Tyson Foods begins work on $3.5 million Tennessee childcare center 

Tyson Foods broke ground Wednesday (April 20) on a new $3.5 million childcare center at its Humboldt, Tenn., poultry processing plant. The Springdale-based meat giant said Tyson Tykes will be an early childhood learning center run by KinderCare and subsidized by the company to lower childcare costs for employees at that facility.

The center is expected to open in 2023 and will support up to 100 children ages five and younger. The center will also employ 18 workers.

Child Care Aware, a national advocacy for affordable childcare, reports the national average cost of care for one child in a center amounts to about $12,300 per year in 2020, a staggering 214% increase since 1990 and more than half the federal poverty level for a family of three.

Tyson’s Humboldt poultry complex, which includes a processing plant, hatchery, and feed mill, has a staff of more than 1,235 people and is expected to eventually employ 1,500.

Humboldt is Tyson’s second investment in childcare in the past year. Tyson awarded nearly $400,000 to the Wesley Community Center and Maverick Boys and Girls Club of Amarillo to refurbish their facilities to accommodate the children of Tyson workers employed at the company’s Amarillo beef plant. The funding helped provide transportation, increased security, commercial refrigerators, cots, and tutoring. Each facility in Amarillo supports up to 40 children and Tyson expects to invest close to $500,000 to cover tuition for employees participating in the program.