MUSCATINE, Iowa–In 2015, Mike Salguero founded ButcherBox to help people across the country get the highest quality meats available delivered directly to their homes. After having difficulties finding grass-fed beef products at area groceries stores after his wife received medical advice that substituting grass-fed beef for beef raised in other ways could reduce flareups from her auto-immune condition, Salguero worked hard to discover the best sources for it. He put this research to work to create ButcherBox, soon adding a variety of other meat products for customers to choose from as well.

ButcherBox focuses on providing meats raised using the most environmentally friendly and humane methods available today. Currently, customers can order various cuts of grass-fed and finished beef, free range organic chicken, crate free pork, and wild caught seafood.

To ensure the freshness and safety of all the products they delver, ButcherBox packs all of the meats it ships with dry ice. In 2020, supply chain difficulties caused by the start of the COVID-19 pandemic left ButcherBox short of dry ice. To prevent future shortages, ButcherBox built its first dry ice facility in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Pleased with its success and wanting to increase their supply of dry ice for the future, they plan to open a second dry ice facility in Muscatine. ButcherBox selected Muscatine as their new location due to both its assets and the culture of the people who live here: “When it came to finding a new home, we knew we needed a community with easy access to the interstate and to a larger city, but more importantly, we needed a community that could support our needs for leadership positions and where we could hire hungry, humble, and smart people. That is ultimately how we set our sights on Muscatine,” elaborated Kerin Norton of ButcherBox.

As the new facility gets up and running, ButcherBox will need local staff members to staff the plant and oversee its operations. Currently, they have job openings available for hourly warehouse workers as well as salaried supervisors. Over the next six to nine months, they plan to increase production significantly and will need more workers to keep up with it. If anyone would like to apply for any position at the ButcherBox dry ice facility in Muscatine, they can do so through the careers page on the ButcherBox website, a link on the ButcherBox LinkedIn page, and on Indeed.com.

With their dry ice operations expanding into Muscatine, ButcherBox wanted to get to know the local area and find ways to connect with the community. “As we prepare to open our new facility in Muscatine, we wanted to make sure we were truly part of this community, not just an outsider coming in to do business.” Norton stressed. To help with these efforts and to get involved with their new community, Butcher Box joined the Greater Muscatine Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Norton shared: “we strongly believe in partnerships in all aspects of our business, and we felt becoming a member of the Chamber would help us meet and grow meaningful relationships with more businesses and people in the Muscatine community.”