The Quaker Oats Company has confirmed that it is permanently closing its factory at 1703 E. Voorhees St. in Danville. More than 500 employees will be affected, Mayor Rickey Williams Jr. said.
“Today, we learned that after 65 years of production in Danville, Pepsico will close Quaker Oats effective June 8, 2024,” officials from the city of Danville, Vermilion Advantage, Danville Area Community College and Vermilion County Works said Wednesday.
“The business has already ceased production but will continue to pay their employees through that time. While this shocks and saddens us, we will unite as a community to help those who have lost their employment.”
The coalition said they are working together to support Quaker Oats employees and their families, such as by updating a list of local job opportunities and discussing training opportunities to help workers move into other local positions.
Williams said he is unsure whether any of the affected employees are being transferred or if they are all being laid off.
A mass layoff “has a terrible impact on the employees and their families,” he said. “It also causes some anxiety to the community at large as well.”
However, he added that there are other employers looking for workers, and local leaders hope to connect Quaker Oats workers with existing opportunities.
“It’s going to be a blow to the community,” said Mike Marron, president and CEO of Vermilion Advantage. “And we’ve had a lot of challenges over the last few decades in this community, and this is just the latest one. And it’s not welcome news, but we’re going to do what we have to do, and we’re going to get through it.”
According to the Food and Drug Administration, Quaker Oats issued recalls of several granola bars, cereals and cereal bars in late 2023 and early 2024 due to potential salmonella contamination.
“Following the Quaker recall in December 2023, we paused production at the (Danville) facility,” the company told The News-Gazette. “After a detailed review, we determined that meeting our future manufacturing needs would require an extended closure for enhancements and modernization. In order to continue the timely delivery of Quaker products trusted by consumers since 1877, we determined production would need to permanently shift to other facilities.”
The company said it recognizes that closing the factory will have an impact on its workers and the surrounding community.
“We have notified our workforce and are working closely with our employees and local community officials to provide a supportive transition,” Quaker Oats officials said.
Marron said that community leaders are “united” and are working together to respond to the situation. He’s spoken with Williams about the matter, as well as DACC President Stephen Nacco, state Sen. Paul Faraci, D-Champaign, and state Rep. Brandun Schweizer, R-Danville.
“If there’s nothing that we can to do to prevent this, then we have to do whatever we can do to assist the employees who are going to be in a very tough period of transition, because there are a lot of good people there,” Marron said. “And we want to keep those people in this community. We want to keep them employed.”
This work will likely include sharing helpful resources and assisting employees with getting the training they need to secure other local jobs, he said.
“When we have mass layoff events such as the one at Quaker, we kind of shift into rapid response mode,” said Chuck Jones with Vermilion County Works, which administers federally-funded Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act Title IB programs.
Jones has been in touch with state officials about the situation, and the state is working with Vermilion County Works to set up meetings for affected employees to learn about resources such as unemployment benefit assistance, local social services and retraining.
The organization is also applying for state funding to help Quaker Oats workers who are interested in “going back to school to learn how to do something new or seek retraining in a high-demand, high-growth occupation,” Jones said.
He explained that the state has emergency funds set aside for situations such as this one, and they are working with the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity to apply for these dollars.
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