The Manitoba government will put up $500,000 to process ground pork from animals slaughtered through the new federal cull breeding swine program, for use by the province’s food banks.
The pork will be distributed to Manitoba food banks through Winnipeg Harvest, the city food bank which also distributes to 50 rural food banks and two rural soup kitchens in the province.
Provincial funds could make available over 150,000 kg of
pork products to the food banks and should support processing of
approximately 5,000 surplus sows available through the federal cull program, Agriculture Minister Rosann Wowchuk said Wednesday.
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“The significance of this donation will have impact for many low-income people in Manitoba,” Winnipeg Harvest executive co-ordinator David Northcott said in the province’s release.
Northcott said Winnipeg’s soup kitchens currently provide about 2,400 hot meals per day and the organization distributes over 5,000 food hampers per
week. Winnipeg Harvest, he predicted, could distribute 15.5 tons of pork sausage per month.
Winnipeg Harvest also pledged in-kind funding to haul the processed sausage to its distribution facility and has pledged to try to match some of the funds from the province through its various charitable organizations. That process could increase the amount of meat available, the agency said.
“The pig industry is currently experiencing serious financial
pressures with the high cost of feed, large supplies of pork and
short-term aid program, it does move prime pork from the farm to
the tables of hungry Manitobans.”
“We are very pleased that the provincial government has put forward the funds to help turn
some of this meat into food for hungry Manitobans instead of going to rendering plants,”
Karl Kynoch, chairman of the Manitoba Pork Council, said in a separate release.
Hog producers have donated over 15,000 pounds of pork to rural and urban charities over the last two years, Kynoch noted, including sausages and roasts as well as about 65 carcasses per year from the annual Pork Quality Competition during Manitoba Hog and Poultry Days.
Manitoba’s announcement Wednesday follows a similar pledge last week by the Saskatchewan government of $440,000 to process animals from the federal cull swine program for that province’s food banks.
The $50 million federal cull program is meant to help the hog industry restructure by helping cut Canada’s swine breeding herd (sows, boars and pregnant gilts) by about 10 per cent. The program opened April 14 for applications from hog farmers.
Qualifying producers, subject to application approval, will get $225 per breeding swine culled after April 14, and will get reimbursement for costs of slaughter and carcass disposal.
A payment of $225 per breeding swine less the selling price will be available for producers who sold animals from Nov. 1, 2007 until April 13 this year and can produce receipts and supporting documents.
