By Heart of Illinois ABC
BLOOMINGTON – Due to pork processing plant closures local farmers have found themselves with an over supply of hogs that could go to waste.
Midwest Food Bank Bloomington-Normal is bridging the resulting gap between hog farmers and consumers in need.
Curt Zehr has a hog farm in Eureka. He says a majority of his hogs go to the Tyson Food Plant in Iowa. However, they’ve closed due to COVID-19, leaving nowhere for Zehr to send his hogs.
“I’ve been in the hog business over 40 years full-time and in all my life, I’m 67-years-old, there’s never been a time in my life where we couldn’t merchandise pigs,” said Zehr.
He says he knows of multiple farmers that are facing the same issue.
“The last thing anyone wants to do is go through the trouble of furrowing pigs and then having to euthanize them because there’s no market for them,” added Zehr.
Zehr voiced his concerns to his friend, Mark Baer, who immediately wanted to help.
“There’s all these people that are hungry and need food and it seemed like a terrible waste. my heart was for those that hurt, and those in need. there’s so many people without jobs and how does the food get on the table?” questioned Baer.
Baer started making phone calls, and eventually got connected to the Midwest Food Bank office in Bloomiington-Normal. The food bank is now collecting donations to pay the cost of processing and packaging the meat.
They are working with local meat processor Brad Steidinger to get that job one.
“With this particular program when a donation comes in and somebody wants to help with processing the pork we can connect that to a hog donation from a farmer so we are really connecting those two dots to make sure that people are fed and that those products from the local farms are being used,” said Executive Drirector at Midwest food Bank, Tara Ingham.
Inghm says last week they provided 60 percent more food to their pantires.
“The increased needs in the community and the increased rates of hunger we know are going to be tremendous as the economy continues to work through this. Right now we’re looking at a lot of people without jobs, a lot of people that have been laid-off since [the COVID-19 pandemic] that need additional support,” added Ingham.
For every 100 dollar donation, the food bank can provide 80 pounds of pork to those in need.
Farmer Zehr says while this won’t completely solve the problem, it helps make good use of some of the food supply that could otherwise go to waste. If you want to donate, you can follow the donation link on the Midwest Food Bank Bloomington-Normal Facebook page.
Heart of Illinois ABC can be reached at [email protected].
