Garden City ? Many displaced meatpacking employees are surviving on minimum wage jobs and charity more than a year after fire swept through the ConAgra plant in Garden City.

ConAgra had said it would decide by April 1, 2001, if it would rebuild from the December 2000 blaze. But that date passed more than a year ago, and still there has not been an announcement from the company that had been the city’s second-largest employer.

Many employees have remained in Garden City. School officials had predicted an enrollment drop of at least 500 to 600 students after the fire. Instead, high school and kindergarten enrollment rose, while overall enrollment dropped by just 100 students, said Supt. Milt Pippenger.

“People are still here living on the hope their job will return,” said Penny Schwab, director of Mexican-American-Ministries.

She was one of several panel speakers talking about the ConAgra fire aftermath Thursday at the Five-State Multicultural Conference at Garden City’s Plaza Hotel.

The panel of social service agencies estimated about 30 percent of the people they help are displaced ConAgra workers.

“There’s people who are working minimum wage jobs just to stay in town because their children are established here,” said Salvation Army Capt. Harold Frost.