Appalachian Abattoir, a harvest facility, opens as extension to Buzz Food Service

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RAND, W.Va. — Years in the making, an expansion of services of Buzz Food Service occurred Tuesday as a result of a ribbon-cutting for Appalachian Abattoir.

The new processing facility on U.S. Route 60 close to Rand will be a state-of-the-art USDA inspected and graded harvest facility. It is the first USDA graded facility in West Virginia.

It will point beef products in three quality categories: USDA Prime, USDA Choice, and USDA Select.

“Years of planning, design, construction are coming to a conclusion with a ceremonial ribbon-cutting today (Tuesday) and then a grand opening and a start of operational activities later this month,” Dickinson Gould, President and Owner of Buzz Food Service told 580-WCHS.

Dickinson Gould

Local livestock producers will provide the resources for the processing plant, Gould said. He added there has been always been a shortage of local meat processing capacities but it was a matter of funding.

“Beef, pork and lamb. To sell into our existing wholesale live chain which is a nice alternative to buying midwestern boxed beef, pork and lamb as we have for decades now,” Gould said.

The project was funded through the Abandoned Mine Lands (AML) Pilot Program, administered by the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection with a $5.4 million grant.

The new facility sits 75 yards from the Buzz Food Service building, which Gould said will be beneficial to himself and staff members. Product manufactured at Appalachian Abattoir could be easily taken over to Buzz inventory line on a shuttle truck.

The release stated the facility could create an estimated 35 new full-time jobs.

“People with no meat processing experience are learning more about what we’ve built here. I think the local workforce is seeing opportunities where they get to learn a trade skill, work with their hands, manufacture products that are in high quality and very much in demand in the marketplace,” Gould said.