Donahue family to open butcher shop in Malone

Donahue’s Livestock Farms in North Bangor is the second farm to receive a loan through the revolving loan fund for small-scale food producers. The loan will help the family business renovate and purchase equipment for a specialty butcher shop, according to a news release from ANCA.

“The funds from ANCA and Foodshed Capital will help us to grow our business and increase community access to our local, natural meat products,” co-owner Katie Donahue said in the release. “Customers will also be able to buy our products with their SNAP benefit cards, which we now could technically take, but are just not currently set up for logistically. We anticipate that our new meat shop will increase beef, pork and lamb sales dramatically with the Main Street exposure. We’re very grateful for the SOIL Loan Fund loan from ANCA and Foodshed Capital.”

The new retail operation, Donahue’s Chop Shop, will provide farm-fresh beef, pork and lamb for local customers, including families who participate in the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). The renovation project at 255 W. Main St. will begin after surveying work is complete, the new owners said.

“Farmers like the Donahues are exactly who these SOIL loans are designed to support — experienced operators who are looking to expand their business,” ANCA Local Food Systems Program Director Adam Dewbury said. “This project will provide Donahue’s Livestock Farms with a year-round retail outlet for direct-to-consumer sales, which they previously lacked. Expansion of their retail capacity will be a great complement to their wholesale operation.”

Founded in 2016, the Donahue family business markets its products to restaurants, businesses, schools, institutions and stores across the North Country. The new shop will allow them to sell directly to more consumers. Owners Brandon and Katie Donahue have long-term plans to open a federally certified facility to serve the meat processing needs of their own farm and other local farms.

Donahue said the benefits of local, antibiotic-free meat is apparent to the establishments they currently serve, and the family wants to bring those benefits to local families as well. While they currently sell their meats at farmers markets across the North Country, the logistics of that are challenging. The quality of the meat, however, is paramount.

“It’s natural. No antibiotics. No growth hormones. Nothing like that,” Donahue said. “You can come to our shop and know that it’s going to be natural. It’s going to come from someone that you can see who grew it.”

Along with roughly 800 head of cattle, Donahue said the farm also raises pigs, sheep, and, in the future, chickens.

“We’ve kind of got a little bit of everything around here,” Donahue said.

Donahue said the family is excited about the growth of their business, which they started in 2007. She said future plans for the shop, which will be located at the former site of Marion’s Chinese Restaurant and On the Rize Bakery & Cafe, include a restaurant with outdoor seating.

She said there is a lot of work to be done before that vision can become a reality. The initial goal is to open this fall.

“We kind of bought it sight unseen, other what we could see through the windows,” Donahue told the Telegram Friday. “There’s a lot of stuff that needs to be done.”

She added that she hopes to work with the village to find a solution for a past owner’s $3,200 water bill, currently in arrears.

“I kind of what to look into a bit more,” Donahue said. “If you don’t pay your light bill, the next guy that buys the house isn’t responsible for your light bill.”

She said the $3,200 would be better spent on equipment for the business.

Beyond the beef, pork and lamb, Donahue said the shop will offer a subscription program.

ANCA, a regional economic nonprofit that serves businesses and communities in Northern New York, partnered with Foodshed Capital, a certified Community Development Financial Institution that centers lending and customized business support for underserved farmers, to launch its SOIL Loan Fund in 2022. The program was designed to address the challenges many small farms have accessing capital through conventional loan programs.

“We hear time and again from our livestock farmer partners that processing is a massive bottleneck. There are too few processors who work with small-scale producers, they’re too far away, or they don’t offer the kind of certification needed for direct-to-consumer sales,” Foodshed Capital’s Director of Strategy and Development Erica Hellen said in the release. “We were so excited to deepen our partnership with ANCA to collaboratively finance the Donahues’ project. Not only will it support their immediate retail sales and short-term viability, it will support them as they expand their vision for a processing facility that will benefit regenerative producers throughout the region.”

Capital for the loan program came from private donations as well as grants from Adirondack Bank, Adirondack Foundation’s Generous Acts Fund, the Glen and Carol Pearsall Adirondack Fund, Price Chopper’s Golub Foundation and NBT Bank.

The first SOIL Loan was awarded to Julian Mangano of Della Terra Farm in Castorland in September 2022. Mangano is using the loan to develop a commercial composting operation to divert organic waste from landfills, build soil health on his small farm, and provide high-quality compost for local farms and gardens, the release stated.