Canton’s Mill Closure is a Signal for National Food Shortages
By Jason Koon
On June 8, the last employee of the Pactiv Evergreen Paper Mill employee in Canton, N.C., shut the lights out and locked the doors for the final time. The mill, which employed more than 1,000 people, had been the economic heart of the town of 5,000 for more than a century. Local officials say the closure will devastate the community, sending ripple effects across Haywood County and the Western North Carolina region.
“The effects of this are going to be tremendous,” said Canton's Mayor Zeb Smathers. “This is not just a Canton problem; this is a Carolina problem.”
For many, the closure could not have come at a worse time. While local relief agencies are gearing up to provide as much help as possible, many have already been stretched to the limit from months of record-breaking demand.
“Prior to the pandemic, we were serving around 65,000 people per month,” said Claire Neal, CEO of MANNA Foodbank in nearby Asheville.
In 2020, she said MANNA saw a massive spike, briefly topping out at over 130,000 people per month before people returned to work and the numbers began to decline. The declines were short-lived, however, as rising prices and stagnant wages sent more and more people back to the agency for help in 2021 and 2022.
Jason Koon (he/him)