Local businesses and ranchers donated over $45,000 worth of beef to the Oregon Food Bank in Ontario after they bought more than 25 beef cows at the annual livestock auction at the Malheur County Fair.
Lindsay Grosvenor, strategic partnership program manager for the Ontario Food Bank, said the donation will go to local food pantries around the county. The meat will be processed into ground beef.
Grosvenor said the food bank had set money aside for a pilot program to approach local ranchers in the area to donate beef cows to local pantries. According to Grosvenor, the food bank intended to use some of its state funding to cover meat processing costs, such as butchering and wrapping.
The program was slow to catch on but took off when Zach Mautz, owner of Cannon Hill Feeders in Nyssa, came across a flyer advertising the program.
Mautz, who donated four cows to the program ahead of the fair, called local businesses to urge that they purchase beef cows from 4H and FFA youth at the Malheur County Fair.
Businesses responded and lined up to buy.
“With the help of Cannon Hill Feeders, we received more animals in a short amount of time than we had anticipated,” Grosvenor said.
Grosvenor said protein is costly for the food bank and only sometimes gets to the food pantries. She said the food bank rarely gets meat.
“It’s definitely a desirable food for families who are seeking it,” she said.
Grosvenor said she hopes to get donations from businesses next year.
Mautz said more than 25 local businesses and four individuals bought beef cows at the auction. That was “above and beyond” what he imagined.
For Mautz, donating the beef to the food bank was a no-brainer.
“I just gathered some people up,” he said. “They’ve got giving hearts.”
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