GAINESVILLE, FLA.- At a recent special meeting, the Alachua County Commission voted to help fund a new processing facility in Newberry, Fla.

In the meeting agenda, the county said it would allocate $2.5 million to construct the USDA-inspected meat processing plant to serve as a job and workforce training center.

The money given for the facility is part of the $52.25 million received by the county from the American Rescue Plan Act.

The county commission stated that the total estimated capital costs for the project would be $5.25 million. According to documents provided by the commission, the facility will be under 10,000 square feet and sit on a 10-acre site.

The project will involve Alachua County, the University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) and Santa Fe College to support locally produced food, aid small local ranchers and provide agricultural workforce training. 

“The development of this facility will also provide opportunities to collaborate on cutting-edge technologies to reduce waste, energy, and water use in the meat processing industry,” said J Scott Angle, senior vice president of UF/IFAS, in a letter to the commission. “It will allow us to explore new value-added food products and study the impacts of this investment on our local food system.”

Construction is expected to start in in Jan. 2024 and be completed by the end of 2026. When finished, the plant officials plan to employ up to 12 people and process four to 15 carcasses per day.  

The commission added that the plant would be privately operated but publicly funded. One of the plant’s stated goals was to build a more resilient localized supply chain for distribution and meat processing.