MPW.69 / 2017 18 Thousand Turkeys Just Ain’t Enough by Hanna Jarzabek
Photographer
Hanna Jarzabek Brzeg, Poland

Team Cox

Story Summary

Eighteen thousand turkeys will not make you a living, nor will they secure your future. That’s why Phil Wyrick, one of the Eldon’s turkey farmers, got a side job as a school bus driver. For 25 years, Phil has been driving 94 miles every day, picking up children on remote country roads before dawn, dropping them at High Point Elementary School and returning them to their homes in the afternoons.

“It´s the only way to assure my social security and retirement,” Phil says. Regina, Phil’s wife, works as a cook in the same school. She likes her job but admits that without it their farm income would just not be enough.