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SILER CITY — As a child growing up in Randolph County, Cam Mills would spend weekends on his grandfather’s chicken farm.

From the ages of 8 to 12, he’d venture over on his free Saturdays and Sundays to clean out chicken coops and help his grandfather on the farm.

“It’s about the closest thing I have to an agriculture background,” Mills said.

Now, the 23-year-old is stepping into a role at Mountaire Farms — the fourth largest chicken company in the country — as its new community and government relations manager.

The company employs nearly 10,000 people at facilities across the country in Delaware, Arkansas, Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina, according to its website. And in addition to its $170 million, 255,000-square-foot facility at the corner of U.S. Hwy. 64 and East Third Street in Siler City, Mountaire also has a processing plant in Lumber Bridge.

Mills’ position is an important one, bridging communications between Mountaire and a number of groups: employees, community leaders, elected officials, farmers, local churches, charity organizations and chambers of commerce.

“My job is literally to create relationships for Mountaire,” Mills said, who started in the role on July 11.

Mills grew up down the road in Asheboro and attended Southwestern Randolph High School, where he played football and was in Future Farmers of America. He graduated from Wingate University in 2021 with a degree in sports management and marketing, originally planning to become an athletic administrator.

But he ended up taking a different route, instead working in politics shortly after graduation.

Prior to taking up the Mountaire position, he worked for U.S. Rep. Dan Bishop (R-N.C. 9th District) and U.S. Rep. Richard Hudson (R-N.C. 8th District) as an intern and field representative, respectively. He also worked on the successful primary campaigns for Christian Castelli and Bo Hines, two GOP candidates for the U.S. House of Representatives.

It’s this background in politics that Cathy Bassett, Mountaire’s corporate director of communication and community relations, believes will help Mills succeed.

“The legislative process itself is an interesting one,” she said. “And it’s very helpful to have folks who have that understanding of that process, and how elected officials work and interact, and ways in which we can work together and share with them how important our industry is, and what we do to give back.”

Bassett described Mills as a people person.

“He’s certainly familiar with how to interact with the community and figure out what’s important and how we can build those relationships with the right folks in the community to make sure that we’re giving back, and that we’re participating in the most important things that are going on in Chatham County and beyond,” she said.

Mills learned about the Mountaire position through his friend Sarah Duncan, who recently held the post and also had a background in politics.

“She mentioned to me, ‘Hey, this company is hiring. It’s close to you. And it’s community and government relations, you know, you should give them a shot,’” he recalled.

Bassett spent time helping Mills get adjusted over the past few weeks, ensuring he got a chance to meet key employees and better understand the company’s culture.

“He’s young, but he’s a great listener,” she said. “And he’s a fast learner.”

Both Bassett and Mills highlighted Mountaire’s philanthropic work in the community as part of the company’s larger focus. The company sponsors local charitable efforts and recently paid $15,000 for a new speaker system for Jordan-Matthews High School’s athletic department.

In addition to fostering relations with community members, Mills said part of his job entails attending local government and state agriculture meetings, where he may be called on for the occasional presentation.

He’s already got a packed schedule; his plans include attending the Sept. 11 Flatwoods Parade during the Flatwoods Festival, hosted by the Tri-County Ruritan Club in Bennett, N.C., and the Chatham Chamber of Commerce’s upcoming Business After Hours event on Aug. 25.

“Wherever we have a base of operations, whether it’s Siler City or Lumber Bridge, or the hatchery, or farmers, we want to let those communities, those workers, those people that eat our chicken [and] enjoy our product — we’re just not in it for one thing,” he said. “We’re in it to help people and help our communities.”

From farmers and plant workers to consumers and government officials, the poultry industry has a lot of stakeholders, and Mountaire is no different.

“The chicken business is a fascinating business,” Bassett said. “And so there’s a lot of moving parts to it, from the breeder farms that we have out in Statesville, North Carolina, to all of our independent contractor growers to making sure we get the birds to the plant, and then getting them out to the different markets where we sell our products.”

Ilana Dubester is the executive director and founder of the Hispanic Liaison, a nonprofit based in Chatham County that helps connect the local Hispanic community and other groups, including government agencies and law enforcement.

Statewide, the Liaison has advocated for workers’ rights. Most recently, the N.C. Justice Center, American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina and Charlotte Center for Legal Advocacy filed an administrative complaint on behalf of the Hispanic Liaison against N.C. Dept. of Commerce’s Division of Employment Security, alleging inadequate access to language services, specifically regarding unemployment benefits.

When it comes to Mountaire, Dubester said she is looking forward to meeting Mills and hopes to engage in open communication with him.

“I hope to have, going forward, a more open relationship with [Mountaire] in terms of community education,” Dubester said. “So we’ve done a lot of communication around COVID, and outreach and clinics and things like that. And I would love to be able to spread the word to their workers about some of our initiatives.”

She noted this was the first year that Mountaire is sponsoring the Hispanic Heritage Fiesta, which is hosted by the Liaison. This year, the event will be held on Sept. 17, and will feature donations from Mountaire, including chickens the organization plans to use to help feed volunteers.

Having a contact with the company is always helpful, she said, particularly when issues arise that require a conversation.

Specifically, Dubester cited recent matters the company has come under fire for, including allegations from workers at Mountaire’s Lumber Bridge facility about exposure to toxic chemicals. In February, N.C. Occupational Safety and Health fined Mountaire for failing to provide employees with adequate training and protective equipment — citations the company has disputed and appealed.

Dubester mentioned that it has been helpful to have regular meetings and visits with Mountaire’s community and government relations managers over the years. This was particularly true in 2018, she said, when the Liaison negotiated on behalf of residents facing eviction from a mobile home park that was to be cleared for expansion of the company’s Siler City plant.

“Having that avenue of communication with the community relations manager — it was more brief at the time — was really critical, both for the company and for us, and for the community,” she said. “Because we could sit down and negotiate and talk about things. And so that’s what we’re looking forward to, to have somebody that we can talk to.”

Mountaire also faced criticism during the pandemic for not publicly sharing updates about the number of COVID-19 cases among workers.

Mills said though he can’t speak to a lack of transparency in the past, the company has taken measures during the pandemic to protect its employees, such as encouraging them to get vaccinated and using barriers at work stations.

As he continues in his role, Mills hopes to take some time to continue to meet and build relationships within Mountaire as well, with those working in the processing plant. He wants to know who he’s representing, he said.

“I think that’s step one is just getting to know them and what their concerns are, and what they’re happy with, and what we can work on,” Mills said.

Ultimately, he wants people to feel like they can reach out to him with the positives and the negatives.

“I want our community to feel comfortable,” he said.

Cam Mills can be reached at cmills@mountaire.com.

Reporter Maydha Devarajan can be reached at mdevarajan@chathamnr.com and on Twitter @maydhadevarajan.

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