July 20, 2007
Local Community Helping Meet Needs Of Laid-Off Workers
GILMAN, VT--It's a dark time for former employees of the Dirigo Paper Company in Gilman, but that's just made the community's spirit shine all the brighter.
About five weeks ago, the mill closed - a temporary shutdown, Dirigo called it - spurred by the soaring cost of raw materials. About 114 people were laid off.
On Thursday, a number of community volunteers pulled together with the Vermont Foodbank to distribute to those families an estimated 23,000 pounds of supplemental food, enough to last a family of three or four about two weeks.
Of the families in need, a little more than half came by to accept the supplies.
"We're glad to help," said a smiling Doug O'Brien, the foodbank's CEO. "It's really nice the way the community has turned out. Neighbors helping neighbors."
The mission of the Vermont Foodbank is to gather and share quality food and nurture partnerships that will end hunger in Vermont, according to www.vtfoodbank.org.
The foodbank, however, is not a food shelf. Rather, it works to secure large quantities of food products from commercial suppliers, concerned citizens and other sources.
A food shelf, on the other hand, is a local nonprofit community agency that directly provides bags or boxes of food to low-income people.
Lunenburg's food shelf was helping with the distribution Thursday and, according to Doug O'Brien, what food is left over will go to the food shelf and to the Gilman Senior Center where it will be distributed to other needy families.
On Thursday, about 20 volunteers gathered in the parking lot adjacent to the mill to help fill car trunks and truck beds with food supplies.
"It worked really well. Very smooth," said Rep. Janice Peaslee, R-Guildhall. "It's just great to see a program like this working for the right reasons."
The foodbank became involved when former employees of the mill telephoned the office of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders. According to Jenny Nelson of Ryegate, who was on site Thursday representing Sanders' office, calls came in from some employees after their checks had bounced.
She said Sanders' office is working in other avenues to help the employees more, but the immediate concern was to make sure the families had food. So, they contacted the Vermont Foodbank.
Maren Downing, director of the Lunenburg food shelf, said it has been amazing how quickly the foodbank has pulled everything together, in less than a week.
Betty Robinson, who had been working at the mill for about 15 months in accounts payable, said most of the former employees are hanging in there, waiting to see the mill open again. She said president Peter Hanson is pouring his heart into getting the mill up and going.
"This is a small town," she said. "It has nothing without the paper mill."
Bruce Couturier, one of the mill's former lab technicians who has been with the company for about 27 years, said he's also holding out, hoping for the mill to start up again. Couturier has a wife and foster daughter to support.
Like Robinson, Couturier said his faith is in Peter Hanson.
"He's doing the best he can," he said. "His heart is in it."
In a previous interview, Hanson said the company was taking downtime until material costs recovered or the company could lower its operating costs. Hanson said that although the situation was not good, it wasn't dire either.
The mill's history has been a bit shaky. In 2002, it closed, but Hanson reopened it in 2004, hiring back many former employees.
After the restart, Dirigo officials worked to create new business for the company, like offering recycled paper.
As a result, the company was able to secure a $2.5 million contract to produce recycled paper for the book, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows." Producing the book on recycled paper was important to author JK Rowling.
If you are a former employee of the paper mill and were not able to collect supplies from the foodbank on Thursday, call Maren Downing at the food shelf at 802-892-7713 or Ed Wheelock at the Gilman Senior Center at 802-892-6616.
BY JACOB L. GRANT Staff Writer
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