The Coronavirus pandemic has hurt many businesses and affected many ways of life. Restaurants have been hit particularly hard, and the industry is still reeling from reduced capacity, closed dining rooms and the lingering uncertainty about how to avoid the virus.

When it comes to the holiday feast, nothing beats the sight of a perfectly cooked turkey at the center of the table.

In a normal year, we would be presenting Independent Processor’s annual Processor of the Year Award to a company that best exemplifies all of the qualities of a small or mid-sized meat processor. In a normal year, it’s a difficult process to determine which company to choose. However, there has been nothing normal about this year since mid-March. 

This year’s cover story isn’t about one processor. It’s about all the processors who read this magazine, really. The “Year of the Independent Processor” is meant to show how hard the small processor community has worked during this pandemic, largely under the radar.