Helping to Feed the Hungry

Helping to Feed the Hungry. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Line On Agriculture.

In these tough economic times 1 in 8 people in the United States are hungry, but Farm Bureau members throughout the country have stepped up hoping to lower that number through the organization’s “Harvest for All” program.

MEALS:  I think it’s important. There are people out there that need this help and it’s an opportunity to give back to our communities and who better to give food to the ones who need it than farmers themselves who grow it.

Mathew Meals is chair of the American Farm Bureau young farmers and ranchers committee which spearheads the program with feeding America. Participants have thought of creative ways to help their local food banks.

MEALS:  Some are going to schools and doing penny wars for fund donations or they’re going through and doing food drives between classes.   They’ll bring food to their annual meeting that then is donated to the food banks in their local area.  There’s a lot of different options out there for people to participate in this program.

In the past year farm bureaus raised more than $160,000 and donated more than 6.5 million pounds of food which adds up to the equivalent of 6.4 million meals.

MEALS:  I think everybody has seen the need for this and are more willing to give, especially in these times, knowing, we may be the next one that needs this help.  So while we have the opportunity we’ll continue to give as much as possible.

Meals tallies up the records that Farm Bureau set this year for the “Harvest for All” program. 

MEALS:  The first record we hit was over 6.5 million pounds of food was donated.   The other thing was the funds area where people donated money.  We raised over $160,000 toward this program this year which was also another record for us.  And we also were able to donate almost 6000 hours to the local food banks around the country.

Meals explains why Farm Bureau members decided to tackle this project to help the nation’s food banks.

MEALS:  We know that it’s the right thing to do to give back to our people in need and there’s no way of knowing when we may be that person in need.  So to know that there are people out there willing to care in the future is really important. 

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That’s today’s Line On Agriculture. I’m Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.