Glacier Processing Receives $250k Grant

Glacier Processing Cooperative will modernize its meat processing facility, increase efficiencies, and position the co-op for long-term growth through a $250,000 USDA Local Meat Capacity Grant.

The co-op received one of 33 Local MCap grants totaling nearly $26.9 million announced by the USDA in July. The awards were for equipment only and processing expansion projects and built on the first round of $9.5 million awarded to 42 projects announced in March.

Glacier Processing, a rancher-owned cooperative in Columbia Falls, was developed to ensure meat processing remains available for local producers in the Flathead. The equipment modernizations will span the facility’s full processing capabilities, from harvest to value-added products.

The grant is an opportunity to create more options for producers and consumers as Glacier Processing heads into a project to expand capacity threefold, said Mark Siderius, the co-op board’s chairman.

“What the MCap will do for us is provide new state-of-the-art equipment headed into the planned expansion, the ability to do more value-added processing, and just an overall more efficient, more consistent product coming out of our facility,” Siderius said.

Earlier this year, Glacier Processing Co-op also received a $50,000 Growth Through Agriculture Grant from the Montana Department of Agriculture, which has already been put to use modernizing the processing facility, and Siderius said the co-op is excited to move forward with the larger expansion project to increase capacity and create a retail space in the coming months.

Grants like the Growth Through Ag program and the MCap program make the improvements possible, benefiting both producers and consumers, he said.

“These programs are actually impacting and helping people in their daily lives,” he said.

To learn more about the co-op or join, visit https://glacierprocessing.com.