A cut above: local food movement spurs new Lexington business
Sam Dean l The Roanoke Times
Increased demand for fresh, local food persuaded two Lexington families to reopen a meat-processing facility that will help small farmers and customers alike.
LEXINGTON — Steve Donald was a high school senior when his father decided it was time to fully initiate him in the family business.
“I came home from school, and my father looked at my brother, Rick, and I and said, ‘There’s four cattle down in the pen. Go butcher them on your own.’”
It was daunting, but Donald and his five brothers and sisters had grown up around farming — and slaughtering.
Their grandfather opened Donald’s Slaughterhouse in Lexington in the 1930s, and their father, Bill, took over the business when he left the military in the early 1950s. As long as they were old enough, helping out at the plant was a regular occurrence for the Donald kids.
But by 1988, Bill Donald was suffering from rheumatoid arthritis and the custom slaughtering business seemed to be dying out.
The plant was shuttered, and neither Steve nor Tim Donald thought they would ever see it reopen. Then the local food movement, and a very persuasive farmer, came along.
To continue reading this story I wrote for today’s Extra section of The Roanoke Times, click here.
February 21, 2010 - 1:04 PM
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You have no idea how excited my husband and I were to see your article in the Extra! It gives credibility to our theory that more and more people are trying to grow their own/eat local that there is enough demand for this family’s business to restart and restart successfully. Currently we do our own butchering of small livestock and deer but have no place to hang meats for aging so it goes directly into our freezer. It would be so worth it to us if there was a small business like this near us where we could rent space for a short time to hang our meats. Hopefully growing demand will lead to a local slaughterhouse like the Donald’s for our area.
That is wonderful to hear, Rebecca.
This is a really great story Lindsey! We’ve been trying to focus more ourselves on eating more local foods and meats! Thankfully we have found a few farms within about 20 miles of us that we can buy direct from! It’s been wonderful! I’m so glad to see that the local food movement is doing such great things for the Lexington area! I’d love to try some of that beef!
Thanks, Carrie! Hey, maybe your dad could get you some of their beef and throw it in the freezer until you see him.
I just found this article in The Atlantic about Wal-Mart’s efforts to boy locally grown food:
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/201003/walmart-local-produce