Pandemic Challenges and Demand Increases Inspire Innovation for Meat Processors

In partnership with: Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services

The term that perhaps best describes Virginia meat processors’ experiences working through the COVID-19 pandemic is “roller coaster.”

It’s the term both Ryan Ford, owner and president of Seven Hills Food Co., and Cynthia Gunnoe, vice president of Gunnoe Sausage Co., use to describe their challenges with supply chain ups and downs that plagued consumers facing empty grocery shelves or sparse restaurant menus.

Both producers successfully channeled those challenges into innovations that not only kept their businesses on track but helped them have a “meatier” impact than ever before as Virginia’s demand for protein – especially locally sourced or marketed – increased.

Seven Hills Food Co.

“Prior to the pandemic, the majority of our customers were in the food service industry,” says Ford, whose abattoir in Lynchburg is the largest independent beef slaughter facility in Virginia.

With stay-at-home directives and restaurant dining room closures that came early in the pandemic, Seven Hills Food’s orders declined steeply.

“We didn’t have a single order come in one day, and that was scary. Normally, we process more than 100 head of cattle in a week,” he says. “By the end of that day, we realized we needed to chase the demand and started figuring out how to provide an emergency beef supply to grocery stores.”

The company established a relationship with a grocery chain temporarily allowing the wholesaler to provide beef to stores in Virginia and West Virginia while products were unavailable from larger national suppliers.

Establishing this relationship created a positive domino effect helping consumers, the grocery chain, the Virginia farmers from whom the wholesaler purchases its cattle and Seven Hills Food’s 40 or so employees.

“It hasn’t all been rosy, but we had no layoffs throughout the pandemic, and we’ve accelerated our entry into the retail market,” Ford says. “Our resiliency was our greatest advantage. I think we’re a good example of how strong the local food model really is.”

See more: How Virginia Livestock Farmers Are Navigating the Pandemic

Gunnoe Sausage Co.

Supply chain challenges for Gunnoe Sausage, based in Goode, came in obtaining seasonings and packaging materials for its pork products, which include country sausage, Italian sausage and bratwurst.

“Orders that used to have a four-week turnaround might have a 14-week turnaround. In some cases, we had to find new sources for our supplies,” Gunnoe says.

The company, which markets its products to major grocery chains throughout Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina and East Tennessee, typically sources pork across the mid-Atlantic but briefly relied on a new buyer to keep ahead of supply issues.

It also focused on implementing proactive safety measures.

“Once vaccines were available to everyone, we were able to work with our local Virginia Health Department office to get them to come out and do a vaccine clinic for our 40 employees,” Gunnoe says. “Bringing the vaccines to the employees instead of expecting them to go offsite for the shots made the vaccines more accessible to everyone.”

That wasn’t the only safety measure enacted. The company displayed signs encouraging healthy behaviors early in the pandemic and required employees to wear masks.

The company also required more spacing between employees in processing areas and staggered lunch and break times to prevent employees from congregating unsafely in large groups.

“We took measures early on to make sure, to the best of our ability, that we weren’t forced to shut down by either supply chain challenges or employee illness,” Gunnoe says.

See more: In Spite of COVID-19, Virginia Poultry Producers Press On