A nonprofit Fayette County agency is preparing to link poultry farmers to consumers hungry for fresh chicken, thanks to a $25,000 matching grant from the state Department of Agriculture.
Republic Food Enterprise Center, a subsidiary of social service agency Fayette County Community Action Agency, got word of the funding from state Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding at a news conference at center offices in Redstone on Tuesday.
The center will match the grant with $25,000 of its own money and use the proceeds to acquire the permits necessary to market chicken raised by southwestern Pennsylvania farmers.
“People want to know who’s feeding them,” Mr. Redding said. “It’s a proud moment.”
The grant money will allow Republic Food to add poultry processing to its business line, which includes commercial kitchen services and supplying vegetables to restaurants and schools. The center serves about a dozen restaurants; runs the cafeteria in the U.S. District Court building, Downtown; and makes salads and deli sandwiches sold by Coffee Tree Roasters, which has stores in Shadyside, Squirrel Hill and elsewhere.
Republic Food’s commercial kitchen also bottles salad dressing for a Franklin Park restaurant and processes a specialty ice cream that is sold in Whole Foods grocery stores.
Fayette County Community Action Agency, which was founded in 1966, is a nonprofit social service agency based in Uniontown. The agency has annual revenue of about $10 million, according to CEO James Stark, who was excited about Republic’s new venture.
“We see a lot of potential,” he said.
In the spring, Republic Food converted a trailer into a mobile poultry processing center, which can be driven to farms to process chicken. The U.S. Department of Agriculture permit will allow the agency to process fewer than 20,000 birds annually and to sell the meat commercially.
A dearth of meat processing plants statewide was a need identified in a study that preceded enactment of Pennsylvania’s Farm Bill in July. Under the law, the government will invest $23.1 million in the state’s largest industry. Farming supports one out of every 10 jobs with $83.8 billion in direct economic output, according to the state Agriculture Department.
“You’ve got to find a way to add processing capacity in Pennsylvania,” Mr. Redding told farmers at the news conference.
Republic Food, which is located atop an abandoned coal mine, acts as a broker between farmers and the market for agricultural products, buying eggs and produce for resale or use in its kitchen while developing new markets, said Todd Miner, agricultural coordinator and a third-generation farmer.
“We pick up new farms weekly,” Mr. Miner said. “It’s been amazing.”
Republic Food general manager Joe Ambrose, also a third-generation farmer, said licensing the mobile chicken processing unit will create new opportunities for area farmers, including ones in Fayette and surrounding counties.
“This is a tough business,” he said, but the mobile unit “opens a huge door to our farmers that they haven’t had before.”
business@post-gazette.com
First Published: November 26, 2019, 9:45 p.m.
