Local Meat as an Economic Driver
You’ve heard the line, “Build it and they will come.” Kate Stillman of Stillman’s Quality Meats is doing some serious building with an eye to filling a need for up to 300 regional livestock farms. About three years ago, she started planning and designing an 8,000 square foot two-story facility that includes a 4,000 square foot USDA smokehouse and value-added processing facility in Hardwick.
“This facility is really the next step for livestock farmers,” Kate says. It will process both poultry and red meat (beef, pork, and lamb), which is rare in New England. The facility was designed to complement services of other meat processing facilities, rather than compete with them. Here, producers can make bacon, pot pies, meatballs, stock, jerky, and other value-added and ready-to-eat items, helping them (and Kate’s farm) increase their income and sell to the wholesale market.
“This is changing the game in our area for sure, to have access to this capacity,” she says.
The plant will have space for farms to store animal carcasses to add value off season and reduce pinch points during high demand times. “There’s tremendous freezer and refrigeration capacity,” she says.
After running a successful livestock farm and direct-to-consumer butchery for the past 14 years, Kate felt called to take the business to the next level. This new facility will enable her to hire more workers, mainly local moms, significantly increasing economic activity in the rural towns east of the Quabbin and west of Worcester. Through her current butchery, she sells products via farmers market coupon programs, helping increase access to healthy foods for low-income communities.
The Franklin County CDC provided partial funding for the multimillion-dollar project through its Massachusetts Food Trust Program, and served as one of many technical advisors along way. Kate also credited Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture and Berkshire Agricultural Ventures as major collaborators on the project, as well as the Commonwealth, which awarded the project a Food Security Infrastructure Grant.
“We’re talking about investing in rural communities here,” she says, adding that her business will create highly skilled, high paying, year-round jobs.
The facility has many custom components, causing some delays, but also expanding what’s going to be possible when it’s slated to open in January 2026.
Kate faced other hurdles, such as federal funding barriers and increased costs and delays obtaining equipment because of tariffs. She also has invested more of her own capital that she planned to, causing her to launch a crowdfunding effort.
How did these bumps in the road impact her? “I have put a smile on my face, rolled up my sleeves and navigated through.”
We asked how her experience was working with the Franklin County CDC on the project. She replied, “Oh they they've been fabulous.”
