As an essential business, Henny Penny has operated throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. In March, we quickly realized that keeping our employee owners healthy and safe was the most critical priority in sustaining operations. To ensure employees’ health, we implemented workspace improvements across our business and invested in personal protective equipment (PPE), no-touch temperature scanners, fumigating equipment, and more. Work areas were transformed by adding physical distancing markers on the floor, installing plexiglass barriers, and adjusting common areas to limit capacity.

One of our company’s core values is that relationships matter. Part of that idea is to be open, honest, and transparent. I feel it’s important to share what we’ve learned about what it takes to operate a business in these times as a way to support other small businesses in the Dayton region as they seek to reopen in a safe, responsible way.

The necessary steps I shared above to safely reopen businesses—investing in PPE and reconfiguring the physical layout to ensure physical distancing—can be costly, unexpected and unbudgeted measures for businesses that have been struggling during this challenging time.

To that end, I was pleased to learn Senator Rob Portman introduced legislation that provides businesses of all sizes a refundable tax credit to go towards investing in protective equipment, disinfectants, and other measures to help them safely reopen while adhering to the ongoing social distancing policies. It’s a smart measure that allocates federal resources to growing our economy while keeping people safe. I strongly encourage all members of Congress to support it.

Rob Connelly

Chairman & CEO

Henny Penny Corporation

Eaton, Ohio