Hunter's Livermush: 'A pillar of our community'

When Phyllis Hunter Brackett asked in late September for “prayer warriors who eat Hunter’s Livermush” on Facebook to keep the Marion-based brand’s building and equipment in mind, she didn’t expect the flood of positivity that came.

Vicki DePoyster, who said she’s been best friends with Brackett for years and works at Hunter’s, decided shortly after to set up a GoFundMe to help her overwhelmed friend.

“There has been so much outpouring of love to them,” said DePoyster, explaining why she set up the GoFundMe for the family-owned business. “I told (Brackett), if she could see herself like I see her — she is much loved. She’s a beautiful human being.”

Louise Hunter Rumfelt, Brackett’s sister and Hunter’s co-owner, said the problems that prompted the prayer request trace back to the equipment used for production.

According to the sisters, their father, Roy Hunter, and brother, Jerry Hunter, built all of the machinery over seven decades ago in 1955 when Roy and Gurthie Hunter, Brackett and Rumfelt’s mother, started the business.

From human-sized tilt-head mixers hanging from rope pulleys and belts in the back room to a livermush slicing machine originally developed with piano wire, everything is unique.

“Daddy and Jerry were the ones that built everything,” Rumfelt said. “You’re trying to find people that can repair, put back together. That’s a totally different breed of people.”

Just before the interview, Brackett and Rumfelt walked a mechanic through the issues they were having with the mixers, tugging at ropes to lift the contraptions.

The hinges were loose, the mixers dinged against the edges of the pots, and nearly everything Brackett pointed to needed a fix.

“We’ve always prided ourselves on not going in debt,” Brackett said, explaining that the business wasn’t down-and-out when the GoFundMe was made. “That’s the reason we deal with older (equipment). Plus, the way the livermush is made, it requires the older stuff. Out here, unless something goes down, there’s no sense (in replacing it).”

According to Brackett, as long as they stay in the building they’re in, Hunter’s can keep a lot of the processes in place per regulations — such as aluminum pots instead of stainless steel and the use of an open propane flame to cook. If they move elsewhere with newer equipment, they’ll have to change their processes.

“We have to stay within this building because it’s grandfathered in,” Brackett explained, pointing to the mixing room. “How we make things in there is grandfathered — the parts we use, the equipment we use is grandfathered. We go out of this building and that means we will not be Hunter’s anymore. It will not taste the same because it can’t.”

The business delivers livermush — blocks of ground-up pig parts, cornmeal, and spices — across seven counties, including Burke and Caldwell.

As of Oct. 16, about $11,854 of the $25,000 goal had been collected across 245 donations. According to the fundraiser site, gofundme.com/f/support-hunters-livermush-company, the money will be used for specific repairs, such as rebuilding the mixers, repairing coolers and freezers that tend to be touchy, and repairing delivery trucks.

“This is a pillar of our community,” said DePoyster. “When you say ‘Hunter’s Livermush,’ everybody knows it and everybody loves it.”