Kim and Gloria Jorgenson are both natives of Waubay, with Kim growing up on a farm south of town, and Gloria being raised on a farm north of town. They were high school sweethearts, and married in June of 1975.
At a young age, Kim decided he wanted to be a meat processor; he worked for eight years at a meat locker in a neighboring town and in that time gained much knowledge and a good feel for the business. During this time, they started their family, having two sons and a daughter.
In November 1989, after a lot
of hard work and planning,
Kim and Gloria realized their
dream and Jorgenson Meat
Processing opened for business.
Over the next few years, they added two more daughters to their family. Jorgensons Meat was truly a family operation!
In 1997 the building was expanded with the addition of a large retail area, a huge freezer, a sausage cooler and sausage area with smokehouse. Several years later the Jorgensons added a Wild Game facility across the street; this enabled the continuation of custom processing during hunting season.
The retail part of the business was
moved to Highway 12 and Main in
May of 2006 when a building became
available.
A month later Kim achieved another of his goals: The Purple Cow Ice Cream Parlor opened for business!! Kim had long had the dream of a big purple barn; he designed the building and he and his sons did the inside construction. In June of 2014 the retail portion of Jorgenson Meats was moved into part of the Purple Cow building, giving people the option of buying meat and ice cream all in one easy stop! The former retail store is now used for packaging, cooling and freezing.
Today, the Jorgensons' two sons
remain active in the business,with
Loren heading up the slaughter
operation, and Adam in charge of
cutting. Their daughters have gone
on to nursing and teaching. Gloria
oversees the packaging and retail
part of the business, and Kim is
in charge of his entire empire,
including sausage, curing and
smoking, creating new products,
and anything else that may come
up! In his free time Kim enjoys his
old tractors and cars, and he and
Gloria enjoy traveling.
(click on photo at right)
