The former Wild Bill's Foods Inc. beef jerky plant near Leola is taking a vegetarian turn.

As in gourmet granola. Grains. Flours. Seeds. Beans. Dried fruits. Snacks.

The organic and natural food product lines are a result of a new partnership between Nuts About Granola, Shiloh Farms and the Susquehanna Association for the Blind and Vision Impaired.

The enterprise will employ up to 15 SABVI workers in packaging jobs (Shiloh) and granola making (NAG).

The 19,000-square-foot manufacturing facility at 171 Butter Road should be running at full capacity within about 18 months, SABVI president and CEO Dennis Steiner said.

Contracts are expected to be signed in the coming weeks.

The building has been vacant for about three years and must be outfitted with processing equipment and adapted for vision-impaired workers before production can begin. Cost could be several hundred thousand dollars.

"We really feel fortunate" about how the project has unfolded, Steiner said.

The facility was donated to SABVI by Clemens Family Corp. this past spring.

SABVI, which marked 85 years with a gala celebration in Lancaster Saturday, employs 85 people at sewing, computer rebuilding and other jobs.

The nonprofit is plunging into the food business to provide more jobs for the blind and vision impaired, according to Steiner, who said 70 percent of disabled people are unemployed.

After taking ownership of the plant, Steiner said, SABVI sent out nearly 650 requests for proposals and selected Shiloh Foods and NAG from about 12 finalists.

Both companies have a strong local food ethic and sell their wares in stores and farmers markets here.

Both "bought into" SABVI's goals and offered strong business plans, Steiner said.

"We saw a real synergy between the two companies and the two products," he said.

Tim Kruger, who directs operations at SABVI's three industrial divisions, in Lancaster, Lebanon and Northeast Philadelphia, brings management expertise to the venture, Steiner said.

Undecided yet is how the work force in Leola will be split.

Some employees might alternate between the two companies, according to Steiner.

Shiloh Farms director of marketing Peter Horvath and Nuts About Granola owner Sarah Lanphier said they're in synch with SABVI's mission.

Lanphier said she and her mother, Gayle, began selling their homemade granola to raise money for the Elizabethtown College triathlon team, which Sarah captained; NAG's proceeds go in part to a scholarship at the college and to cancer research.

Shiloh Farms owner John Clough has long hired employees who are disabled, according to Horvath.

"This is all very much in keeping with the spirit of what Shiloh Farms does," he said.

The SABVI startup draws together a leading health food industry pioneer and a fresh new face with big growth potential.

The Shiloh Farms brand has roots in a 1942 farm and bakery in New York state.

Horvath said Shiloh Farms developed into one of the country's first natural food businesses in the 1960s, long before the organic moniker was popular.

The sprouted wheat bread it debuted in the 1970s remains "hugely popular," he said.

Shiloh Farms' parent company, Garden Spot Distributors, 191 Commerce Drive, New Holland, disseminates more than 200 products.

"One of the things we want to do with Shiloh Foods is expand their gluten-free product line," Horvath said.

To that end, a segregated packaging area will be set up at Leola.

Horvath expects to move 20 or 30 percent of his company's packaging work to the plant.

The 3-year-old Nuts About Granola, meanwhile, will consolidate 75 percent of its production there.

A handful of "scattered about" employees produces the granola by hand, according to Lanphier, who started making artisan mixes such as "Plain Jane" and "Lover's Combo" in college because "I was just poor and didn't feel like buying it."

NAG granola was a snack of the day on the Rachael Ray show in 2009 and also was selected to fill gift bags for the 31st annual News and Documentary Emmy Awards in New York in 2010.

Recently, Lanphier said, the company landed a contract to provide toppings for single-serving packages of Alpina "Revive" Greek yogurt.

Limited facilities have held NAG back, said Lanphier, who is looking forward to getting things cooking on Butter Road.

"It's going to smell great," she said.

Contact Sunday News staff writer Jon Rutter at jrutter@lnpnews.com.