Because of the nature of our business with live turkey operations and processing turkey meat, we fall into the category of โEssential Business Functionsโ according to the United States government and as a result, have remained in production in every aspect during the COVID-19 pandemic. Farbest proudly owns that responsibility, and our workforce has risen to the challenge of producing a quality source of protein for our family and friends around the world during this time. The focus on safety of our employees has been ingrained in our culture for years before COVID-19, and that commitment has not wavered. As a company, we have been taking a multitude of precautions to protect our people beginning as early as mid-March, weeks before there were any confirmed cases in the counties we operate in.
The measures we have taken in addition to the standard daily sanitizing of our facilities include, but are not limited to: relaxing our attendance policies so as to not penalize employees who call in sick with symptoms of COVID-19, taking the temperature of all employees before entry into the plant and sending employees with a fever of 100.4 degrees home, screening employees for health and asking about travel, sending employees who are pregnant, aged 65+, or 60+ with compromised immune systems home for a paid leave, sanitizing the common areas such as cafeterias, restrooms, locker rooms, and break rooms every two hours, providing face masks and requiring their use, adding plexiglass barriers on the assembly line and in cafeterias, spacing tables out and adding more places to eat to encourage social distancing, elimination of all meetings and commuting between our facilities, staggering start times where possible to prevent all employees entering at one time, slowing the assembly line down before breaks and lunch to encourage social distancing, adding additional timeclocks to prevent crowding while clocking in and out, providing ample access to touchless hand sanitizer, daily communication about safety, company initiatives, and best practices in English and Spanish via handouts, posters, in-person communication, e-mails, and text messages, offering Telemedicine as a way to receive medical attention over the phone, and sharing our Employee Assistance Program as a solution for employees who feel anxious, scared, or isolated.
Our message has always been consistentโto stay home if you feel sick and to make decisions that prioritize your health and wellbeing. Again, weeks before there were any confirmed positive cases in our area, we had deployed an extensive procedure in the event of a confirmed positive case for identifying and monitoring the health of those deemed to be close contacts. We have adhered to, and in many cases exceeded, CDC guidelines for the protection of essential workers. Our processes and plan have been approved by the Indiana State Department of Health. It has been our mission to learn from others in our industry and follow local, state, and national guidance. Farbest has cooperated with and sought the advice from our local health departments and hospitals daily. It is based on this expert input that we are pausing our operations [insert date or length of time] to deep clean and test our employees per the direction of [insert entity]. At this time, there are [insert case number] at Farbest and we are striving to contain that number. We are thankful for the heroes that work at Farbestโour nurses and our workforce made up of essential employees. We hope for a full recovery for those affected and wish good health to our team and their families.
