UNITY — Thursday was a dream come true for Hussam Al Rawi and his wife, Kathryn Piper. The couple broke ground on their halal slaughterhouse, which is to be the first in Maine and one of two in New England when completed next year.

Al Rawi and Piper opened Five Pillars Butchery, a halal meat processing business, in 2017, after moving to Maine the previous year. The couple were awarded nearly $3 million in federal grants earlier this year to add a slaughterhouse to the butchery at 119 Bangor Road, also called state Route 9.

Halal translates to “permissible” from Arabic and is used to describe actions, items and foods permitted under the Quran and Islamic teachings. While most food is considered halal, meat has certain requirements to be halal.

Hussam Al Rawi and his dog, Willow, walk near sheep Tuesday at Five Pillars Butchery at 119 Bangor Road in Unity. Rich Abrahamson/Morning Sentinel

The couple were inspired to open Five Pillars after moving to Maine from Saudi Arabia in 2016 and seeing the lack of available food options for practicing Muslims.

Maine grocers seldom carry halal products, Piper said, leaving Muslims in the state without healthy or high-quality food that follows their religious guidelines.

“There just aren’t many options and it’s not the best quality,” Piper said. “You can’t go into a store and find fresh halal meat, vacuum sealed or Saran wrapped, you have to have your own animals or go see a carcass and cut your meat in the store. We want to change that.”

Since opening Five Pillars nearly a decade ago, Al Rawi and Piper have sold halal meat directly to consumers. The couple raise their own livestock at their home before taking the animals to the nearest slaughterhouse, in Gardiner, where Al Rawi kills the animals in strict accordance with Islamic teachings.

A prayer must be said before the slaughter and the animal must be given a drink of water, he said. When the animal is slaughtered, it must lay on its left side facing the direction of Mecca before being cleanly killed in one or two slices. No other animals should be able to see the slaughter.

Hussam Al Rawi and his dog, Willow, walk near sheep Tuesday at Five Pillars Butchery at 119 Bangor Road in Unity. Rich Abrahamson/Morning Sentinel

“Most immigrants and Muslims in Maine don’t have land access,” Al Rawi. “Most of them live in urban settings and most of them don’t have access to the farms that raise the animals they eat. Their choices are what’s available in the local markets, which there aren’t a lot of.”

The butchery received nearly $2.7 million in grants from the U.S. Department of Agriculture in July as the federal government invested $110 million into meat processing facilities across the country. Five Pillars Butchery was the only facility in New England to receive funding through the program.

Rhiannon Hampson, the Maine director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, said Five Pillars Butchery was selected for the grant in part to make culturally significant food more widely available in Maine.

“We recognize that food is fundamental to creating ‘home’ for so many,” Hampson wrote in an announcement to the news media. “This award helps us to be more welcoming to new neighbors, and to support generational Mainers in accessing culturally appropriate food and markets — a win all around for the state of Maine.”

The money is to be used to expand Five Pillars’ operations, including the processing of red meat and poultry. Al Rawi said the new plant is expected to create 12 full-time jobs.

The meat processing facility is being built beside Piper and Al Rawi’s home. Construction is expected to take about a year, with a tentative opening planned for next fall.

After opening the slaughterhouse, the couple plan to begin offering halal meats and food products to schools, hospitals and anti-hunger organizations throughout Maine that do not provide halal foods.

“My dream is still small, maybe bigger than I can achieve in my life, but I know I have to give it my all,” Al Rawi said.