Lopez Foods announced last week it plans to reopen the Cherokee meat processing plant, formerly owned by Iowa Food Group, in early spring 2020. The Oklahoma-based company agreed to buy the facility earlier this year.

When Iowa Food Group shuttered the plant in April 2019, 40 people lost their jobs.

“Our number one priority was taking care of those employees, taking care of that workforce, and now with Lopez Foods moving into that facility, we want to assist in helping them repopulate the facility with the workforce,” said Bill Anderson with Cherokee Area Economic Development....