Thanks to funding from President Biden’s American Rescue Plan, USDA is investing nearly $110 million through the Meat and Poultry Processing Expansion Program and the Local Meat Capacity Grant Program.

“The Biden-Harris Administration and USDA are advancing a sustainable vision of agriculture that prioritizes the needs of hardworking producers and small businesses and keeps rural communities strong,” said Vilsack. “Thanks to historic resources from President Biden’s American Rescue Plan, USDA is working to give farmers and ranchers a fairer chance to compete in the marketplace, which will increase local food options and lower costs for American families.”

The investments are part of USDA’s efforts to create a more competitive agricultural system, advance President Biden’s Investing in America Agenda and support the administration’s Action Plan for a Fairer, More Competitive, and More Resilient Meat and Poultry Supply Chain, which dedicates resources to expand independent processing capacity.

Meat and Poultry Processing Expansion Program

USDA is partnering with the New Hampshire Community Loan Fund to provide more than $83 million in grants to 24 independent processors in 15 states under the Meat and Poultry Processing Expansion Program. The funding will help build new processing plants, create hundreds of jobs, give local producers and entrepreneurs better business opportunities and give consumers more options at the grocery store. For example:

• Simla Frozen Food Locker Co. LLC is receiving a $450,000 grant to build a new facility across the street from their existing facility in rural Colorado to expand their processing capacity. The company processes cattle, hogs, chicken, turkeys, lamb, goats and wild game. This project will allow the family-run business to receive USDA inspection and sell locally produced proteins into wholesale markets such as restaurants and grocery stores. The company expects to serve 160 additional producers and create four full-time jobs through this project.
• McRez Packing International LLC is receiving a $390,000 grant to refurbish a previously mothballed industrial facility in New York to expand processing capacity. The company is a new small processor of cattle, hogs, chicken, turkey, sheep and goats. Their target customers are local, underserved farmers and dairy and beef producers. The project is expected to serve up to 2,500 new producers and create 110 full-time jobs.
• North State Processing LLC is receiving a $10 million grant to build a new facility in Hamlet, N.C, to process cattle, ostrich, emu, water buffalo and alpaca. A new processing company created by local and experienced North Carolina producers, the company anticipates serving 37 producers and creating 54 full-time jobs through this project.
• NF Packing Inc. is receiving a $1.4 million grant to build and equip a new processing facility for its start-up business in Walworth County, Wisc. The company anticipates serving 75 producers and creating 20 full-time jobs as a result of this project.

Details on all of the awards are available online.

USDA’s Rural Development has provided 59 awards totaling over $291.4 million through MPPEP to expand processing capacity and strengthen the food supply chain. MPPEP is funded by President Biden’s American Rescue Plan.

Local Meat Capacity Grant Program

USDA is awarding $26.9 million to 33 projects in 23 states through the Local Meat Capacity grant program to expand processing within the meat and poultry industry. This announcement builds on the first round of $9.5 million awarded to 42 projects, announced in March 2024.

This second set of awards through Local MCap is for both Equipment Only and Processing Expansion project types. Simplified equipment only projects fund projects from $10,000 to $250,000 to purchase processing equipment such as meat grinders, stuffers and smokers. Processing expansion projects are eligible to receive between $100,000 and $5 million to increase processing or rendering capacity through activities such as facility upgrades, equipment purchases, and training. For example:

• White Oak Pastures in Bluffton, Ga., is a family-owned meat company that will use a Local Meat Capacity grant to support the cost of converting its poultry processing facility into a dual-use facility that can also process lambs, goats and hogs. This aims to expand their livestock processing capacity by 30%.
• Nordik Meats is a small, independently owned meat processing facility in Southwest Wisconsin. The business will use a Local Meat Capacity grant to purchase a grinder, meatball maker and packaging equipment to expand processing capacity and serve an additional 50 local producers. The equipment will provide local producers with the ability to create new value-added products for local consumers, maximize the value of their animals, utilize byproducts and increase animal harvest. Nordik Meats will increase the number of livestock processed annually by 100% over two years, implement new processing technologies, train 12 existing staff, hire four new employees and benefit 350 local small family farms.
• Seven Hills Food Co. in Lynchburg, Va., is a full-service meat packaging company and a wholesaler of premium meat products sourced from small local family farms. The company will use a Local Meat Capacity grant to make plant enhancements to address bottlenecks currently hindering plant capacity while adding rendering capacity, new value-added products and a farmer liaison for coordinating expanded production. This will support producers and meat companies in achieving the necessary scale, product quality, and efficiencies to access institutional and wholesale accounts.

In April 2023, USDA announced up to $75 million available for Local MCap to fund innovative projects designed to build resilience in the meat and poultry supply chain by providing producers with more local processing options and strengthening their market potential. This grant program is targeted to support meat and poultry processors with smaller-scale projects, with a goal to increase processing availability and variety for local and regional livestock producers. The program is administered by the Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) and is authorized by the American Rescue Plan.

USDA will announce additional awards at a later date. A complete list of the awarded MCAP projects is available on the AMS Local MCap web page.

Source: USDA