July 9, 2020

Thousands of pounds of ground pork donated to US food banks in Missouri

Food banks in Missouri, the United States, have received thousands of pounds of ground pork processed by Central Missouri Meat and Sausage, Fulton Sun reported on July 8.

The donation is attributed to a partnership between the Missouri Pork Association (MPA) and Missouri Farmers Care (MFC).

"One in three kids in the United States will face food insecurity," said Mike Kehoe, Lieutenant Governor of Missouri. "And when we have our agricultural partners coming together to team up with somebody like (Cory Hawkins, owner of CMMS) to help an organisation that can distribute to food banks statewide, that's when we have Show-Me pride. That's when we're Missouri-proud."

Kehoe and representatives from Missouri agriculture gathered on July 8 at Central Missouri Meat and Sausage in Fulton to celebrate 40,000 servings of ground pork donated to Harvesters - The Community Food Network in Kansas City.

"We've worked with what we call the pork partnership and a group of sponsors around the state to help bring ground pork to folks that need it and can't get it otherwise," MPA vice president Don Nikodim said.

MPA and MFC are supporting the establishment of relations between Missouri pig farmers and local processors. In June, the partnership collected 202 hogs for processing, yielding 93,000 servings to The Food Bank for Central and Northeast Missouri, the St. Louis Area Foodbank and the Southeast Missouri Food Bank. Later this month, more will be donated to Ozarks Food Harvest in Springfield.

"One of the ongoing needs of food banks year-round, pandemic or no pandemic, is protein - good, healthy meat," said Scott Baker of Feeding Missouri. "This really addresses a significant problem, a significant deficit food banks have."

- Fulton Sun