A rural Minnesota meat locker goes up in flames, but the business isn’t down for good

The spotlight returned to small-town meat lockers — a boon for main streets, big box-weary consumers and local livestock producers — this past week after a fire destroyed a butcher shop in west-central Minnesota.

But unlike before the pandemic, when a devastating fire may’ve been reason to close up shop, cattle producers and butchers in this neck of the state say an emerging resilience after decades of decline is helping forestall greater problems in the small meat-processing world.

The Starbuck Meats & Locker Services building burned midday Saturday in downtown Starbuck during the town’s annual Heritage Days. Local firefighters came on the scene shortly after workers closed up for the day.

A State Fire Marshal report returned this week indicating an accidental cause of the fire, said Starbuck Fire Chief Doug Noyes.

“Especially in small communities, it’s a lot of [commerce] goes through there,” Noyes said.

During the pandemic’s early days, when inventory dropped in grocery stores’ meat freezers, local lockers saw phones ringing off the hook for orders from customers seeking local, trusted meat. When large meat-processing sites closed because of COVID-19 breakouts, many smaller operations scattered across rural Minnesota kept busy, processing orders for farmers who saw long lines at the bigger packers.

But amid the fervor, stresses on the industry emerged. A 2022 survey by the Minnesota Farmers Union found a majority of nearly 60 meat processors across the state reported struggles at handing off their businesses to the next generation. The closure of a college-level butcher program in Pipestone two decades ago compounded the problem.

The absence meant fewer options for consumers but also for livestock producers looking to market their beef, pork or poultry.

“It’s particularly important for the smaller operations specializing in direct-market sales,” said Paul Sobocinski, a livestock farmer from Wabasso who participated in the 2022 report.

But recent state and federal funds, thanks to increased in consumer demand, have initiated something of a renaissance in Main Street meat production, a safety net the recent Pope County fire showed.

“It’s an icon for this small town,” said Mary Jo Forbord, who raises organic, grass-fed beef 10 miles south of Starbuck. “It’s the old creamery building. Everyone had these memories of getting the small-town treatment, getting the beef the way they wanted, and here comes a fire.”

But Forbord said when the fire burned up one beef carcass and half of another of hers that were kept at the locker — and also ended processing for the foreseeable future — she quickly transferred future orders to a U.S. Department of Agriculture-inspected meat locker that just opened about 25 miles away in Brooten.

Jenniges Meats Processing in Brooten opened its expanded 12,000-foot facility in January. Many livestock producers who were on the books at Starbuck have sought them out in this crisis.

“I had nine [livestock producers] show up today,” said Angela Jenniges, who owns the locker with her husband, Nathan.

The Jennigeses increased their staff from seven workers to 22 in January, an expansion that a state grant for small meat and poultry processors partly aided.

“We went from doing about 10 or 12 beef a week and seven to 10 hogs, and now we’re able to do 30 beef and 30 hogs,” she said.

The Starbuck Meats owner did not return a request for comment. But Forbord said they called her the day after the fire to help plan the next steps, vowing to reopen. A refrigerated truck, in fact, contained plenty of beef for sale, including half of Forbord’s.

“If you’re going to make a joke about smoked beef,” she said, “bring your wallet [to town] and buy something.”