Fontaine Family: Raising the bar on responsible, affordable meat.

Typically, our team is the one to go looking for like-minded partners to bring onto our Marketplace…but this time, they found us! And the timing couldn't have been better: we were already on the hunt for new local cuts that were both responsible and affordable when Fontaine Family gave us a call, and they checked every box. Earlier this month, our team paid them a visit in Saint-Hyacinthe to give you a real behind-the-scenes look into their operations. 

The Fontaine brothers grew up in a farming community in La Présentation. Fabien (pictured above), Donald, and Alexandre spent much of their youth tending to their neighbour’s calves, nurturing an early love for agriculture. As a student, an assignment prompted Fabien to start dreaming about his future, and his vision was of a farm that covered the entire livestock production chain. In 1989, he opened their first farm and made that dream a reality.

Traceable, affordable cuts, made possible by managing every stage from feed to fork. By growing all their own feed, supervising their partner farms, operating their own abattoirs, and handling transformation and delivery, the Fontaine Family team keeps a close eye on every step. This integrated approach helps them keep prices low: by managing each stage of production, they cut out the middlemen so that every saving is reflected in your grocery bill - without compromising on quality, origin, or traceability.

Knowing where your food comes from means knowing the standard of care with which it was raised. Temperature control is key to keeping livestock comfortable, and during our visit on a hot July day, the barn was cool and well-ventilated with plenty of natural light. The pens were clean and spacious, the animals were calm, and they had constant access to fresh water and nutritious, age-appropriate feed. The animals aren’t given any growth hormones or routine antibiotics, and the team instead relies on a robust vaccination program to prevent disease. 

Nearly four decades later, Fontaine Family has grown from a small business into a well-coordinated operation serving communities across North America. Yet their core mission has remained the same: high-quality cuts, raised with care, at an affordable price - which is exactly what convinced us to welcome them to the Marketplace! Check out our interview with Fabien below, then give their selection of fresh, budget-friendly cuts a try in your next basket.