IMPPA Convention

Hanford Packing had the pleasure of attending the 2024 Indiana Meat Packers and Processors Association Convention in Plainfield, Indiana in late February. This was a joint convention with the Illinois Association of Meat Processors where owners, operators, suppliers, and associates come to discuss the past, present, and future of the meat industry. With roughly 70 processors and 40 suppliers present between the two associations, this was a great opportunity to not only make connections but also support businesses just like ours. 

On Thursday of the convention, we boarded one of the two buses to begin the industry tour. Our first stop was in Downtown Lebanon at Saint Adrians, a small meat and sausage retail market. After this stop, we drove to Colfax, Indiana where we toured This Old Farm, a USDA-inspected meat processing facility. They treated all of the attendants with a delicious sack lunch to get everyone back on the road for our next stop at Purdue University. The Boilermaker Butcher Block is a student-run processing facility located on Purdue’s campus making it an option for students, professors, and visitors to find their meat needs easily. We learned about some newer technologies and machines that were brought to Purdue to be demonstrated by the suppliers. After tasting wonderful barbeque ribs from Miller Scales, our bus departed from West Lafayette to tour This Old Butcher Shoppe. This Old Butcher Shoppe is a retail store offering fresh and frozen meat, as well as smoked products. Between the good eats and game-changing machinery, our crew was very satisfied with the industry tour.

A great deal of the IMPPA convention is listening and getting connected to fellow packers, current or potential suppliers, and resourceful industry advisors. Friday and Saturday Hanford Packing sat in several informational sessions which discussed a vast area of topics such as:

•       Brine Solutions
•       Product Development
•       Wastewater Solutions
•       Justifying Equipment Costs
•       Employee Engagement
•       Grants

These topics are more than relevant for Hanford Packing, and we will return to our day-to-day business better off because of them. By participating in the educational gatherings our eyes were opened to new ideas and some of our reoccurring questions were answered. Alongside the sessions, the trade show is a perfect way to locate new tools and products. We were able to catch up with our well-valued current suppliers like Berkel Midwest, Reichert Spices, Miller Scales, and Troyer Foods. Many other companies had great products which our plant may have to investigate to grow our business. 

As a whole, we enjoyed our time in Plainfield with the IMPPA/IAMP and are extremely thankful for the association. Hanford Packing would like to send out a special thank you to Jessica Roosa, IMPPA President, and all other IMPPA/IAMP board members and volunteers for making this event possible and for everything else they do throughout the year for processors like us. We could not do what we do without their support and are excited for next year’s convention!