designed to help develop food supply chain strength
By Stephen Smoot
The summer sun, bright and shining in a cobalt blue sky, showered seasonal heat instead of rain as officials gathered in Lost City to mark the funding of a major project.
Those officials clustered under the shade of trees that benevolently shielded about half of the ground from the unrelenting sun. Along with Richard Hamilton of Lonesome Ridge Farm and his family, they stood ready to share details about a project that will, at the same time, provide economic development for the region and also play a role in helping to strengthen America’s food supply chain.
“We are gathered here to ask Your blessing,” implored Pastor Ronnie _____, asked to provide the prayer for the event.
“I want to thank the Lord first of all,” shared Hamilton after he was asked to share a few words. He added “we have a God that’s just great. Through Him is how we get to meet people like you.” Hamilton shared that the facility would start “very, very small,” opening operations through processing 70,000 eggs a day. “We’ve got multiple steps to go,” he went on to say.
Anna Smith stepped forward, representing Sanovo Technology Group. This global corporation based in Denmark has offices in Slovakia, Italy, the Netherlands, and China, as well as a US office in Detroit. The company provides efficient technology and machinery solutions for egg production facilities worldwide.
Said Smith “I’ve been working with Richard for a couple of years on this project” and also remarked that “the vision has kind of blown up” since its original conception. This project represents a departure of sorts for the company, with Smith explaining that “rarely do we get to be involved from the ground up.”
She then explained why “this pilot is going to be very unique.”
Eggs, bought entirely from local suppliers, will come to the facility for washing, grading, scoring, checking, and other needed steps in the processing of fresh eggs. “They run through grading which results in the product you see in the grocery store,” she said.
Then came the next stage of the evolving vision, the one which makes this particular project both different and potentially a powerful economic driver. This facility will also have a second function that a different entity will operate. Healthy Kids Inc will run a liquefaction plant that relieves the eggs of their shells while putting the rest into containers for sale.
Mandy Curry represented Healthy Kids Inc at the event, sharing that “this all came together on a conference call” with “12 of us online.” Her goal lay in figuring out “how do we get this local product into schools, hospitals, and prisons?”
“We’re excited to be a part of all this,” Curry shared, then added “within a year, healthy eggs will be going to schools across the state.” She expects that the operation will help to pump “at least” $20 million back into the local economy.
Each of the three Hardy County Commissioners, Steven Schetrom, Jay Fansler, and Dave Workman came to celebrate the coming facility. Workman told those in attendance that “this is one of those things that happen every now and again that we can call a bright spot.” He spoke of the “leaps of faith” taken that will “bring jobs to the county” and expand poultry industry opportunities.
West Virginia Commissioner of Agriculture Kent Leonhardt spoke last. He stood in front of the state Department of Agriculture’s “West Virginia Grown” logo and talked first about “West Virginians helping West Virginians.” He explained the challenges that “West Virginia agriculture has gone through in the last few years” including drought, flooding, avian flu, and other issues.
“West Virginia has been through all of these things at once, but not at one time,” Leonhardt stated.
A WVDA release stated that the “third-generation, family-owned operation, Lonesome Ridge will establish the state’s first egg processing facility. The project will grade and process over 1.5 million eggs annually from ten farms in eight distressed counties.”
The grant for the facility, that came with a 50 percent match requirement, came through the West Virginia Department of Agriculture from the United States Department of Agriculture’s Resilient Food Systems Infrastructure Program.
According to the USDA website on the program, “the purpose of the Resilient Food Systems Infrastructure (RFSI) program is to build resilience in the middle of the food supply chain, to provide more and better markets to small farms and food businesses, to support the development of value-added products for consumers, fair prices, fair wages, and new and safe job opportunities.”
