Dutchland Foods, Lester, Iowa, employs 84 people, and most are full-time. Part-time workers at the company, which makes laminated pastries and other treats, help to bulk up staff levels on days when more manual labor is needed on the production floor. 

“With our products, we might make one product by hand one day and we need 30 production workers, and the next day we’re making a product that’s all automated and we only need 15,” said Monty Van Wyhe, vice president of sales and operations. “You have this swing, so you need part-time people to fill in the highs and lows.”

Workers are drawn from Lester and other nearby small towns, and many part-timers are homemakers interested in working just a few days a week, Pete Van Wyhe said. Finding workers had not been much of a problem, although the last two years have been a bit harder with Iowa’s low unemployment rate. It was 2.7% in May, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.

“Over the years, we’ve hardly ever advertised,” he said. “We would just keep a list of people who contacted us and keep their applications. I do think the work ethic is very good in the Midwest. I love the people who work here; they’re the backbone.”

The Van Wyhes strive to create a family environment for employees, providing pastries at work and hosting events like potlucks and pizza parties. Although the plant is automating, the company doesn’t anticipate cutting workers at this time.  

“We always worry about that every time we’ve added a piece of equipment,” said Pete Van Wyhe, president and chief executive officer. “We think, ‘We may have to lay off a few.’ And you know what? It’s never happened. We find them other work, and we continue to grow.”

Scheduling production can be tricky as the company makes about 50 different types of pastries as well as pie dough, bulk dough and fruit cobblers. About 90% of the products Dutchland makes are laminated pastries, including puff pastries, croissants and Danish.

The plant runs one shift, 7 a.m. to 4 or 5 p.m. Mondays through Fridays with occasional Saturday shifts, but those working in mixing get in around 4:30 a.m. to ensure the doughs are ready for processing by the time the regular shift begins. Business is steady year-round, but it picks up in the fall with the fundraising products and demand for retail pie dough.

“The fall gets more hectic because you do have the holiday bump. It’s a peak time,” Monty Van Wyhe said. “For the scheduler, there are two things he has to balance: He has to look at our inventory levels and orders but also allergens. We color code all our allergens on the schedule.”

The USDA- and BRC-certified facility employs 10 full-time members on its sanitation staff, which starts at 4 p.m. and works until midnight. The BRC designation has helped secure business from larger customers, and maintaining it requires rigorous attention to detail.

“Today, food safety is running the plant,” Pete Van Wyhe said. “When you’re dealing with high-end customers, they demand that you are with a strong auditing company, and we’ve gotten AA ratings (BRC’s top rating), and I give credit to our food safety team. They are tops. But it governs everything, from the weeds that might be outside the plant to the shoes you wear.”

This article is an excerpt from the August 2023 issue of Baking & Snack. To read the entire feature on Dutchland Foods, click here.