Kenny Hall boxes up about 72,000 Easter eggs a day. The repetitive task would be tedious for most, but all-the-while Hall wears what seems like a permanent smile.
Hall is not the only one. The floor of SWI Industrial Solutions, the parent company to Sunny Bunny Easter Eggs, is filled with about 180 workers, all with either intellectual or developmental disabilities, and 40 support employees. All with smiles abound.
“It really is the happiest place in Springfield to be,” Dave Dunn, SWI general manager, said on the floor of the Springfield warehouse.
This year, the Sunny Bunny team has filled, put together and shipped more than 13 million eggs from its three locations. That's a record, beating out the company's 2023 output of 12.7 million Easter eggs.
With three warehouse locations — Springfield, Marshfield and Monett — the team can churn out anywhere from 70,000 to 100,000 eggs each day, Dunn said. The eggs are far-reaching, too. This year the team has shipped eggs to every state in the lower-48 United States and Hawaii.
“We did eggs at all locations this year and to do the volume we're doing now, we need all three locations,” Dunn said.
The purpose of SWI and its subsidiary, Sunny Bunny Easter Eggs, is to provide employment for people with any level of disability, Dunn said. The nonprofit hires staff members who help the employees with anything they need to get the job done.
Workers earn money by doing manufacturing and light assembly work, all the while learning valuable life skills. Many find additional purpose by building long-lasting friendships with colleagues, Dunn said.
Eggs, eggs and more eggs
Eggs come in six colors and are either packaged with candy or toys. Customers can also order empty eggs by the thousands.
The warehouse floor is filled with workers packaging eggs using specially-made trays that hold up to 50 at a time. Trays make the process easier, so that even someone who only has ability in one arm can load the eggs. 50 bottoms are placed, either candy or a toy is inserted in each one, 50 tops are secured and then the tray is loaded into a box. A single box holds 1,000 eggs ready to be shipped.
People work at different paces, and at SWI, that's OK.
“There’s people that produce 1,200 (eggs) a day and there’s people that produce 50 a day,” Dunn said. “We don’t push people to produce. Everybody produces at their own rate.”
Each employee at SWI is given a job based on preferences and abilities, Dunn said. Pay is determined on performance, skills required and the amount of responsibility each worker holds.
Heather Ramsey, 43, packs about 50 trays of eggs each day. She has been with the company for 20 years. Her favorite part of her job?
“The people around me,” she said, pointing to her colleagues on the warehouse floor.
The production line ends with Hall, who tapes the box shut and puts it on a pallet to be shipped. Each pallet can hold 24 boxes. Hall usually goes through three pallets a day.
Hall, 64, has worked at SWI for 13 years. He's set to retire next year, he said. His favorite part of the job is spending time with his boss.
“Working with [Dunn], because he's my buddy,” Hall said, still wearing his smile. He even call's Dunn's daughter his granddaughter.
Sunny Bunny eggs aren't all they do
While Easter eggs are SWI's bread and butter, it's far from all they do. The nonprofit also works with local and national companies, like 3M, Cintas, McCormick, O'Reilly Auto Parts, SMC Corp., Aramark and more.
On a given day, employees can be found re-bending hangers for uniforms, re-packaging hot sauce and cans of fried onions for distribution or even filling bottles of odor-killing spray for hunters.
“Repackaging is the main revenue generator besides Easter eggs,” Dunn said. “A run of hot sauces that we have here is about 20,000 cases on average. And we're running two lanes of it.”
At SWI, quality also stands out.
“We've got some business because of who we were, but we've kept it because our quality is better than anywhere else,” Dunn said. “That's something that's been proven and we're very proud of.”
SWI, which stands for the Springfield Workshop Industrial, has been around for over 60 years. Besides Sunny Bunny Easter Eggs, SWI has other companies underneath its umbrella. Outside the Springfield warehouse are four beehives, where bees make Sunny Bunny Honey.
Next to the hives stands a 30-foot by 90-foot greenhouse, where Sunny Bunny Gardens is run. It takes about six employees on rotation to maintain the greenhouse's production, Dunn said. The company also has a produce stand, where workers sell fresh fruits and vegetables one day a week. This season, starting mid-June, the stand will be at 3118 W. Chestnut Expressway.
Sunny Bunny Gardens started about four years ago after SWI received a U.S. Department of Agriculture grant, Dunn said. The greenhouse had a problem with groundhogs destroying crops, so SWI adopted two dogs from the Humane Society of Southwest Missouri and, aptly, named them Sunny and Bunny. A third, Buster, joined the clan soon after.
The workers care for the dogs as any responsible pet owner would.
“Those are [the employees'] dogs,” Dunn said. “Not our dogs.”
SWI has gone through some rapid expansion in recent years. Four years ago, it acquired a 90,000 square foot building in Marshfield. Two years later, it added the 60,000 square foot warehouse in Monett. Springfield, its headquarters, still remains the biggest at 95,000 square feet.
“I swear we're not doing anymore, and then we get something else,” Dunn said.
A new nonprofit based on choice
SWI is starting a new, separate non-profit that will aim to help people with disabilities get hired with other companies and organizations in the Springfield community. Choices Career Services will start in July, Dunn said.
The nonprofit will also include a dog kennel and a company that recycles glass and paper in order to make firepits and containers for candles. The nonprofit will be inclusive, Dunn said, meaning it will employ people with and without disabilities working side-by-side.
“This [nonprofit] will help you go out and get a job in the community if that's what you choose,” Dunn said. “Everybody should have a choice.”
