THE CAMPBELL SOUP COMPANY FACTORY CLOSING IN SACRAMENTO CALIFORNIA AFTER 65 YEARS IN OPERATION ............

Breaking News in Sacramento this morning is a 6 a.m. Employee Meeting with Staff at the Campbell Soup Company Production Factory on Franklin Boulevard in South Sacramento, which has been in operation since 1947, is being held with Plant Officials to discuss the likely closure of the facility by the end of the year.  The shocking news is something I possess a personal, emotional attachment to, not only at the loss of  700  jobs currently provided at the Campbell Soup factory; but because of my family's full sixty five year employment affiliation with the Plant,as is true of thousands of South Sacramento families.  Campbell Soup is one of the largest employers in that area of Sacramento.  My father worked at the Campbell Soup Company which is just one mile from my family home, for thirty two and a half years - from 1951 - 1984; when he retired.  Dozens of my family members, neighbors, and fellow parishioners, have worked there over the years.  During my childhood and young adulthood, there were many Campbell Soup moments I remember that shaped our lives annual Christmas shows in the 1950's and 1960's, held at the Sacramento Memorial Auditorium; the Employees Families' Plant and Factory Tour circa 1966; the horrendous three month Strike in the summer of 1968; December 3, 1976, the date of my father's  25th anniversary as a Campbell Soup employee, when he came home with a special gift from the Company, a miniature grandfather commemorative clock; how my dad's employee discount helped me as a college student living in an apartment near Sac State, eat inexpensively with plenty of Campbell Soups, Swanson Frozen Dinners, Franco American Canned Goods, Vlasic Pickles, V-8 Juice, and Pepperidge Farm Cookies, food products owned and produced by the Company; and the day my father retired after more than three decades working there mostly as an Assistant Electrician, on June 30, 1984.  Forty to fifty years ago the South Sacramento Plant employed 1,300 year round employees and and additional 600-700 temporary employees during the summer Tomato Season each year; when the aroma of the tomato soup being made wafted in the air around the neighborhood twenty four hours a day, seven days a week, and how during most of those three months each summer my dad and others worked six and seven days a week, for much of it, to meet the production schedule demand.  So it is a sad day, for so many people whose jobs and livelihoods will be adversely affected.  With four production plants in the United States and increases in their productivity and excess capacity levels, cost cutting in a time of substantial changes in the canned soups market share of which Campbell's still has 53% in the U.S. and transitioning their packaging from steel cans, to pouches, and the expansion of freshly prepared soups in supermarkets and warehouse stores; are additional factors, with the Sacramento Plant being the least cost effective of the four domestic plants.  A second Campbell's Plant, a spice factory in South Plainfield, New Jersey, with 27 employees is also being closed next March; as a result of the decision announced this morning.  The South Sacramento Campbell's Plant will layoff  it's 700 employees in phases the next several months with closure scheduled for next July.  Please God, those impacted by this sudden notification of Plant closure will not be adversely too long or go unemployed indefinitely, as many to most, have young to college age children, in addition to meeting basic necessities to support and provide for soon without the jobs some of them have worked for forty years or longer.  Calling myself a, "Campbell Soup Kid", as children who grew up with parents and relatives who have worked there,  today is a poignant day.  Sorry to learn of the Plant's scheduled close; and grateful for the income it provided our families and Sacramento neighborhoods, the past six and a half decades.  The tastes of, "Umm Umm Good", are less satisfactory given the bad news the 6 a.m. hour wrought.  I pray God guide and sustain the families whose lives will undergo an unexpected, challenging transition by this action.  God Bless You Everyone............Fr.  Troy