Kosher packing plant marks grand opening

‘Shalom’ in Hebrew means peace. In Gordon it also means Shalom Rubashkin, the boss of Local Pride, is coming to town. That is precisely what happened Thursday, June 29 when Rubashkin, Governor Dave Heineman, District 49 Senator LeRoy Louden, representatives of the Pine Ridge Reservation and over 500 townspeople were at the Gordon plant to celebrate nearly one year of operation with a kosher meal and ribbon cutting ceremony.

Local Pride, LLC is owned by the Rubashkin family, who also own AgriProcessors of Postville, Iowa. Opened in 1989, AgriProcessors has since become he nation’s largest kosher meat packing plant, employing approximately 800 people.

The Rubashkin family follows the Hasidic Jewish division, called Lubavitch, that strictly follows the religious scriptures of the Torah.

For an animal’s meat to be considered kosher, it must be killed by a swift cut across the throat with a sharp knife. This ritual slaughter, called shehitah, is designed to ensure that death is as quick and painless as possible. Two rabbis perform the ritual: one cuts the throat and the other inspects the organs and lungs of the animal to determine if there are any lesions or abnormalities that would prohibit the meat from being kosher.

Re-opened July 15, 2005 Local Pride employs 98 people, said plant manager Gary Ruse.

The re-opening helped fill an employment void in the area, since the previous plant owner, Premium Beef, shut down in 1996. Governor Heineman pointed out that in the first year the plant only anticipated hiring approximately 40 people and said he was excited to see that they have been able to more than double that figure.

“It’s every bit as important to grow Gordon, Chadron and Rushville as it is Omaha and Lincoln,” said Heineman.

At the ceremony Heineman presented a Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) loan to the City of Gordon and Local Pride for $505,000. The loan is a way of assisting non-entitlement local governments with certain large-scale economic development projects that cannot proceed without the loan guarantee. In order to be eligible, a project must meet all CDBG requirements and result in significant employment and benefit low and moderate income persons.

Local Pride fits in the category of employing low and moderate income persons because it is located in an Empowerment Zone.

The Empowerment Zone is centered in the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. The zone includes the most densely populated areas of the Reservation, covering approximately 1,000 of its 7,000 square miles. The Pine Ridge Reservation received the Empowerment Zone designation because it was determined to be a low-employment, poverty area by the federal government, said Fred Hlava, Gordon city manager.

Approximately 65 percent of Local Pride’s employees are from the Reservation, said Rubashkin. For every person living in the Zone that the plant employs, regardless of ethnicity, the company qualifies for a $3,000 federal tax credit.

David ‘Tally’ Plume, executive director of the Oglala Oyate Woitancan Empowerment Zone thanked the Rubashkin family for opening up the plant. He went on to say that “the goal of the Empowerment Zone designation is to reduce dependency. You reduce dependency through job creation, education and homeownership.”

He applauded Rubashkin and the rabbis for staying true to who they were by not changing their ways of life or language, likening them in that way to the Native American people of the Pine Ridge Reservation.

The Local Pride plant slaughters about 110 cattle per week, said Ruse. In the past all carcasses were trucked to the Iowa plant for further processing. Local Pride has just started to do some boning. By soon adding two additional rabbis, the company hopes to double its daily slaughter.

Before the ceremony Senator Louden recounted tales of when he used to raise cattle and would sell them to the plant’s previous owner. He was pleased to see the plant re-open and buy cows from local producers.

In his official speech to the crowd, Rubashkin asked “Why did we come to Gordon, Nebraska? I don’t know. Believe me, I don’t know” “Good cattle, good water, good people,” he added later.

In conjunction of “good people,” he went on to speak of the Lubavitch Rebbie (spiritual leader), Menachem Mendel Schnerson. “Our Rebbie died this day several years ago. Normally I would be in New York praying but instead I am spending the day with friends of all nationalities.” He went on to tell how the Rebbie, who had won a Congressional Medal of Honor for his good deeds, taught followers to embrace all people of different nationalities and wanted everyone to help each other out.

He summed up his wishes for the plant by saying “We wish God to bless us all with much success.”