Pete Nebhut

We can never say enough good things about the efforts of the Tyson Transportation Group and their vital role in the company's hunger relief efforts. They're amazing. They're always there with a great attitude, ready to deliver the food to the food banks or whereever it's needed. They generally pick some of the coolest folks in the world to drive those hunger relief deliveries. And this year's RAGBRAI was no exception. Bob Oliver drove a 52-foot Tyson 18-wheeler from the Missouri to the Mississipi, supplying the teams with meat and omelet ingredients along the way, so they could cook for hunger relief. He had to snake that big rig into and out of some really tight spots in those little Iowa towns, always being on the lookout to not run over someone on two wheels. Even though his job description didn't call for him to do any more than get the load there, Bob was a full-fledged team member, helping with setup and teardown, manning the grills, and many times, being the Tyson goodwill ambassador with the folks in the towns where we were setting up to cook. Bob, who lives in Council Bluffs, married his new wife, Stephanie on July 4 of this year. She also came along and pitched in herself for a couple of days along the route. A big thanks to Bob on behalf of all of the Tyson traveling crew. Hope to see you down the road again soon!

 

 

It's been a long haul across the state for those who have done every mile of it:  LOTS of omelets, ribeye sandwiches, chicken sandwiches and pulled pork sandwiches have been sold.  LOTS of bottles of cold water.  And lots of money was raised for hunger relief efforts in those towns along the way. 
 

The Ryder bob truck reefer has bounced its way from Missouri Valley to Le Claire.  And a road-weary ground crew will get some well-deserved rest:  Dave Hinojosa from the Tyson Joslin plant, whom you read about earlier.  Elena Reader, from Waterloo, who was along and invaluable the first five days of the ride.  Thomas Nicholson, the Prairie  Grove, Arkansas high school senior who has thrown in like a guy twice his age (and worked as hard as he has his entire life). Raul Lagos joined us for two _very critical_ days, as did Crystal Dyer. Andrea Sherwood, who masterminded the whole affair, and literally ran herself into the ground (and bounced back again) putting it all together.  Sue Brockway, who's worked harder than any of us, and is an inspiration to us all througout the year.   And Sherri Austin, calm, collected, and steady as a rock, who worked more shifts than any of the rest of us, seldom without a positive attitude and a smile on her face.   

And we couldn't have made it happen without the Tyson Transportation Group and driver Bob Oliver, who took the Tyson 18-wheeler into tight spots the entire route, from the Missouri the the Mississippi.
 

Thanks to Tyson operations management, especially Jim Schmitz, Dan Brooks and Bruce Pautsch for their support.  Special thanks to Joslin complex manager, Todd Reed for, among other things,  loaning us the trailer and Dave Hinojosa for a week.  Thanks to the other Iowa complex managers for letting their teams be part of this marvelous event.
 

And most especially, thanks to all of the Tyson Team Members who came early, stayed late, worked in the heat, endured the traffic, the lines, the hectic pace.  What you do every day makes sure our families are fed each night.  What you did this week will see to it that a lot of other families are also one step farther away from being hungry.  It's an honor and a privelege to work with you.   

Hope to see you all next July!

This is it. The last day.  We're told there are a lot of tired and sore butts from seven days in the saddle.   I can tell you there are a lot of tired butts on our team.   The healthy crew from the Tyson Joslin plant came out to serve one last meal in sight of riders dipping their tires in the Mississippi.   They worked hard and earned their rightful spot as Tyson Hunger All-Stars.  As always, they were rockstars. 

Time to pull everything out of the Ryder truck then off our separate ways. 

 

Thursday night took the crew into the overnight town of North Liberty, just outside Iowa City.  This town had the theme thing down, with a pirate at every turn.  William Sanders, Bob Purvis and Barb Larsen, who had worked the morning shift in Belle Plaine, were joined by fellow Columbus Junction teammates, Wade Bruns, Peggy Hobach, Aaylan Wheeler and Mark Coleman for the last of the "two-a-day" events, a three-day marathon that just about put the traveling crew under. 

 

Here's the team from the Tyson Waterloo plant cooking and selling food for hunger relief in Toledo during RAGBRAI '08.

 

Here's the team from the Tyson plant in Storm Lake, Iowa, cooking and selling food for hunger relief in Grand Junction during RAGBRAI '08.

 

 

The days are starting to run together a bit for the traveling crew, trying to work two sites in a day.  Days begin at 4 to 5 in the morning and run to midnight or so.  On top of that, with sparse coverage, the ATT&T aircard that allows me to upload to this site is pretty much useless in central rural Iowa.

Fortunately, much of the hard work is being done by fantastic crews from our Iowa plants.

Wednesday morning started out in Green Mountain, where a great bunch from Waterloo came in and served riders more omelets. This is treat that last year's RAGBRAI team put together, consisting of all Tyson products-- a pre-made omelet from the Chicago plant, wrapped in a Mexican Original tortilla.  Customers can get it with or without a patty of good Tyson sausage wrapped in the middle.  They sell like hotcakes, er, well, you know.  We've been selling 400-700 of them a day, and have our "regulars" who stop by often.

Wednesday evening found us at the "overnight town" (where the bikers camp) of Toledo, where a group from Tyson Waterloo served all of the "real" proteins, chicken beef and pork sandwiches.  We were a bit concerned early in the day, when it appeared we wouldn't be selling much, but a dinnertime onslaught of people, made for one of our best events of the week. A  big special thanks to Steve and Nancy Louthan who came in after the photos and videos were shot and worked like crazy 'til the last item was packed into the Ryder at quitting time.

Again, we just can't say enough about the Tyson team members we've been working with. They just add special meaning to the phrase "Powering the Spirit."

 

Today, the Tyson crew worked early at Belle Plaine,  It was a "meeting point" town, where support vehicles could meet bikers mid-way into the route.  A well-planned town with live music and other entertainment.  The Tyson Columbus Junction plant provided much needed support to this extremely busy town.  The crew was selling omelets as fast as they could be made. As best we can figure, more than 800 omelets were sold to benefit hunger relief organizations in Belle Plaine.

 

 

ISU PRSSA member Tyler Neuscwanger interviews Jason Mauch, a controller in the Tyson Foods Waterloo, Iowa plant.  Jason was working at the RAGBRAI Powering the Spirit booth at Toledo, Iowa, alongside fellow Waterloo Team Members.

 

  

 

Yesterday was a long day for the RAGBRAI ground crew, with two stops.  The traveling crew was wheels up at 4:00 am from Clive back to Grand Junction, where a group from Storm Lake (more photos and video from them later today) ably assisted in the breakfast run. I stayed behind in Des Moines for the food donation. Sherri left Green Mountain at 9:00 to meet a great group from the Tyson Perry Plant in Ames.  Our chairperson, Andrea was out of action, with 850mg of  Amoxicillin doing its job on the unwelcome strep throat.

 

It was an excellent day.  Two crews from Perry (it was a 12-hour day in Ames) worked really hard and sold a bunch of ribeye and chicken sandwiches.  Tyson VP Bruce Pautsch addressed a crowd gathering for the Styx concert, talked about how important Iowa is to Tyson, and announced an additional 100,000 pounds of food relief to the victims of the devastating Iowa floods.

The day ended at 11:00 with a huge fireworks show as the Perry crew began helping pack up the Ryder.

Today  it's on to Green Mountain and Tama Toledo.