The Roth family which owns Beef Products Incorporated in Dakota Dunes,has announced they are establishing a ten million dollar fund to benefit former employees of the B-P-I companies and communities that were negatively affected by plant closures in 2012. B-P-I was forced to lay off approximately 750 employees and close three production facilities in Amarillo, Texas, Garden City, Kansas, and Waterloo, Iowa at that time after national news reports that called the company’s Lean Finely Textured Beef product “Pink Slime.” The president of the Siouxland Chamber of Commerce, Chris McGowan,says it’s an incredible commitment to the communities affected five years ago.

 

B-P-I founder Eldon Roth released a statement that the company is “pleased to finally be able to re-connect with those former employees and see what we can do to help them continue to recover.” McGowan says the Chamber will assist B-P-I in the review of applications for assistance from former employees

 

B-P-I filed suit against A-B-C News in 2012 after the network ran a month long campaign targeting Lean Finely Textured Beef and calling it “Pink Slime.” The case went to trial in June of this year, and a settlement was announced on June 28th.  Terms of the settlement were not released.