Juana "Janie" Perkins was 11 years old when her father, a migrant worker who sent money home to his family in Mexico, decided to bring his wife and children to Garden City to live.
That was back in the early 1970s. In the years that followed, her father, Antonio Vargas, raised eight children in Garden City. Now 61, he still works at the IBP packing plant where he has been cutting meat on the production line for 20 years.
His oldest child is Juana, who is employed as a migrant coordinator with supplemental programs in the Garden City schools.
"My family started as a migrant family, and now I get to work with all the families who come here from where I came from," she said.
A year after the devastating Christmas Day fire that destroyed the ConAgra plant in Garden City putting 2,300 people out of work many displaced migrant families are making the same long-term commitment to the community that Juana's parents made decades ago.
Today, Juana Perkins and her husband are raising their own five children in Garden City. She is a city commissioner; he is a school board member and local doctor.
For its part, ConAgra has been mum about its plans to rebuild the plant although speculation has been running rampant since the company hired a contractor to put some structures at the site.
ConAgra spokesman Jim Herlihy said negotiations are still going on with the insurance company. "I don't think any of the parties involved want to make this a public discussion," he said.
Regardless of whether ConAgra eventually rebuilds, most of its migrant workers plan to stay.
Some found jobs at IBP or pursued careers in other fields they had only dreamed of trying before the fire. Others found jobs in Liberal or Dodge City, and send money home to their families in Garden City. Still others are getting an education. Many have moved in with relatives, waiting for ConAgra to rebuild.
"They get used to working in a certain place. Families start building roots. Their children are in schools. For years and years, they have been building certain relationships," Perkins said.
After the fire, school officials counted 1,100 students whose families had worked at the ConAgra plant and braced for an expected enrollment drop of at least 500 to 600 students. Instead, high school and kindergarten enrollment actually rose, and overall enrollment dropped by just 100 students, Superintendent Milt Pippenger said.
"It was a minimal impact. We are seeing some new students come in all the time," Pippenger said. "We anticipate we will be back up to where we were two years ago by this fall."
The schools' transiency rate had reached as high as 45 percent as migrant workers moved in and out of jobs in the meatpacking plant. But last year the rate dropped to between 30 and 35 percent, and this year it is expected to be even lower.
"Families are starting to say, 'This is a community where we are accepted,"' Pippenger said.
At the Golden Corral, manager Ken Geib said his restaurant was in the middle of a $120,000 remodeling job when the fire put ConAgra employees out of work. He ticks off the names of five other restaurants that have closed since the layoffs.
But sales at the Golden Corral have grown 1 or 2 percent every month since the fire, including a 20 percent spike in December after the chain added all-you-can-eat steak to its menu, he said.
At the local adult education center, six-week courses in computers and English have been running so full since the fire that there's a waiting list for them, Perkins said.
Some local businesses have fared well, while others marketing specifically to ConAgra workers have closed or are suffering, said Carol Meyer, president of the Chamber of Commerce in Garden City.
"It is difficult to lose a $43 million payroll, but I am pleased at how the community has stepped up to the plate," Meyer said.
At one point, unemployment reached nearly 12 percent but has since fallen to 6.2 percent. Retail sales are down 2 percent this year, beating expectations.
At first, some people said it was good to be rid of ConAgra until they realized that the loss was going to affect not only a segment of the population, but the entire community, she said.
"That is when many realized ConAgra is a good thing. Yes, it is smelly, and some days it is pretty bad, but at the same time it is good for the community," she said. "We need these people. We need ConAgra. It is a whole network. We work together."
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