Processor donates tons of poultry

December 26, 2008 11:53 pm

— By JESSE DAVIS
jesse.davis@goshennews.com
During the holiday season, there are always stories to be found of people using their own success to help give back to the community. Local chicken farmer and processor Galen Miller is doing just that.
Through his company, Miller Poultry, he is donating approximately 50,000 pounds, or 25 tons, of chicken to local food banks.
“One of our goals and our company’s goals is to try to share with the community and those in need,” he said.
Miller Poultry, formerly Pine Manor Inc., first began donating to food banks in the early 90s through the Indiana State Poultry Association. The organization presents poultry items to the governor and lieutenant governor to be distributed in the Indianapolis area.
“I just kind of felt like why are we doing it down in Indianapolis? Why aren’t we doing it at home?,” Miller said.
At that point, about five years ago, he contacted former Indiana Sen. Robert Meeks and a food and clothes pantry in LaGrange County. The company began donating to food banks in LaGrange, Angola, Albion, Kendallville and Ligonier. They now donate at many more locations, including The Window in Goshen, Hope Rescue Mission and the Center for the Homeless in South Bend and Faith Mission in Elkhart.
“They’re typically quite pleased, especially this year with much greater need,” Miller said. “This year we did donations in Flint, Ann Arbor and Grand Rapids in Michigan and also here in northern Indiana.”
Christmas week, they delivered 8,500 pounds through Spartan Foods to the Food Pantry of Western Michigan in Grand Rapids.
“It’s just part of our living out faith in business,” he said.
Miller’s parents started the poultry company during the mid-’40s, working largely in turkey through the early ’70s. About 10 years ago, he and his wife bought the company from his parents, operating a hatchery on South Main Street, a feed mill in New Paris and a poultry plant in Orland, in the northwest corner of Steuben County.
“We’re in kind of a niche business. We do an all-natural, all-vegetable fed, antibiotic-free, hormone-free chicken program, and there’s been a lot of interest in that kind of product,” he said.
The company currently employs about 300 people across northern Indiana, as well as approximately 120 growers, farmers and producers, mostly Amish.
“We really appreciate the loyal customer base in northern Indiana and those people who shop at Martin’s and also Miller’s over in LaGrange. We hope that we can continue to please the customers over the years,” he said.