The Hogs for Hunger program is expanding

The Executive Director for Missouri Farmers Care says the Hogs for Hunger program is expanding, providing pork to food banks in northeast Missouri.

Ashley McCarty says the effort is a collaboration between Missouri Farmers Care, the Missouri Pork Association, and United Way of the Mark Twain Area.

“To have a host of local meat processors and local producers that may have hogs that are not being marketed with the rest, and those are still fantastic protein,” she says. “So those producers have the opportunity to donate those animals.”

She says protein is one of the hardest items for food pantries to keep in stock.

“We see a meal as involving protein and so having lean, healthy, locally produced protein feeding our families in need really feels good for agriculture and is the center of what we’re trying to do,” she says.

McCarty is excited about the program’s future.