Good Meat® Collectives

A one-of-a-kind model for hands-on, experiential meat education across the country

Let's build a Good Meat® movement today.

Experiential Meat Education

We train Good Meat® ambassadors, in communities around the country, to develop, organize, and host hands-on classes in whole-animal butchery, charcuterie and cookery, and humane slaughter.

What's a Meat Collective?

A Good Meat Collective is a community meat school and resource that offers hands-on classes in whole-animal butchery, cookery, and charcuterie, as well as humane slaughter. A Meat Collective is a bit like a community garden but for meat, or a butcher shop where the customers get to stand side by side with the butchers and farmers. For each Meat Collective class, local Good Meat® farmers sell whole animals to students who, in turn, learn from seasoned butchers and chefs how to transform a whole carcass into food. Students go home with a lot of good meat and increasingly rare knowledge and skills, and they are inspired to continue to support the Good Meat® chefs, butchers, and farmers in their region with their pocketbooks.

History

GMP's founder, Camas Davis, launched the first Good Meat Collective in Portland, Oregon in 2010, in order to build an educated consumer base that wanted to support local meat producers and brands that aligned with our Good Meat® values. In 2014, when she launched the Good Meat Project, she open-sourced the Meat Collective model in order to share it with other individuals and communities across the country. Since then, the GMP has incubated Meat Collectives in communities across the nation—from the Central Texas Meat Collective in Austin, Texas, to the Chicago Meat Collective in Illinois—and acts as an advisor to all existing Meat Collectives.

Each Meat Collective, while independently owned, shares the same goals as the very first Meat Collective. Through experiential, hands-on meat education, all Meat Collectives build an educated consumer base that supports the Good Meat® farmers, ranchers, butchers, and chefs who align with our Good Meat® values. Meat Collectives also inspire dialogue and cooperation between consumers, producers, butchers, and chefs.

Interested in Launching a Local Meat Collective?

Startup Guide
First, we've built an entire library of resources and tools to help you launch a Meat Collective in your community. Resources include a comprehensive startup guide, class recipe packets, student form templates, and more. These materials are donation-based, on a sliding-scale. Pay what you can!
Learn
Join Our Community
Once you've worked your way through our resources, join our closed Facebook group where you can chat with other who have started a Meat Collective or who offer Meat Collective-style classes under an already existing brand or business, like a butcher shops, restaurant, or farm.
Join
More Questions?
We realize Meat Collectives are a unique business model. Sometimes, even after reading through all of our materials, and talking to others, you'll still have questions. Get in touch with us and we'll route you to the right person, maybe even the founder of the Meat Collective model!
Ask Us

Existing Meat Collectives & Other Meat Education Businesses

Past & Present Meat Collectives

It takes a lot to launch and run a Meat Collective, and it's often a passion project over a full-time job. Many people have expressed interest in starting a Meat Collective. A smaller handful have actually launched one. Below is a list of those who have run, or still run, a Meat Collective from 2010 to the present. All Meat Collectives are independently owned and operated. The Good Meat Project open sources the Meat Collective model to all of them. Each adapts the model as it makes sense for their life and their community.

Portland Meat Collective
Owner: Camas Davis
Location: Portland, Oregon
Founded: 2010, Closed 2021

Seattle Meat Collective
Owner: Brandi Henderson
Location: Seattle, Washington
Founded: 2014
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Gainesville Meat Collective
Owner: Angela Minno
Location: Gainesville, Florida
Founded: 2014
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Central Texas Meat Collective
Owner: Julia Poplawsky
Location: Austin, Texas
Founded: 2016, Inactive
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Eugene Meat Collective
Owner: Jonathan Tepperman
Location: Eugene, Oregon
Founded: 2016, Closed 2022
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Montana Meat Collective
Owner: Alan Michaud
Location: Helena, Montana
Founded: 2017 , Closed 2019

Northern Colorado Meat Collective
Owner: Erica Gagne Glaze
Location: Fort Collina, Colorado
Founded: 2017
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Chicago Meat Collective
Owner: McCullough Kelly-Willis
Location: Chicago, Illinois
Founded: 2018
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Lick Skillet Collective
Founder: Alex Miller(Lick Skillet is a nonprofit)
Location: New Market, TN
Founded: 2019
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Denver Meat Collective
Founder: Danielle Davis
Location: Denver, CO
Founded: 2019, Inactive
 Find Out More

The Honest Carnivore: A West Virginia Meat Collective
Founder: Elizabeth Riffle, Riffle Farms
Location: Terra Alta, WV
Founded: 2021
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Minneapolis Meat Collective
Founder: Cecka Parks
Location: Minneapolis, MN
Founded: 2022
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Utah Meat Collective
Founder: Tom Wheatley
Location: Spanish Fork, UT
Founded: 2022
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Other Businesses & Brands That Also Offer Meat-Collective Style Classes

The following are businesses that have consulted with or trained under the Good Meat Project's Meat Collective program and offer hands-on Meat Collective style education, but do not use the "Meat Collective" name as part of their branding.

Hand Hewn Farm
Founders: Andy & Katie Lane, Doug & Molly Wharton, Kathy Neal
Location: Fresno, OH
Founded: 2014
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Kettle Range Meat Company
Founder: Mark Bearce
Location: Elm Grove & Milwaukie, WI
Founded: 2015
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Get Meaty
Founder: Samantha Garwin
Location: Greater Boston Area+ Online Education
Founded: 2021
Find Out More