FDU Student Piggybacks All the Way to the Piggy Bank

By Kenna Caprio

Sometimes when Michael Granade, 20, walks down the street in New York City he’s the recipient of strange looks. Some people snap pictures of him.

“I get my picture taken a couple of times a day,” the Fairleigh Dickinson University student admits.

Even in a city like New York, where everyone has seen everything, a man delivering whole pig carcasses remains a sight to behold. Especially when the swine in question is slung (albeit carefully) over Granade’s shoulder, giving new meaning to “throwing the ol’ pigskin around.”

Granade, a finance major from Morristown, works for a New Jersey-based meat packing company, trucking meat to various stops in the state and in New York City.

“The company has live animals brought to them from various farms in New Jersey and Pennsylvania,” clarifies Granade. “They do all the slaughtering, which I have no part in.”

Most weeks his schedule is Tuesdays and Fridays from 4 a.m. to 4 p.m. But he did clock about 66 hours one week this past January, with his longest day on the job running from 4 a.m. to 8 p.m. That was near Chinese New Year when deliveries to Chinatown intensified.

“What surprised me the most about the job and still does, is that some of the people we deliver to don’t speak a word of English,” Granade says. “It’s a completely different world.”

The finance major is “kind of shocked” that given the language barrier there’s never been an issue from either side when collecting payment. He’s not shocked, however, by the job itself anymore.

“The first few days it’s weird because you aren’t used to it. But then you realize you’re eating stuff like that everyday,” says the College at Florham student matter-of-factly.

He’s also matter-of-fact about the benefits of the position.

“It’s the best pay I can get as a college student and it’s nice that I only have to work two days a week,” says Granade who will divide his time between carrying pigs and interning at UBS bank this summer.

Though he’ll continue to truck pigs through the fall, his long-term focus will shift more permanently to finance.

“I’m really into trading and the stock market at the moment. But I’m exploring what you can do with (a finance degree),” says Granade.

As a transfer student from University of Tennessee, Granade has yet to take a finance class but knows that Fairleigh Dickinson University is the right place to experience one.

“Something like finance is better to do right next to New York City than in Tennessee,” he explains. Plus, Granade says, he likes FDU better than University of Tennessee. “The people and students at Fairleigh are so much friendlier.” He’s also been more involved here on campus with the finance club and Costa Rica service trip—except of course, when he has a pig to deliver.