Butterball announces the hiring of Darrell Bradfield as director, corporate safety, health and security. Bradfield provides strategic planning and oversight of policies, programs, and processes to ensure on-the-job safety, health, and well-being of all Butterball team members. He is responsible for supporting Butterball’s Safety-First culture and promoting continuous improvement of safety performance.

Tyson Foods announced the appointment of Dr. Claudia Coplein to the newly-created role of Chief Medical Officer. Coplein is a physician executive who brings more than 20 years of healthcare experience to the company after holding leadership roles in the insurance, global manufacturing, healthcare and technology fields. Her immediate focus will be assisting the company’s efforts to protect team members during the Covid-19 pandemic, while also working to expand and promote a culture of health, safety and wellness at Tyson.

Virginia Governor Ralph Northam announced that Shenandoah Valley Organic (SVO), a family-owned organic chicken company, will establish a second 75,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art facility in the City of Harrisonburg. The new facility will increase production capacity and retail packaging, allowing for more product availability in leading grocery stores across the United States. Virginia successfully competed with West Virginia for the project, which will create 110 new jobs.

Farmer Focus Organic Poultry adds turkey to its lineup of humanely raised chicken, bringing delicious poultry to the Thanksgiving table. Each Farmer Focus Broad Breasted Bronze Turkey is humanely raised on an independent family farm in the picturesque Shenandoah Valley. Unlike commercially bred birds, this breed of heirloom turkey has a long purebred lineage. This means they grow more slowly, as did farm-raised birds of the past. That longer grow time leads to a more tender, juicier, and better-tasting bird.

Wayne Farms is continuing its expansion into the retail space with the launch of CHEF’S CRAFT Gourmet Chicken into grocery stores. The chef-inspired brand of products is now available for purchase at Walmart and Food Lion stores. The Flame Grilled Chicken Breast Fillet and Grilled Chicken Breast Chunks are being sold at about 2,400 Walmart stores and more than 1,000 Food Lions. The Breaded Chicken Breast Chunks will be available later this fall in stores. Each of these products are made from no-antibiotics, vegetarian-fed chickens.

Donnie King has been named president of Tyson Foods’ poultry business. King has over 35 years of experience working in the poultry business, both domestically and globally. He will once again lead the company’s chicken unit, guiding and mentoring members of its leadership team, including Chad Martin, who will take on the new role of chief operating officer of poultry.  

 Perdue Farms has delivered 40,000 pounds of protein to help the West Annapolis Pop Up Pantry in its mission to provide underserved families with nutritious meals amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The donation is part of Perdue’s “Delivering Hope To Our Neighbors” hunger-relief initiative that is helping provide meals for struggling individuals and families.

Foster Farms will close the main Livingston processing plant on Tuesday evening, September 1 and not resume operations until Monday evening, September 7.  During this downtime, the company will complete two rounds of deep cleaning and two rounds of COVID-19 testing covering all 1,400 plant employees. The testing program will ensure that all workers first reentering the plant on September 7 will be free of COVID-19. 

Tyson Foods announced Dean Banks will succeed Noel White as Chief Executive Officer (CEO), while maintaining the role of President, effective October 3, 2020. White, who led Tyson through a period of unprecedented volatility and uncertainty when he assumed the CEO role in 2018, will remain with Tyson in a new role as Executive Vice Chairman of the board of directors.

Perdue Farms and the Food Bank of the Albemarle in Elizabeth City, N.C. have unveiled a new refrigerated tractor-trailer to support the organization’s distribution of food within the 15 counties the food bank serves in northeast North Carolina. The tractor-trailer was funded through a $100,000 grant by Franklin P. and Arthur W. Perdue Foundation, the charitable giving arm of Perdue Farms, in conjunction with the company’s 100th anniversary.