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By Joel Erickson for the Tribune

Educate, communicate and celebrate is the mantra for the collaborative effort called Select Foods.

As Plant Manager Jeff Woodside tells it, this is the driving force for everyone working at Select Foods. There is no one beating on the desk telling employees what they need to be doing. The management staff integrate with the workers by constantly communicating and educating to successfully process 1.4 million pounds of pork per day.

Each day 25 trucks deliver raw material (unprocessed pork), and 25 trucks leave with finished goods (processed pork): loins, picnics, butts and ribs.

Given that each day there are six to 10 different ethnic groups represented by the employees, how is this meat processed effectively?

Different languages (Karen, Hispanic and French), different customs and different foods (fried rice, tamales, burritos, egg rolls) all blend in a cohesive community.

Seventeen different countries are represented by the 532 employees and 45 management positions, including Cuba, Cambodia, Guatemala, Egypt, Thailand, Nicaragua and Micronesia, and others.

Woodside said their employees do a fantastic job, so they like to make it fun while they are there.

They have art fairs where they provide art materials and then the employees begin to create. They have wood carving, watercolor and photography.

One woman before starting to work at Select Foods decorated cakes, so she was invited to paint with acrylics and watercolors. She came up with some beautiful pieces.

Members of the Albert Lea Art Center came in and judged the art created by the employees. The Art Center even displayed some of the work.
And it doesn’t end there.

Woodside said once a month they put on a meal, and management serves the meal to everyone on two shifts.

They also celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas by workers bringing a potluck meal. So, everyone gets to experience the cultural cuisines. Many Karen people came from refugee camps in Thailand after fleeing Myanmar or Burma. There are eight refugee camps of about 50,000 people each in Thailand.

One of the Karen workers said there is no work in these camps so it is a very difficult life. He considers himself blessed to be working at Select Foods.

Transitional housing is a great need when people first come to Albert Lea, so Select Foods took this on as a challenge. People wanted to work, Woodside said, but they had no place to live, so Select Foods rented an apartment building.

It’s not long-term housing, it’s just transitional. Workers spend a few weeks living in an apartment until they can find something more permanent.

Another issue, according to Woodside, is that many of the workers don’t have a driver’s license and don’t have cars, so Select Foods purchased a van.

Every day a group of workers are picked up in Austin and in Albert Lea. The driver, after his release from prison about four years ago, daily celebrates the opportunity to provide transportation every single day.

The operation at Select Foods runs from the bottom up. The supervisors treat people with dignity, respect and fairness.

Woodside said if a worker sees a problem with safety, they give the person permission to shut down a processing line. And then they try to solve the problem because safety is the top priority. This creates a culture of mutuality and respect.

This collaborative effort creates an infectious environment where everyone works hard to sustain a meaningful environment. It is called working with meaning and purpose.