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The Child Care Partnership Project ConAgra—Paul’s Place |
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Description Workers at the Butterball Turkey plant in Huntsville, Ark. don’t have to look far to find a good day care center. They take their children to work. The Madison County Child Development Center, or Paul’s Place, is right next door to the plant and supported by their employer. Butterball worked with the government and community to meet their workers’ and also the area’s need for quality child care and after-school care. When full, the center serves 150 children ranging in age from six weeks to twelve years. Half of the day care slots are reserved for children of employees and are subsidized by Butterball, a division of the international food company ConAgra. Partners The Butterball Turkey Company and its parent company, ConAgra, joined forces with state and local agencies to create Paul’s Place. Other partners include:
ConAgra also has a foundation that funds early childhood programs in several cities, and provides occasional support to Paul’s Place. History and Development With only 3 percent unemployment in rural Huntsville, Ark., child care was a pressing issue for employers. When the Butterball Turkey plant in the rural town of 1,605 residents decided to expand from 250 to 700 employees, this employer knew it would need to attract and keep good workers. But how? The company soon found out that what employees wanted and needed the most was safe, affordable care for their children. Butterball and ConAgra decided that they would best be able to recruit and retain quality employees by making child care accessible and affordable. However, the company had no expertise in running a child care center and was unwilling to assume the liability and insurance costs. In 1991, the Northwest Arkansas Economic Development District (NWAEDD), an organization that advises local companies on setting up a variety of programs, identified the Northwest Arkansas Head Start as a potential community partner for ConAgra. By creating this partnership, the child care center was able to serve children from Head Start, Butterball employees, and the community. Because of Head Start’s federal requirements and restrictions, a second non-profit corporation, Northwest Arkansas Child Care, Inc., was created to borrow money to construct and manage Paul’s Place. The center operates Monday through Friday from 5 a.m. to 10 p.m. and also extends its hours to care for children of Butterball employees during school closings or when parents have unexpected overtime hours or family emergencies. Paul’s Place is a unique partnership for ConAgra because it involves the Butterball company and uses operational funds, not the ConAgra Foundation. In several other communities where ConAgra employees work and live, for example, it is the ConAgra Foundation that supports early childhood initiatives. These include: the Omaha 2000 Early Childhood Education Initiative, which provides a comprehensive, community-wide early childhood education outreach program and a pilot center for early childhood education; the Intervention Center for Early Childhood (ICEC), a family-centered program in California that assists young children with known or suspected developmental delays to achieve optimum development; and the Monfort Children’s Clinic in Colorado, which helps more than 15,000 children (newborns to 21-year olds) who don’t have health insurance and another 4,000 children who are on Medicaid with health care, including immunizations and well-baby checkups. Current Activities Paul’s Place consists of three programs, each with its own director:
Paul’s Place has the capability to serve 150 children. By 1998, 110 children were enrolled during the school year, more than half of them "Butterball kids." This number increases during summer months when Head Start does not operate and more school-age children use the center. For parents who must work unexpected mandatory overtime during the week or on weekends, care is provided and paid for in full by the company. Services for all children at the center are based on the comprehensive Head Start model, and children of Butterball employees participate in services offered to Head Start children, such as free health screenings. Resources Butterball provides the majority of the funding for Paul’s Place. Butterball donated the land for the center and the Farmer’s Home Administration provided a loan to construct the $600,000 building. Beatrice Foods, the parent company for Butterball before ConAgra bought the company, made an initial grant of $50,000 for equipment through the Beatrice Foundation. The ConAgra Foundation continues to make occasional grants to the center to pay for new supplies and equipment. The plant covers the day-to-day expenses for the center, which totals $250,000 a year. Butterball reserves 75 slots for employees. If fewer than 75 employees apply, Butterball covers the total cost of the unused slots. For those being used by Butterball employees, the plant also pays one-half of the $67.00 weekly fee. Employees with children at the center pay their half of the fees directly from their paycheck (and before taxes) in a Dependent Care Assistance Program. Butterball then directs the money to the center for the parents’ portion of the costs. Other support for the center comes from:
Results Although the partnership has not been formally evaluated, the center is a valued asset to the community. Butterball measures the center’s effectiveness by looking at its bottom line. Among employees using the center, turnover is half the normal rate. This lower turnover rate reduces company operating costs for recruiting, training and lost work hours. With a normal turnover rate of 100 percent for 700 employees each year, reducing turnover to 50 percent for employees using the child care center improves efficiency and saves money for Butterball. Sustaining and Replicating Sustaining the partnership requires demonstrating results. According to representatives from ConAgra and the Butterball turkey plant, the child care center has a positive impact on their business, the employees, and the community. In order to sustain this initiative over the longer-term, however, partners know that helping with child care is just one step in addressing recruitment and retention concerns for Butterball. They also realize that employees have other needs—housing, medical care and transportation—some of which are beginning to be addressed. Butterball views child care as an important first step. Lessons Learned Good teachers make a good center. The quality of staff is crucial to the success of the partnership and center. "If we could do it over again, we would pay teachers more from the beginning," said Charlie Romeo, director of employee benefits for ConAgra. "This is necessary to attract good teachers and prevent provider turnover." Growth is sometimes slow. A new child care center does not reach maximum occupancy quickly. Butterball had not anticipated the slow growth in reaching maximum occupancy. It takes time for word to spread and for employees and the community to gain trust in the center. Contact Information Charlie Romeo |
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