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Sunny Meadow Foods

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Holly Tonini/Observer-Reporter

Traci Yates, owner of Sunny Meadow Foods, inside her North Fayette store.

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Holly Tonini/Observer-Reporter

A sampling of items inside Sunny Meadow Foods in North Fayette.

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Holly Tonini/Observer-Reporter

Sunny Meadow Foods is in the same building as Traci Yates’ construction company offices, T Construction.

As if being the owner and operator of a construction business weren’t enough, Traci Yates also became a grocer.

A little more than seven years ago, she started T Construction and Consulting Services, which specializes in interior build outs of commercial, office, retail, residential and university properties. Her firm has worked on projects at Southpointe and at Duquesne University.

Then two years ago, she opened Sunny Meadow Foods, a specialty retail store selling a variety of local meats and dairy products that are 100 percent grass-fed, free-range and pasture-raised.

The store is upstairs from the construction firm, in a two-story building she owns just off Routes 22/30 in North Fayette Township. It’s in Allegheny County, a few miles from her native Washington County.

Yates grew up as Traci McGavitt in the Clover Hill section of West Pike Run Township. She is a graduate of California Area High School and California University of Pennsylvania, and has been in the construction business for more than 30 years. Now she is building up a small grocery.

She sells items from Washington County farms, including Rivendale Farms, Geary Farms and Bedillion Honey Farm. Yates currently carries pints of Rivendale milk – whole white and chocolate – and plans to add that farm’s ice cream in the spring.

Yates also sells Walnut Creek and Amish Wedding products and a number of gluten-free items.

Her entry into the food business is interesting. Two years ago, an Amish carpentry crew from New Wilmington, Lawrence County, was framing out a garage on her office property. One carpenter asked where in the area he could sell 100 percent grass-fed cheese and beef. The man said he was a dairy farmer whose milk from grass-fed cows was sent to an Amish cheese maker.

He explained the health benefits of this cheese and that piqued Yates’ interest. She began to do research on the subject and became fascinated.

Yates thought the carpenter might want to open a store in her empty office space, but his religion prohibited him from doing so.

“When he said he couldn’t do a store, I followed my passion and decided to open one,” she said. That led to the creation of Sunny Meadow Foods.

Beef and cheese were initially the most popular items among customers, then Yates got requests for other meats that were free of hormones, antibiotics and steroids – and were raised and processed locally. So she added chicken, turkey, ham, bacon, pork and sausage.

There are sweet things on the shelves, too, like Amish cookies and cinnamon rolls.

Yates resides in Robinson Township, Allegheny County, with her husband, Jack, an insurance claims adjuster. She also has a daughter and stepdaughter.

Sunny Meadow Foods is open every day but Sunday.

Top Cadet dealer

Representatives of Action Equipment Center, Washington, recently traveled to Jamaica to bask in the sunshine and the limelight.

The shop, at 1045 Jefferson Ave., was recognized for being one of the top 65 Cub Cadet independent retailers in the U.S. in 2018. The family-owned and operated center, local dealer of Cub Cadet outdoor power equipment, has been selling and servicing equipment from the company for more than three years.

Angus members

Travis and Amy Crouse of Claysville are new members of the American Angus Association, Allen Moczygemba, chief executive officer, reported. The organization, based in Saint Joseph, Mo., is the world’s largest beef breed association with more than 25,000 active adult and junior members.

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