‘Nacho’ average factory: The labor behind Bongards cheese – Perham Focus
Forty-pound blocks of cheese travel across the conveyor belt in preparation to leave the Bongards plant.
Elizabeth Vierkant / Perham Focus
PERHAM — People sure do love their cheese. That is, at least, according to Perham Bongards employees who mentioned that they produce 3 million pounds of cheddar, Monterrey Jack, Colby Jack, reduced fat and mozzarella per week. As several tour groups entered the Bongards factory on the afternoon of Thursday, March 30 —
as provided by Perham’s new Elevate program
— these employees and guides explained all the business and production that goes into creating the delicious, creamy food behind pizza, sandwiches and even a certain famous macaroni dish: cheese.
Though many may look at the factory in downtown Perham and always think of it as the Bongards plant, it was once a Land O’ Lakes factory before it was purchased by Bongards, about 20 years ago as of this summer. Since then, workers from in and around the Perham community dedicate a lot of time and effort to bring Bongards products to American dinner tables.
Freshly made cheese slides along a conveyor belt at the Bongards factory, ready to be packaged and sealed into barrels.
Elizabeth Vierkant / Perham Focus
“Bongards is a little bit different than some companies in that our goal is to pay as much as we possibly can for the incoming ingredients, and we try to run really efficiently and sell our product for a really good price,” said Bongards human resources manager and tour guide Ross Vettleson. “Here at Bongards, we run about 4.1 to about 4.6 million pounds of milk every day, which equates to about 85 to 90 truckloads of milk coming in…
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