Submitted by Island Grown Farmers Cooperative.

Island Grown Farmers Cooperative is a small farmer owned co-op based Skagit County that were just awarded an $820,000 grant under USDA’s new Meat and Poultry Processing Expansion Program. IGFC has operated a Mobile Processing Unit under USDA inspection for 20 years, traveling to the 88 different farms that make up the ownership of the co-op. IGFC has increased from one staff to 15 staff over the last 20 years and gone from harvesting about 300 head of beef, pork, lamb and goat to now harvesting about 2,500 head per year. With the help of the MPPEP funding, IGFC would expand the number of animals processed and finally expand their membership. This project provides locally grown meats from small family farms in five rural counties in northwest Washington, including San Juan County. Here is a link to the USDA release that went out today:

https://www.rd.usda.gov/newsroom/news-release/island-grown-farmers-cooperative-awarded-grant-through-american-rescue-plan-increase-and-expand-meat.