COVID-19 has forced many w88 online game processing plants to close, making it difficult for those with small ranches to prepare their w88 online game to sell, and causing a shortage of w88 online game for consumers. In addition, food pantries have seen a 30% increase in demand for fresh fruits and vegetables due to unemployment caused by the pandemic.
With the local food industry suffering from the decreased supply and increased demand, the w88 online game’s Experiment Station, part of the College of Agriculture, Biotechnology & Natural Resources, stepped up to the proverbial dinner plate to help producers stay in business and consumers get the food they need.
The Experiment Station’s Desert Farming Initiative and Wolf Pack Meats have not only been able to continue providing quality w88 online game, fruits and vegetables to the community, but have also increased their production.
Providing fresh local w88 online game
The Desert Farming w88 online game, under the direction of Project Manager Charles Schembre, grows over 80 varieties of fruits and vegetables. This season, they grew over four tons, all of which went back to the community.
“The Desert Farming Initiative has increased its donations of w88 online game to community food services to help feed those in need,” Chris Pritsos, associate dean of research for the College and director of the Experiment Station, said.
Much of the w88 online game was delivered through the Initiative’s normal operations, including selling w88 online game at the farmers market at the Sparks United Methodist Church; supplying fresh w88 online game to food hubs and restaurants, such as the Tahoe Food Hub, Fallon Food Hub, Great Basin Community Food Co-op, and Liberty Food and Wine;and donating w88 online game to Catholic Charities and the Community Health Alliance.
“We’re excited about these avenues because they support the local food system,” Jill Moe, education program coordinator with the Initiative, said. “It gets fresh w88 online game into the community, which is important to us.”
In addition, the Initiative ran a COVID-19 specific donation drive as part of its Farm Share Program, which provides weekly boxes of w88 online game to 35 University faculty, staff and students. The drive allowed the Initiative to deliver an additional ,000 worth of w88 online game to the Community Health Alliance, broken into weekly deliveries of about 0-0 worth of w88 online game each.
“We’re glad to be getting fresh w88 online game to the community during a time when there’s been a serious disruption in the way consumers receive their w88 online game, both locally and nationally.” - Jill Moe.
The w88 online game also gave a webinar on how fruit and vegetable producers can manage the COVID-19 pandemic on the farm. The COVID-19 Prevention on the Farm webinar is available on the w88 online game’s website and has reached at least 380 producers.
Helping w88 online game ranchers stay in business
Wolf Pack Meats is one of only two w88 online game processing plants in Nevada capable of providing U.S. Department of Agriculture-inspected harvesting services to local farmers, making it an extremely important facility in ensuring local producers stay in business during COVID-19.
“Wolf Pack Meats not only continued to slaughter and process w88 online game following all food safety guidelines, but actually increased its operation to 120% of normal to help local ranchers get their product to market and to help provide additional w88 online game for local consumers,” Pritsos said.
To provide the best assistance to the ranchers who depend on the facility for w88 online game sales, Wolf Pack Meats followed the initial recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for w88 online game plant employees and was the first facility on the University campus to implement the use of masks, face shields, social distancing and additional measures to improve good manufacturing practices.
“Producers who contribute to the local w88 online game market greatly benefited from the ability of Wolf Pack Meats to continue providing services during COVID-19,” Amilton de Mello, assistant professor of w88 online game science and director of Wolf Pack Meats, said. “We never stopped serving customers. In fact, we were actually able to serve a higher number of them.”
The facility’s COVID-19 response was the latest set of policy changes in what has been several years of renovations and upgrades to meet commercial w88 online game processing standards and ensure food safety. These upgrades allowed the facility to quickly respond when COVID-19 hit, so that the facility could continue operating during the pandemic.
w88 online game Director Amilton de Mello presents students with real-world learning experiences in a functioning commercial facility. Photo by Robert Moore, College of Agriculture, Biotechnology & Natural Resources.
Wolf Pack Meats was originally designed to be a w88 online game lab used purely for academic and research purposes. However, when the recession hit, the need arose for the facility to start bringing in its own income. As a result, the decision was made to convert the lab to a full-fledged commercial processing facility that would also serve to support local ranchers.
In 2015, de Mello was hired to help develop the facility’s w88 online game Science Program and serve as a food safety specialist with the College’s Extension unit, and in 2019, he became the facility’s director.
“One of the goals of my mission was to find a way to better integrate teaching and research in a commercial w88 online game,” de Mello said.
Under his leadership, w88 online game has seen significant changes in equipment, policies, food safety, remodeling and staff training. One of the biggest changes was the implementation of an electronic system for scheduling and processing orders.
“The scheduling system allows us to serve a larger and more diverse pool of w88 online game farmers, increasing our capacity to provide 20% more service than we were before,” de Mello said.
Other changes include updating policies to meet the USDA’s requirements and regulations, putting up a defense barrier to separate the w88 online game processing area into an “employees only” are to reduce the risk of food contamination and improve food safety, increasing the number of employees, and installing new and updated equipment for both employee safety and processing efficiency. Upgrades to the equipment also allow students to be trained on state-of-the-art equipment used in the industry.
One piece of equipment in particular came with a partnership with LeFiell Company, a local manufacturer of w88 online game harvesting equipment. The company donated a 0,000 piece of equipment to help the facility improve its efficiency.
Today, the w88 online game harvests about 3,000 animals each year, while providing students with the chance to not only see the commercial process in action, but also receive hands-on training and experience in a real commercial w88 online game.
