Pepperidge Farm to Receive Federal Money to Help Dislocated Workers
By Paul Ziobro
WASHINGTON – Pepperidge Farm Inc. will receive $258,000 in federal grants to help workers who will lose their jobs when the company begins moving its bakery from Norwalk to Bloomfield in late March, a spokeswoman for the company said Wednesday.
The grants will provide services such as résumé development, worker retraining, basic skills training, job search assistance and English as a Second Language classes for workers who will not relocate to the new bakery, said Nan Redmond, director of corporate and brand communications. She said that as many of two-thirds of the 337 employees at the Norwalk bakery will move the 80 miles to the Bloomfield facility and that all employees were offered the opportunity to move.
“We are very pleased to receive these grants because it will allow us to ensure our workers are able to transition to a new job with little or no difficulty,” Redmond said.
The U.S. Department of Labor gave $1.2 million on Feb. 6 to the Connecticut Department of Labor to help more than 312 laid-off workers from two companies in the eastern part of the state and from four manufacturing companies—including Pepperidge Farm–in southwest Connecticut, according to a press release from the state agency.
“The awarding of this grant is a welcome news not only for those directly affected by the closing of these companies but for the state as a whole,” State Labor Commissioner Shaun B. Cashman said. “It shows that partnerships can accomplish great things when they join together to work for a common goal.”
National emergency grants are awarded after a state submits a request and the grant guidelines have been met, according to the U.S. Labor Department. Redmond said Pepperidge Farm made its request last May.
The employee assistance programs will begin when the first stage of the move to the $72 million, 260,000-square-foot Bloomfield bakery starts on March 31, Redmond said. The Norwalk bakery, which is moving to the larger facility to meet what the company describes as a growing demand for baked goods, will relocate one production line at a time so that it can maintain operations at both bakeries until the move is completed in July, as currently scheduled.
The office of Rep. Christopher Shays (R-4th) helped track the grant through the application process and made sure it would be processed before the relocation began, according to chief of staff Betsy Hawkings.
“We made sure it stayed on the radar screen, got proper review and was treated with the attention it deserves,” Hawkings said.
The Norwalk bakery, opened in 1947, is the oldest of Pepperidge Farm’s eight in the United States. The company’s corporate offices, which employ 320, will remain at the Norwalk location, according to Redmond.
Published in The Hour, in Connecticut.
