Agenda Item Name:
Title
Update on Newberry Meat Processing Facility
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Presenter:
Sean McLendon, Economic Development & Food Systems Manager
Stephen Hofstetter, Environmental Protection Department Director
Chris Gilbert, Ph.D., Hazardous Materials Program Manager
Christa Court, Ph.D., Director UF-IFAS Economic Impact Analysis Program
Diedre Houchen, Ph.D., Equity & Community Outreach Manager
Betsy Riley, Ph.D., Sustainability Manager
Cynthia Sanders, Ph.D., Director UF-IFAS Alachua County Extension
Chad Carr, Ph.D., Professor UF-IFAS State Extension Meat Specialist
Description:
Update on the Meat Processing Facility before taking action on Preconstruction Work.
Recommended Action:
Recommended Action
Direct staff to continue with due diligence work on the Newberry Environmental Park site and report back to the Board.
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Prior Board Motions:
At the December 6, 2022, Board meeting Commissioner Cornell moved to approve the preliminary work plan and direct staff to proceed with the preliminary work plan and ask staff to submit a joint request with the city of Newberry to the State as a legislative request for capital project funding and pursue Federal USDA Grants with our congressional delegation in the upcoming session and report back with a status update after the State session in May. 2nd Commissioner Alford
The motion carried 4-0 with Commissioner Wheeler out of the room.
At the June 22, 2021 - Meeting on the American Rescue Plan - State and Local Fiscal Revenue Recovery Funds Commissioner Prizzia moved to Approve the Preliminary Plan presented with a modification to increase local food line item to $4 million and decrease Undesignated line item from $9 million to $6 million, adopt the resolution for unanticipated revenue and accompanying budget amendment, and authorize the County Manager to: (i) approve and sign any recipient grant agreements and related documents necessary for the County to receive American Rescue Plan funding from the Federal Government; (ii) develop for subsequent BOCC approval guidelines and criteria for implementation of each Plan element, plus, explore items discussed during commission comment to possibly be added to the Plan including, mental health, non-profit capacity building, structural translation funding, re-entry services, and senior housing as well as request an update on the central receiving unit and a presentation by UF Health and (iii) negotiate for subsequent BOCC approval interlocal agreements and other contracts to implement the Plan.
Motion passed 5-0
Fiscal Consideration:
Fiscal Consideration
The total estimated cost of the Newberry Meat Processing Facility is $5.25 million. At the December 6, 2022, Board meeting, the Commission allocated $2,500,000 from ARPA - SLFRF until 12/31/2026. Project # ARP2021x014. Staff has submitted State and Federal Legislative requests for the balance of funds.
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Strategic Guide:
Strategic Guide
Social and Economic Opportunity
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Background:
Executive Summary
The Board approved the American Rescue Plan - State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds (SLFRF) Workplan for a 10,000-square-foot USDA-certified meat processing facility in Newberry, Florida, as a job and workforce training center. The facility is expected to address COVID-based inequities by providing vocational training to COVID-impacted, marginalized communities and support small, rural ranchers being pushed out of the marketplace. The Board has allocated $2.5 million ins SLFRF to the project. The remainder of the $5.25 million estimated cost will be funded through state, federal, and private funds. Before progressing the project beyond the initial 21-month Stakeholder and Board Discussions phase, staff recommends completing site due diligence work related to a nearby FDEP crop-dusting cleanup site.
Project Update
Alachua County will use SLFRF, State, Federal, and private funds to construct a 10,000-square-foot USDA-certified meat processing facility (Facility) that will act as a job and workforce training center. The Facility will be located in Newberry, Florida, in a City environmental park that is an expansion to an existing municipal wastewater treatment facility. In addition to a Meat Processing Facility, the environmental park could host a private-sector composter, a Fire Rescue Training Facility, Rural Collection Facility, and a covered Household Hazardous Waste Collection Center.
Before the project progresses beyond the initial 21-month Stakeholder & Board Discussions phase, staff recommends that the City of Newberry conduct site due diligence work on the Environmental Park.
The park’s northwest corner was a prior FDEP clean-up site associated with crop dusting pesticide/herbicide contamination. The FDEP Site name is “NORTH FLORIDA CROP DUSTING Inc.” Staff recommends that before a land agreement with Newberry can be considered, a Phase II site assessment must be completed by the City. The FDEP clean-up site is approximately 2,000 feet from the acreage to be used by the Meat Processing Facility.
Helping COVID-Impacted Communities
The Facility remedies two types of communities/populations experiencing Covid-based inequities: The first is for COVID-impacted, marginalized communities that could benefit from vocational training in the meat processing field. The second is small, rural ranchers being pushed out of the marketplace by COVID impacts and ongoing systemic biases toward bigger producers. Both groups have faced challenges connected to inequitable market forces, resulting from consolidation and industrialization of processing and distribution channels and inequitable, racially based policies related to the distribution of resources and opportunities.
21-Months of Outreach and Discussions
Since the Board allocated SLFRF funding to a meat facility in June 2021, staff have worked with small ranchers, UF-IFAS, industry experts, the City of Newberry, and a host of other entities to conceptualize the project that would become the SLFRF Work Plan approved by the Board on December 6, 2022. The following 21-month timeline summarizes most, but not all, efforts to achieve the Board’s direction.
• June 22, 2021, Expansion of the ARPA Food Security line from $1 to $4M as approved by the Board.
• June 28, 2021, Joint City of Newberry - County Meeting. City Manager New discussed the meat processing facility as part of the complex of services coming to their Newberry Environmental Park.
