A new meat shop in Fulton is gaining popularity throughout Callaway County for its emphasis on preserving community roots and supporting local farmers, according to one of the store owners.
"We do business with quite a few different local farmers in getting their product into these restaurants and grocery stores," said Cory Hawkins, one of Central Missouri Meat & Sausage's three owners. "(Farmers) raise the animal, we put their farm's name on the product, and we get it to these facilities so they're purchasing locally made products. It's giving the farmer another outlet for their products where they can have value added, where before a farmer couldn't sell to a grocery store or restaurant. Now they can."
Hawkins said the business idea stemmed from wanting to support the efforts of local farmers in a strong agricultural community that recognizes the great demand for locally sourced and verified, all-natural products.
"Knowing where your food comes from is important," Hawkins said. "(Congress) passed an act called COOL (Country of Origin Labeling), where the grocery stores no longer have to identify where your meat comes from, and they buy it from the packing house trucks, which no longer have to declare where it comes from at all. All of our meat is local. We don't sell anything in our stores that does not come from a local farmer."
In addition to its retail and processing areas, Central Meat & Sausage recently opened a full-service food court to offer customers an in-store dining experience and to attract more people passing its location on Business 54 between Fulton and New Bloomfield. Hawkins said the owners are working on finalizing a menu, but for now there's a limited menu available inside the store.
"We kinda snuck it open a few weeks ago," Hawkins said. "We just haven't officially done the opening on it. We're waiting on the Chamber of Commerce to do the ribbon cutting ceremony in spring so we can have outside seating and a big event. What we're doing now is small-time. Customers come in, they can sit down, they can eat. It gives us more time to learn the system more efficiently and make sure all of our equipment is up and operational."
The addition of the food court has also created several more job opportunities at the store, which employs 50 workers who all live in Callaway County. Hawkins said 40 employees are less than 30 years old.
"We have a lot of second- and third-generation Callewegian kids out here," Hawkins said. "We're trying to really give the youth something to stay here for, so we're teaching them a trade. We're giving them roots in this county, so the farmers' product stays here. It gives them more flexibility for the product, more added value. We're giving back to the community in the form of jobs and giving the youth something that they can build more roots in their community here."
The young employees at Central Missouri Meat & Sausage were swamped with processing meats and taking customers' during the holiday season, especially with the busy deer hunting season and other business-related services, according to Hawkins.
As the other two meat shop owners - Hawkins's wife, Ginger Hopkins, and the Brinker families from Auxvasse develop their business - they want to expand and fortify community roots by giving their young employees and their customers something to be proud of in the county.
"We have a lot of stuff we want to do for this community, for the schools in support of 4-H," Hawkins said. "We're trying to grow as fast as possible, provide as many jobs as possible here. We kind of view the agricultural department as not just livestock, not just the animals and the farmers and their roots, but as a community," "We're raising the next generation; we're raising children here. We need to raise those children to be young adults and give them something - a trade - so that they can be proud of their community and their heritage here."