Iowa — A Cherokee meat processing company is among three in Iowa receiving federal funding as part of a new program.
A more than half a million dollar grant will support the relocation and expansion of the Cherokee Locker, a meat processing facility in Cherokee.
Meanwhile, the new owners of a chicken processing plant in Charles City are getting nearly 46-million dollars in federal assistance to reopen the facility. The Simply Essentials plant closed in August of 2019. Pure Prairie Farms, the facility’s new owner, is getting a nearly 39 million dollar USDA loan, along with a grant of about seven million dollars. U.S. Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack says it’s part of the agency’s push to expand meat and poultry processing.
The USDA has also given Upper Iowa Beef in Lime Springs a nearly $9 million grant. The company’s expansion project should increase slaughter capacity by 50 percent, according to the USDA. The regional Council of Governments, based in Carroll, is getting $15 million from the USDA to support new or expanding meat processing facilities. This past week the USDA awarded 223 million dollars worth of grants and loans in 19 different states.
Pure Prairie, the farmer-owned company that’s reopening the poultry plant in Charles City, expects to begin operations in mid-November.