• July 13, 2021, Exploration of USDA Food Processing Build Back Better Program for food processing and establishing local food economies. This grant had alignment with the processing facility in Newberry. The grant was not pursued because the Facility was still under-scoping development and was not a good fit then.
• September 28, 2021, UF-IFAS Economic Impact Analysis Program begins work on IMPLAN.
• November 16, 2021, Commissioner Prizzia presented to the Rural Concerns Advisory Committee.
• November 30, 2021, ARPA Update to the Board Email from OMB - The Board was notified of all the ARPA projects and funding allocations as of November 2021. This included a breakout of $4 M in funding toward Negative Economic Impact - Local Food Security. From this amount, $3.7 M was allocated to support Food System Infrastructure and Employment. Per previous Board discussion, one of the breakout programs under development was a $2.5M allocation for the Meat Processing Facility.
• December 7, 2021, Special meeting between Commissioner Cornell and Prizzia. As part of this meeting, they discussed the Meat Processing Facility.
• December 6, 2022, Approval and direction to proceed with the SLFRF work plan and to submit a joint request with the city of Newberry to the State as a legislative request for capital project funding.
• January 17, 2023, At the request of the Rural Concerns Advisory Committee, staff presented the meat processing facility. Rural Concern issued a letter of support for the facility.
Funding Sources
Alachua County will use a combination of SLFRF, State, Federal, and private sector funds to construct a USDA-inspected meat processing facility and workforce training site in Newberry, Florida.
The COVID-19 pandemic showed a lack of resilience in the food sector in the US food system designed primarily for efficiency. The consumer paid a heavy price for this brittle system that saw the retail price of beef increase by 125% due to supply impacts. Pandemic-induced problems for ranchers are ongoing.
At that same time that ranchers face COVID impacts, so are underserved communities.
Promoting Equitable Outcomes
Alachua County faced high unemployment rates and food insecurity, particularly in marginalized communities, even before the COVID-19 pandemic. Since then, COVID-based inequities have further entrenched these issues, leading to a surge in demand for SNAP benefits. Employment with a livable wage and access to nutritious food are critical factors in maintaining health and preventing disease, particularly in at-risk communities. Black communities are especially impacted by food insecurity and unemployment, with trends almost double that of white populations in Florida.
Meat processing and butchery can provide stable employment and improved income opportunities for marginalized communities and address the market demand from small-scale ranchers who have difficulty accessing processing plants and retail opportunities for their products. However, COVID has impacted many meat processing facilities, leading to higher food costs and economic harm to small ranchers. Small ranchers are already constrained in their access to USDA-certified processing facilities, and COVID has placed additional stressors on them.
The United States food system is biased toward large-scale producers and processors, vulnerable to the disruptive effects of emergencies like COVID. Large systems have struggled to maintain an adequate workforce to meet consumer demand, exacerbating food insecurity issues in marginalized communities. This project addresses these concerns by catering directly to small ranchers and providing workforce training opportunities in meat processing and butchery, ultimately promoting equitable outcomes for marginalized communities.
Goals
This proposal targets the creation of a food system as a job and workforce center for historically underserved, marginalized, or adversely affected ranchers and related workforce who experienced COVID impacts to provide:
• A jobs pipeline for meat processing and related culinary arts
• A USDA-certified meat processing facility to aid small ranchers in our region.
• And a more resilient localized supply chain for meat processing and distribution.
Awareness
Alachua County piloted several programmatic responses using local funds in 2020-2021 with high participation of marginalized communities and great success. These programs align with the current proposal in that they laid the groundwork for the promotion of workforce training in marginalized communities and provided support to similar communities that are small farm operations. It has also conducted surveys in 2021 and stakeholder meetings through 2022 with the regional ranchers to develop the proposed meat processing facility program. The combination of pilot program experience, survey work, and stakeholder meetings ensures that the project will be equitable and practical in enabling these communities to be aware of the services funded by the SLFRF.
Access and Distribution
The two programmatic goals target services to different eligible populations based on their needs as jobs pipeline and for small-scale ranchers. These responses recognize the differences in access levels to benefits and services across groups. A partnership with the UF-IFAS and Santa Fe College will be instrumental in setting vocational training requirements and certification. In addition, the management of the Facility will cater to small ranchers that are represented by disenfranchised populations. Both workers and producers will be given a voice in the administration of the Facility to maximize access to benefits and services across groups.
Outcomes
These three programmatic goals, as previously stated, target services to different eligible populations, but it also addresses problems with the underlying food system of the community at a holistic level, from workforce and talent development to producer.
A small-scale USDA-certified meat processing facility can address the disproportionate impacts for a region by creating:
• Food system resilience and local food demand. A facility will be a local source of government-inspected meat products
• Support for Small and Mid-Sized Ranchers Provide a critical processing outlet dedicated to serving smaller producers
• Jobs and Workforce Development. Create a job and workforce center for butchery skills
Output Measures of Success
A small-scale USDA-certified meat processing facility should generate the following output measures:
• Carcasses processed per day: 4-15
• Direct jobs generated by the facility: 8-12
• Organic nutrient recycling. Tonnage of waste diverted from landfill for compost per day: 1.3 - 4.7 tons
Output Measures of Success that are - TBD based on the operations and curriculum plan.
• Value-added products number and value from meat processing
• Number of workers enrolled in job training programs
• Number of workers completing job training programs
• Demographic breakout of job training workers
• Employment of certified and trained workers at other facilities
• Facility gross and net income.
• Number of small farmers served