Mobile Meat Trailer a Hit With Customers Looking for Farm Direct Meat | Livestock News

DOVER, Pa. — Few people will forget the scramble for store-bought goods in early 2020, caused by shortages across the nation from the COVID-19 pandemic that swept through the nation’s population, hindering workers and supply chains. Since that time, many consumers have changed the way they shop for food, turning their focus to locally available products, instead of relying on chain stores that sometimes still have shortages.

Instead of prowling grocery aisles, customers of Livingston Family Farms in Dover now have alternatives in buying meats. They can simply go meet the farm’s mobile “meat truck.”

The meat truck is one of the latest innovations from the creative marketers in the Livingston farm family. The Pennsylvania-designated Century Farm is a four-generation livestock and crops operation, honored earlier this year by the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture.

“We’re small, but everything we raise, we sell,” said family member Kate Livingston Menges.

For the past 20 years, the farm had sold beef and pork quarters and halves, direct from the farm. It also created specialty items for sale like holiday gift boxes. These products could be bought on site at the farm through it’s Meat House or Roadside Sales. In addition, the farm takes online orders or connects with consumers at area events not traditionally affiliated with the meat industry.

“We raise corn, soybeans and hay, and emphasize using our own feeds for our animals,” Kate said about the family’s continuing focus on customer education and community, both in-person and via social media.

“For instance, we explain that all cattle are grassfed. And, most people seem to just be looking to understand where their meat comes from,” she added.

The farm’s cattle are Angus-based breeding and the pigs are primarily Berkshire and Yorkshire lines.

The meat truck idea is a relatively new marketing outlet offered by the Livingstons. It is open during scheduled times at the farm’s roadside sales or off the farm at community pop-up events, including a few unexpected places.

The “meat truck” is actually a large, pull-behind trailer loaded with freezers stocked with the Livingston’s own raised and fed, locally processed products.

Patriarch George Livingston, now 94, still lends a hand at the farms whenever he can. His sons Ed, who is married to Colleen, and Tim, married to Nancy, are the eldest and youngest of George and his late wife Madeline’s five children. The two couples have continued and expanded the farming operation of their parents.

In addition, Kate and Kyle, the daughter and son of Tim and Nancy, are integrally involved in both the production and marketing of the home-raised meats.

A commercial kitchen and the Meat House are located in a converted, former family home at Ed and Colleen’s farm nearby, where most of the cattle and pigs are finished out.

“I’ve worked as a nurse for WellSpan for 30 years, and some of my co-workers would ask about buying meat,” Nancy said, explaining just one of the ways in which they began selling custom-butchered quarters and halves years ago.

Many of their customers are long-timers, returning with orders year after year.

More recently, the Livingstons began working toward a more diverse model of sales in smaller amounts, rather than in bulk. The needs of many of their long-time customers were changing, as children grew up, families shrank and they had less need for large-volume meat purchases. Now, smaller retail meat packages, called “Bundles,” include several different items and have become popular. The bundles offer a variety of meat cuts to buyers looking for more than just a single roast or steak.

Meat On Wheels

It took time to make the mobile meat truck concept a reality.

“We had started the process of getting all the necessary licensing in the fall of 2019. (We) had everything completed by February of 2020, just when COVID-19 hit,” Kate said.

Almost overnight, their customer base multiplied, as empty-handed shoppers scrambled for dependable, local supplies of fresh meat.

“We were bombarded with calls,” said Nancy Livingston, who works closely with her daughter Kate and sister-in-law Colleen to handle the retail sales from home, while continuing her nursing career.

To meet the onslaught of customer demand early in the pandemic, while staying within COVID-19 safety protocols, the family announced a Saturday “drive-thru” sales event. It was held at Tim and Nancy’s farm along heavily traveled Davidsburg Road. With 55-gallon barrels marking lanes through a parking area between barns, traffic directors assisted with customers vehicle flow. The family pre-printed order sheets of available inventory and meat bundles. With everyone wearing pandemic face masks, Livingston family members were all “on deck” to take orders, then package and deliver them back to lines of meat buyers waiting in their vehicles.

“We didn’t quite know what to expect,” Nancy said.

The event was a resounding success, bringing returning customers as well as new ones eager to lock in a local and reliable protein source. Selling at the roadside also lent significant visibility to the family’s ongoing meat sales, which had been previously available to customers only during limited Tuesday and Saturday hours at their Meat House, or by appointment.

