How a Kurdish Immigrant Made a Greek Yogurt Empire
By Shannon MacColl
Have you ever enjoyed a yogurt bowl? How about just wanting some creamy on-the-go protein? Chances are if you are in the U.S. you have at least once in your life had Chobani Greek yogurt and if you haven’t eaten it yourself, you have certainly seen it in your local grocery store. You may not know that Chobani was created by a Kurdish immigrant from Turkey, Hamdi Ulukaya. This on its own, is not an unusual story, indeed, it reads as the pinnacle of the American Dream. The unique part comes from where Chobani chooses to get much of its workforce, Utica, New York.
Chances are unless you are from Utica, New York, or the surrounding area, you have never heard of this city located in what is known as the Mohawk Valley. But if you have ever seen or been in a Rust Belt city, you would be able to grasp what Utica is like, a city that depended on manufacturing plants to keep it afloat until the eventual decimation of manufacturing throughout the country. Since its heyday in the 1960s, Utica has tried to revitalize its workforce and city. Turns out, the key to success would come from much further away than most Uticans would have expected, refugees.
In 1980, the U.S. enacted the Refugee Act, The Center (which is a refugee resettlement agency) was founded in 1981 in Utica, New York. In a city of only about 60,000 people, Utica has resettled close to 17,000 people from more than 40 countries. Indeed, for years it has made a policy of accepting refugees, most recently those from Afghanistan and Syria. They have revitalized entire parts of the city and as a result, Utica has become known as “the town that loves refugees.”
The confluence of Hamdi Ulukaya and Utica has created a wonderful social experiment. Hamdi Ulukaya wanted to give back to his fellow immigrants and as such chose New Berlin (about a 45 minute drive from Utica) as the location for his Upstate manufacturing plant and headquarters for U.S. operations. Currently, about 30% of the Chobani workforce in the region is made up of immigrants or refugees. They also now own part of Chobani and are vested in its future growth and success.
A Kurdish immigrant in an Upstate New York town that loves refugees brings to life not only this Rust Belt town but the now popular refrain from Hamilton, “[i]mmigrants, we get the job done.”