BROOKVILLE — Meatheads Market in Brookville was one of eight small meat processors in Pennsylvania to receive a state grant to expand its business.
Last week, Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding announced nearly $600,000 in state funding to help the small businesses “expand processing capacity, improve food and worker safety, and meet demand for local products.”
Redding said, “Small processors are absolutely integral to Pennsylvania agriculture. They create markets and lower transportation costs for farmers, keep food dollars in our communities, and give consumers more choices for locally produced meat. This funding helps businesses invest in their operations, and opening the next round means more Pennsylvania processors can build for the future.”
Meatheads received a $93,769 grant in January 2025. The business also received food safety consultation to support its expansion into USDA-inspected smoked and cooked products.
Redding visited Meatheads Market, also known as B & P Meats, on Sept. 24 and toured the facility.
Owner Nathan Barber said the business began when he purchased his grandparent’s farm and started raising their own beef cattle.
“Just like everyone around here, we’re all small farms. Being on the beef side of everything, we’re trying to find a processor. It got to the point where you were six months to a year just to get into a processor. My cousins had a little custom shop down in Mayport, and we took animals down to them and got the same thing — everybody got busy and couldn’t get things done. We were growing and wanted to build the farm to table, per se, to get more out of your animals and produce fresh products, keeping stuff in our community.”
Finding it difficult to get into processors as their farm grew, Barber said, “We had an opportunity to work with them to build this place,” touring other processors to learn what and what not to do. “Those guys that were in the industry already were very helpful to us.”
When they began building their facility, “We wanted to be able to do a full U.S.D.A. Everything we slaughter is U.S.D.A. Not only that, we wanted to give the guys that want to do farm to table the option to be able to sell direct from their location to their customer. To do that we had to go through the whole U.S.D.A. labeling,” he said.
Redding said, “Thanks for doing that; that is not easy. That was really the prompt for us, because we heard very clearly that folks wanted that direct access into U.S.D.A. inspection and there was not enough of it.”
Mondays and Wednesdays are slaughter days.
“We do more custom work than we are for in-house,” Barber said. “Right now we are scheduling out to the end of November.”
He said, “Just to touch on the grant, we have been able to speed up on how many animals we process in a day. We have definitely seen an increase in productivity.”
Maureen Barber said, “By being able to put more animals through, we were also able to work with PA Central Food Bank this year. All the animals that were donated through the Clearfield 4-H were processed here. And we did Second Harvest for Jefferson County.”
Nate Barber said, “We are also working with Jeff Tech some on their new start-up program. Monday we will have four beef for their class to start. We’ve been working with them to help them keep moving. They’re not allowed to harvest animals on site and being that we are U.S.D.A., we can stamp it and they can process it.”
He said, “It all started with helping farmers, and by being able to get them to do their own thing out of their farm stands, we were also able to branch out.”
He said “we have 20 employees now and they do a terrific job. We are hoping to grow and help other farmers grow their businesses.”
More information is available at meatheadsmarket.com.
Also touring Meatheads were Dwayne Mowery of the Jefferson County Farm Bureau, Bill Devore of the PA Cattlemen’s Association and Ashley Fehr, communications director.
Since 2023, Pennsylvania has supported the expansion of 26 small businesses, investing more than $1.68 million through the program.
Applications are now open for the next round of the Very Small Meat and Poultry Processor Reimbursement Grant program. Processors are encouraged to apply for the 2026-27 grants, funded at $500,000 in the 2026-27 state budget. The program is accepting applications now through Nov. 6. Grants are limited to no more than $100,000 per applicant.
