Ask Foods Files WARN Notice for 96-Worker Palmyra, PA Closure Effective Dec 1

Ask Foods, LLC has filed a WARN notice reporting a 96-worker closure at its Palmyra, Pennsylvania facility, with a planned effective date of December 1, 2026. The filing, an official record from the Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry, is one of the larger food-manufacturing closures reported in the state this month.

The notice places Ask Foods among a run of Pennsylvania closures landing in December: the filing is dated for a December 1 effect, while the Pennsylvania registry's upcoming-weeks data shows 5,679 workers scheduled across the country for the week of November 27 and a heavy October 30 week carrying 8,520 workers nationally.

The filing, as reported

Here is what the official record shows:

• Employer: Ask Foods, LLC
• Workers affected: 96
• Event type: Closure
• Location: 77 North Hetrick Ave, Palmyra, PA 17078 (Lebanon County)
• Effective date: December 1, 2026
• Notice date: Unavailable
• Source: Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry
• Filing status: Filed

These are the source's reported values. They describe reported plans, not confirmed job losses. The notice date is listed as unavailable on this record, which limits how far in advance workers were formally told — a common gap in the Pennsylvania data, where the newest official notice date in the imported archive stretches back to March 2025.

What local officials said

The closure surfaced locally before it reached the registry. At an October 13, 2026 borough meeting in Palmyra, the borough bureau manager reported receipt of a WARN notice indicating that ASK Foods will be closing operations and laying off all current employees by about mid-December. The manager told officials the borough had contacted the Department of Labor and Industry and the Rapid Response Group to arrange notices and assistance for affected workers.

Note the date mismatch: the borough described layoffs running through about mid-December, while the registry record lists a December 1 effective date. WARN records can carry multiple phases, updates, and revised dates — check the original document for phased dates and exceptions. The underlying story is consistent: a full closure of the Palmyra plant.

A food-industry pattern

The Ask Foods closure fits a sector-wide wave. Food and beverage producers have cut 29,693 jobs as of September 2026, up 76% from the same period in 2025, according to executive outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas (reported by Food Dive on October 22, 2026). Food producers cut 7,982 jobs in August and 7,326 in September, and this month brought closure announcements from Nestlé, Guinness, and PepsiCo.

The pressure behind the cuts is familiar across the industry: declining consumer spending, shifting eating habits, and consolidation as companies simplify operations and concentrate on areas they expect to grow. Closures like Ask Foods' — a single-site, full-staff closure — are how that consolidation shows up in the WARN data: one plant, 96 workers, a December effective date.

Ask Foods in the Pennsylvania picture

Pennsylvania's imported archive holds 1,901 notices reporting 256,522 workers, with 12 notices carrying future effective dates. In 2026 alone, the registry shows 78 Pennsylvania notices covering 12,181 reported workers.

Ask Foods is not the only December Pennsylvania filing on the calendar. Others include the Pep Boys corporate layoff in Bala Cynwyd (169 workers, effective December 31), the Pavilion at Bradford nursing facility closure (80 workers, effective December 1), a Powered by FTGU facility in Lititz (67 workers, effective December 14), and Kenco Logistic Services in Myerstown (81 workers, effective March 1, 2027).

Where this sits nationally

The current national window shows 699 WARN notices reporting 65,791 workers, with 33 notices lacking worker counts, updated October 23, 2026. Washington (16,938) and California (14,224) remain the heaviest states, followed by Illinois (4,626), Texas (3,652), and Ohio (3,180).

On the upcoming calendar, the heaviest weeks are November 13 (8,744 workers) and October 30 (8,520 workers), with November 20 (7,181), November 27 (5,679), and November 6 (3,302) also carrying significant scheduled layoffs. December 1, Ask Foods' effective date, sits just past the heaviest of these weeks.

If you work at an affected facility, a WARN filing triggers real rights: back pay claims if notice was too short, unemployment benefits, and continued health coverage options.

Data source: Layoff Atlas