Finger Lakes Meat Project

The Finger Lakes Meat Project is an initiative by Cornell Cooperative Extension of Tompkins and Steuben Counties to grow the freezer trade (sales of meat in bulk quantities such as whole, half and quarter animals) to benefit regional livestock farmers and consumers. It provides educational outreach, a region-wide online directory of farms, and community freezer storage locations in Ithaca and Corning, called Meat Lockers. The Ithaca Meat Locker is a community freezer space for storing bulk purchases of locally-raised meat. Though many people are interested in buying meat locally and in bulk, many lack adequate freezer space at home. As a solution to this barrier, they posed the idea of a Meat Locker, just like ones that were frequently used in the 50's and 60's.