TYRONE, Pa. — Cash Sprankle grew up processing venison in a small, red warehouse in Tyrone, Pennsylvania. It wasn’t until he graduated from Penn State University’s Butcher Apprenticeship Program that this red warehouse would become his butcher shop, Sprankle’s Butcher Shop LLC.
PSU’s Butcher Apprenticeship program started in 2020 with six students. Since then, the program has grown significantly. This year, Penn State will be expanding it to take roughly 20 to 30 students starting in July.
How it started
The program was birthed out of a great need in the meat processing industry, according to Dana Ollendyke, program coordinator for the Butcher Apprenticeship Program.
“(We were) getting many, many calls from people in the industry saying that they did not have the next generation or any current workers. There really was a need for people who wanted to be in the industry and there was no training available,” Ollendyke said. “The average age of a butcher in Pennsylvania is 59 years old.”
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020, many large-scale meatpacking and processing facilities were forced to close, leaving producers searching for local butchers and exacerbating an issue already on Penn State’s radar.
During the heat of the pandemic, Jonathan Campbell, a meat extension specialist at Penn State University, received numerous calls from butchers and meat processing professionals who said they didn’t have workers.
In order to meet this demand, Campbell developed the PSU Butcher Apprenticeship Program. The first string of classes for the program took place in January 2021.
The program
The program consists of classes about the basics of butchering and 2,000 hours of on-the-job experience. The duration of classes changes from year to year, but this year students will spend five weeks at Penn State from July 22 to Aug. 23.
Some of the information students learn includes muscle structure, meat composition, anatomy of the animal, knife safety, Occupational Safety and Health Administration regulations, sanitation and U.S. Department of Agriculture and U.S. Food and Drug Administration classes. They also hold a Business Week, where students take a crash course on how to open their own butcher shop.
Afterward, students move on to put these skills to practical use by working at one of the 15 different meat processors that Penn State partners with for the program, including Mark’s Custom Meats, Holland Brothers Meats, Blue Ridge Meats and Nicholas Meats. Many students who complete this program are offered full-time jobs at the end of their apprenticeships or start their own businesses.
The journey of the graduates
Sprankle’s grandfather was a butcher and often they would process their own venison in a warehouse in Tyrone. Thinking back to his upbringing and the need for more workers in the industry, he decided to enroll in the program after graduating from Penn State with a degree in heavy equipment operation in December 2020.
Sprankle finished his apprenticeship at Mark’s Custom Meats in Howard, Pennsylvania, in late 2021. He was in the first group to graduate from the program. Following graduation, Sprankle moved back to Tyrone, in Blair County, to open his own butcher shop in the same red warehouse where he learned to process venison years before.
He expanded the warehouse by adding a holding pen and cooler, among other improvements, and officially opened his business, Sprankle’s Butcher Shop, in early 2022. Now, he works alongside his father and a full-time employee to process meats for roughly 12 local farms.
Others like Parker Bell, also part of the first graduating class, took a different route. Bell runs a beef operation with his father-in-law called the BB Land and Cattle Company. He enrolled in the program to learn more about the butchering side of the business.
“A lot of guys in the beef business don’t really know jack about this side of the business and complain about it,” Bell said. “So I figured I might as well learn.”
Bell apprenticed at Holland Brothers Meats and now works there part-time while also running BB Land and Cattle Company. Bell said the butcher program is beneficial for those wanting to work or run a business in the meat industry.
“It gives you a good foundation to build off of,” Bell said. “It would be hard for somebody that didn’t have any knowledge, they’d have to put a lot of years in before they would get the experience to be able to manage a shop.”
A boost to local butcher shops
An even bigger benefit of the PSU butcher program is the boost it gives local butcher shops. Mike Holland, owner of Holland Brothers Meats, was approached to take part in the program a few months before it started. The first year he took in two students, Bell being one of them.
The program helped Holland Brothers Meats immensely, particularly in finding individuals who are passionate about working in the industry.
“It’s not like an applicant walks in your door and gives you an application to work,” Holland said. “Nine out of 10 employees that come through here before you hire them, they don’t even know what we really do, they are just looking for a job. With these students, they knew the job they were getting into prior and they knew a lot of basics about the job.”
The program was a big time saver for the butcher shop. When Holland hires a new employee, he expects they will need training. But with these students that came in, “it was like, show me what you know already,” Holland said.
Additionally, the program helps address the labor shortage in the industry. Before the pandemic, Holland said he could put a “Help Wanted” sign out and get 20 to 30 applicants in two to three weeks.
In early 2021, he’d put out a “Help Wanted’ sign and only got three applicants in six months. None of the three applicants made it more than a week because the work was too physically demanding and it “wasn’t for them,” he said.
Communities also experienced how precarious the meat industry is during the pandemic, and, particularly, how important local butcher shops are. Grocery stores quickly ran out of meat but Holland Brothers Meats didn’t.
“We saw during the pandemic how fragile our food system is, and if we don’t have people who are properly trained, we won’t be able to feed the needs of our local communities, our state and our country,” Ollendyke said.
Ultimately, Holland views the PSU Butcher Apprenticeship Program as a way to build secure, local food systems.
“I think the butcher’s program is here to help grow businesses like ours that are smaller businesses for the local community,” Holland said. “Now everybody wants to know what they’re eating, where it came from, what’s in it. When you buy local, you support local farmers.”
To register for this year’s PSU Butcher Apprenticeship Program or to learn more, visit https://extension.psu.edu/butcher-apprenticeship-program. The deadline to apply is May 31.
(Liz Partsch can be reached at epartsch@farmanddairy.com or 330-337-3419.)
