Students to show their chops at reopened TRU meat market
Thompson Rivers University is slowly reopening its retail meat store after a three-year hiatus.
It's run by students in the meat cutting program, where they cut and prepare locally-sourced meat all in-house, instructor Corey Davison said.
"Our beef all comes from Rangeland Meats up by Knouff Lake," he said. "We commit to a certain number of animals from them every year. That's the beef we dry age for a minimum of 21 days. We break it right from the whole animal and get it into nice retail cuts."
Chicken and pork come from the Fraser Valley and lamb comes from Raven Ridge Farms in Barriere, so everything the students cut and sell is as locally sourced as possible.
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Prices can vary, but they aren't tied to the same price fluctuations as supermarkets like SaveOn Foods or Superstore.
Just because the animals are locally sourced, unlike the large grocery chains, doesn't mean the store is immune to price fluctuations.
"The market is unfortunately driven by commodity prices, so my beef costs have gone up in the biggest jump I've seen since I've been here, which was 2008," he said.
Since students at the store work as part of their program, prices could be less than a grocery store price, but Davison said the TRU meat shop is more akin to a specialty butcher shop. He added he tries to keep prices similar as others like Chop N Block or Summit Gourmet Meats to avoid undercutting local businesses.
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It's been three years since COVID-19 shut the store down. With health risks lowering and social distancing restrictions across B.C. were abandoned, meat cutting students will finally start selling to the public again.
Davison said the store has been running for at least 20 years, and it will be aiming to open one day per week until the course is finished this spring.
The shop is only open from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Wednesdays, tentatively set for Feb. 2 as the first day.
Students in the nine-month program run the store after learning the basics in their fall semester, through what is B.C.'s only meat-cutting program of its kind, Davison said.
All the cuts and packaged products, like sausages, are prepared in-house, often just packaged the day before. They almost always sell out by closing time.
Although the store isn't on a set schedule, Davison said prospective customers can send him an email to keep up with his ongoing mail list for updates or check the TRU Culinary Arts Facebook page.
He can be reached at cdavison@tru.ca.
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