Nowadays, meat truck sales are held periodically on Saturday mornings, promoted by roadside signs and Kate’s regular social media postings on Facebook and Instagram. There is also a newsletter she sends to their customer base.

Along with informing the public of upcoming sales events, Kate is a tireless advocate in her media outreach, sharing educational information about not only meats, but agriculture in general.

“The truck was actually mom’s idea,” said Kate, but added that the whole family has embraced the marketing concept and everyone pitches in to help as needed.

In addition to bringing the meat truck to area events, the mobile truck has also reached out to tourists and vacationers. Two local campgrounds are located just a few miles from the Livingston farms. The campers typically are locals looking for a quick getaway and travelers visiting from all corners of the U.S. So, in another innovative sales twist, the meat truck visits the campgrounds on alternate weekends throughout the spring-to-fall camping season. Campers flock to buy meat for both on-site use and often to stock up on extra meat to take back home, especially on items not readily available in other regions.

“Some of our meat gets quite a few miles on it,” said Tim Livingston. He is retired from his career as a field service technician for Plainville Farms in nearby New Oxford, and now is able to spend more time assisting with the family’s meat marketing. One repeat customer he mentioned has a friend who will pick up a quarter of beef and haul it to her home on North Carolina’s Outer Banks.

“We don’t currently ship meat,” he said, but they haven’t ruled it out as a future possibility.

“The meat truck’s been very well-received, and created a unique experience and another opportunity for telling the story of agriculture,” Kate said about the campground outreach.

More Than Meat

It can be a challenge knowing how much inventory to stock on the truck for pop-up visits. Estimates of potential sales volumes at various events have come through trial and error.

Customers often ask for advice on how best to prepare certain cuts of meat, and the Livingstons are quick to share preparation tips, recipes and printed information.

Several new side products, all complementing their main-focus meats, have been added to the farms’ sales offerings. A favorite of many customers is Rozella’s Zucchini Pickle Relish, made from the recipe of an aunt, along with apple butter and various jams made from local fruits. Prepared “heat and serve” side dishes also are recent additions, including hamburger barbecue, macaroni and cheese, and calico, or “cowboy” beans.

Despite holding down a full-time position as director of quality assurance for Plainville Farms, Kate can frequently be found in the family’s commercial kitchen both early mornings and late at night, processing condiments and preparing the popular “sides.” She’s also developed several specialty items, like holiday gift packages with meats, cheeses and preserves.

Livingston Farms’ “Charcuterie to Go,” is available to customers in the form of kits containing several items, including pre-sliced bolognas, smoked Cooper cheese and condiments that go with the board. The wooden charcuterie boards included with the kits are created by local woodworker artisan Wilson Neiman at his Barnyard Boards business.

“It’s important to partner with other ag and small businesses,” Kate said, about their ongoing efforts to source extra products from local producers and suppliers whenever possible.

A Continuing Legacy

While currently the Livingston women play key roles in the retail marketing and creative innovations at the farm, the Livingston men share the responsibilities of keeping the farm crops and livestock production and meat processing functioning smoothly. Ed trucks livestock for processing to Nells at East Berlin, a family butchering business they’ve worked closely with over many years.

In addition to his job as a technician with Plainville Farms, Kyle oversees the pig breeding, including raising show pigs for youth exhibitors. He also coaches the 4-H livestock judging teams.

The Livingstons have been a 4-H family, exhibiting beef and pig projects for multiple generations. Nancy said that Kyle — who joined 4-H before he was actually old enough — had an interest in pigs at a very young age and “brought pigs back to the farm.”

“They all have strong work ethics, and a lot of credit goes to their background with the 4-H program,” Nancy said about the family members’ deep roots in the youth development programs.

With the busy holiday season about to go into high gear, the Livingston Family Farm is gearing up for customer demand as families gather around festive tables to celebrate. In keeping with their dedication to working closely with the community, they are hosting an on-farm “Small Business Saturday” event today, Nov. 26, along with numerous other local entrepreneurs.

Their longe-range plans may eventually include a second mobile meat truck and a retail store for meat sales.

Local buyer Michael Loucks, who stopped by the Livingston farm’s roadside sale one recent Saturday, summed up the feelings of many.

“This is the best meat I’ve ever had,” Loucks said.