PENNSYLVANIA — Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding toured MudPond Meats, a custom butcher in Dalton, Pennsylvania, on Tuesday to announce recipients of the Very Small Meat and Poultry Processor Grants. A total of $676,140 will be distributed among 12 small businesses across 11 counties. The grants, part of the PA Farm Bill, aim to boost the capacity of small businesses to meet the increasing demand for local meat and poultry.
The funds will be used for various business enhancements such as expansion, equipment purchases, and improvements in food and worker safety.
“Consumers increasingly want to buy local to keep dollars in their own communities,” said Redding. “These grants not only help small farm businesses like MudPond Meats serve their customers, they shorten the supply chain, lowering transportation costs and energy use, increasing profit here at home, and making the food supply more reliable even in the midst of national disruptions like we saw during the pandemic.”
MudPond Meats was awarded a $77,547 grant through the program in 2022-23 to purchase equipment to help expand their custom butchering business.
“The PA Farm Bill grant changed our business by helping us achieve USDA certification,” said MudPond Meats Owner Ben Rust. “We are proud to be a partner to our community, and we can now support more farmers and customers across the region through our expansion and certification.”
Since 2019, Pennsylvania has supported the expansion of 47 small businesses, investing more than $2.5 million through Very Small Meat and Poultry Processor Grants. These grants are part of an ongoing initiative by the Shapiro Administration to build the workforce and infrastructure needed for Pennsylvania’s $132.5 billion agriculture industry, which supports over 593,000 jobs.
The grant recipients, by county and amount received, include:
- Adams: Latimore Valley Farms ($73,130), Rettland Farm ($38,207)
- Allegheny: Salem Market ($63,782)
- Cumberland: North Mountain Butcher Shop ($52,691)
- Lancaster: Gapview Homestead ($10,459)
- Lehigh: Slate Belt Butchery ($73,110)
- Luzerne: Joe’s Smokehouse ($26,823)
- Monroe: Stryker Farm ($58,175)
- Northampton: Lehigh Valley Meats ($73,029)
- Susquehanna: John Stahl Waldron Meats ($73,130)
- Westmoreland: Weimer Meats ($73,130)
- York: Cabin Hollow Butcher Shop ($73,130)
To discover funding opportunities and further investments in a prosperous future for Pennsylvania agriculture, explore agriculture.pa.gov. This valuable resource provides information on funding opportunities and more for previous recipients of the PA Farm Bill in your region.
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