Ranchers donate to Montana Food Bank Network

Montana Food Bank Network has been providing food to people facing food insecurity in Montana for nearly 40 years. Montana Food Bank Network's trucks and hired carriers make statewide deliveries to a distribution network of over 310 neighborhood food banks, community pantries, social organizations, homeless, abuse and children’s shelters, senior centers and school organizations committed to ending hunger in Montana.

Montana Food Bank Network programs distributed over 18 million pounds of food statewide in 2021.

According to Weisgram, prior to the COVID19 pandemic, Montana Food Bank Network spent less than $2 per pound for hamburger. This was purchased from out-of-state vendors due to the lack of USDA federally inspected beef processors in the state with the capacity to meet the quantity demands needed.

Pierson saw this hurdle and wanted to leap it, “one of our first goals is to provide the Food Bank Network with as much protein as they need, so they never have to buy it again.”

In just two years, the Producer Partnership has collected and donated 95,967 pounds of hamburger to Montana Food Bank Network.

“That’s just from picking up cattle, finding a place to get them harvested, paying for the processing and dropping the donations off — with our latest project of funding our own processing unit, we will turn out way more beef,” Pierson said.

The Producer Partnership purchased its very own modular processing unit in 2021. This unit can harvest up to 15 cows per day and is set to open in 2022. “With the unit, we’ll reach our goal of meeting the Food Bank’s protein needs,” Pierson said.

“It is simply amazing how significant of an impact the Producer Partnership has made for the Montana Food Bank Network in such a short amount of time since we formed this partnership.

"We are so thankful for the support and generosity we are seeing from everyone’s contributions working together to achieve such great results. This is so much more than just a single donation; the Producer Partnership’s concept has provided the platform for everyone to get involved to help provide a much needed resource to Montana families facing food insecurity."

FOR MORE INFORMATION

Donations to support the program can be made on the Producer Partnership website at www.producerpartnership.com.

Ranchers interested in donating an animal can call (406) 220.7223 or Producer Partnership Program Administrator Mayzie Cremer at (903) 905.6029.

Mayzie Cremer, Producer Partnership

mayzie@producerpartnership.com; Direct: 903.905.6029