People are coming together to support Postville in the wake of a fire that last week destroyed an estimated 75 percent of the Agri Star Meat and Poultry processing plant and left over 600 workers without jobs.
According to a press release, the Allamakee County Sheriff’s Office first received a report of smoke coming from a building at Agri Star, located at 220 N. West St., at 3:56 a.m. on Tuesday, July 28.
The Postville Fire Department responded to the call and, due to the extent of the fire, received assistance from 18 other area fire departments, multiple EMS and law enforcement agencies and emergency management from Allamakee, Clayton, Fayette and Winneshiek counties. Postville Fire Chief Jeff Bohr said the fire started accidentally in the laundry room.
No injuries were reported, but a large plume of smoke threatened air quality throughout the day. Residents were also asked by the city of Postville to conserve water due to the large volume of city water being used to combat the fire.
In a Facebook post shared late last week, Agri Star Meat and Poultry, LLC said it was humbled “by the continued display of support, encouragement and generosity shown by (and for our) team members, emergency responders, neighboring businesses, community members, vendors, suppliers and customers. Your kindness has strengthened our resolve and reminded us how fortunate we are to be part of such an extraordinary community.”
The company said it is actively working alongside local, state and federal agencies to thoughtfully develop a plan for rebuilding the facility and restoring operations.
“While there is still much work ahead, we are approaching this process with determination and optimism,” Agri Star said. “We are eager to remain a strong, viable member of this community—preserving jobs, supporting local families, businesses, and continuing the relationships we have built over the years. We are equally committed to bringing our products back to our customers as quickly as we can while ensuring every step of the rebuilding process is completed safely and responsibly.”
Agri Star stated it will continue to provide updates as plans progress.
Organizations began stepping in to help workers while the fire was still burning. Iowa Workforce Development brought its IowaWORKS Mobile Workforce Center to the Big Four Fairgrounds in Postville last week and into early this week, where staff provided unemployment and layoff assistance. Iowa Works will be at the Postville Public Library every Wednesday from 2 to 4 p.m.
Additional outreach efforts have come from the Visiting Nurse Association, Catholic Charities, Northeast Iowa Community Action Corporation and SNAP/food assistance outreach staff from the Northeast Iowa Food Bank.
The Archdiocese of Dubuque and Catholic Charities have established a disaster relief fund, and plan to distribute 100 percent of donations to those impacted by the fire. Catholic Charities’ team of certified disaster case management and HUD certified housing counselors will process applications for assistance in partnership with St. Bridget Catholic Church in Postville.
Learn more and donate online at https://catholiccharitiesdubuque.org. Checks made payable to Catholic Charities, with “Postville” in the memo line or on the envelope, can be mailed to 1229 Mount Loretta Ave., Dubuque, IA 52003.
The Allamakee County Foundation for the Future also shared that a 2026 Postville Fire Community Support Fund has been established to help individuals and families impacted by the plant fire. A press release said donations to the fund will be used to provide grants to qualified nonprofit and community organizations responding to immediate needs and supporting long-term recovery efforts for those impacted.
The Allamakee County Community Foundation and Community Foundation of Greater Dubuque are working closely with nonprofits, community leaders and emergency response partners to asses emerging needs and identify meaningful ways to support recovery as the situation unfolds, the release said.
Donations can be made online at dbqfoundation.org/PostvilleFire. Checks made out to 2026 Postville Fire Community Support Fund can be mailed to Community Foundation of Greater Dubuque at 700 Locust St., Suite 195, Dubuque, IA 52001. For more information, contact Jackie Cooper at accf@dbqfoundation.org or 563-380-5189
The “Our Postville Community Heart & Soul” group has also been integral in relief efforts. Leaders created a volunteer sign up and posted a form link on the group’s Facebook page immediately, and have been coordinating and sharing resources in the days since.
Crystal Duffy, a group leader and director of the Postville Public Library, said it helps that the community is already well connected, both internally and externally, with support organizations.
“So we are mitigating what could be a very serious impact,” she explained. “We have already started helping people with food assistance. We have already started helping people with rental assistance, with utilities, filing for unemployment, finding jobs for folks who maybe don’t qualify for unemployment. We mobilized all of that really quick because so many of us are already connected.”
According to Duffy, Postville participated in the Community Heart and Soul process four years ago. Connections have remained, and she even hosts weekly chats.
“We’ve been supporting this community for years as this unit—not on this scale, and we’ve obviously also had to bring in more of our connections in a greater area—but when I started reaching out to people and people started calling me, it wasn’t like I’m cold calling and begging to get money to my community. It was like, ‘Hey, what can we do to help?’ I don’t think I have reached out to a single person who I didn’t already have a connection with,” she noted.
Speaking last Friday, Duffy said she’d been involved in a lot of meetings the past few days to determine how best to compile resources and share correct information with the community.
“We’ve got two groups of people we’re dealing with. We’ve got people who really want to help, and we’ve got people who need help,” she said. “So we’ve been trying to address the people who want to help first, because those are the resources we need. Then, obviously, when it’s time to reach out to the people that need support, we have to make sure we have everything ready to go and organized.”
Duffy said the “Our Postville Community Heart & Soul” Facebook page and “Hometown to the World - Our Postville Community Group” on Facebook are good resources.
Volunteers are planning for immediate and ongoing needs.
“Our biggest thought is rent is due either this week or next, and there are a lot of people who now have not had a paycheck in a few days,” Duffy stated. “I think our priority is to get through the next couple weeks. Let’s make sure we’ve got our rent covered and utilities. Let’s make sure we’ve got food, and then we sort of need to assess. There may be longer, ongoing needs. But I think we have a pretty good grasp on immediate needs.”
Duffy stressed that “Our Postville Community Heart & Soul” is not collecting monetary donations. The Catholic Charities and Allamakee County Community Foundation fundraisers are currently the only two official fundraisers. She warns people to be wary of scams.
“We actually had several phone calls to the library sharing with us that there were some people claiming to be fundraising for people in the community. So we made a post, the police department made a post, the city shared,” she said.
Duffy is proud to be part of the support efforts. She described Postville as a vibrant community.
“Any time of day, you can walk around this community and see people walking on the street and businesses open, and we have multiple restaurants and different markets,” she said.
Unlike many other area communities, Postville has also grown in population in recent decades, and its average age is 29.
“If you know anything about average age for Iowa, for northeast Iowa, for the county, that is exceptionally low,” Duffy said, “and our school district continues to grow.”
While she admitted the past few days had been “quite an undertaking, we’re hoping that if we can help people get the food they need and make sure the rent is paid, make sure the utilities are paid, get unemployment, and if they don’t qualify and they need a job, get them employed, so that we don’t have people feeling like they need to leave. Because having the whole community leave is really the worst thing that could happen.”
