He added: “From what I know from people who have worked there, it’s hard work. You’re basically in a refrigerator, and you don’t get very long breaks.”

On Saturday, several white trucks entered the facility, a large jumble of white and silver buildings that sit only a couple of miles from farms with light-green ponds and stacks of wood.

In a nearby convenience store selling batches of fried catfish and chicken, Jaquan Threat, 25, was reflecting on the outbreak. Mr. Threat said he had worked at the Boar’s Head plant from February to July, before he was fired for missing several late-night shifts that ended at 2 a.m. 

When he read the news of the deaths linked to the facility, he said, he was “shocked, only because Boar’s Head has been around for so long.”

 

Several weeks ago, Neal Powel, 22, who works for a trucking company that ships out Boar’s Head meat, was in the middle of delivery when he was told to turn back to Jarratt because of the recall.

Mr. Powel said he used to buy meats like ham from Boar’s Head because he found them to be cheaper than buying other products at the store. But, he said, when he heard the news, he thought, “Well, I guess I’m not buying anything anytime soon.”

New York Times