08/09/2009
Andy Eubank
The Indiana Pork Producers kicked off the Indiana State Fair Friday morning with their annual ham breakfast, and addresses by Governor Daniels, Lt. Governor Becky Skillman, and Congressman Mike Pence. And the President of Indiana Pork, Randy Curless drew loud applause when he announced a brand new initiative called the Million Meals Program.
Curless told HAT the ideas started to flow within his board in response to news reports this year of people searching for their next meal. “And as farmers tend to do, we tried to think of ways we could help. So we started hashing ideas of what we could do to help and started out with donating some pork to a local food bank. And from that, the ball has come around to where we are now proposing, and going to make happen, a million protein meals to the food banks of Indiana, each year.”
Although Indiana Pork is the initial driving force behind Million Meals, they are working to secure support from all aspects of Indiana agriculture. Curless explained, “To be successful we’re going to need the whole team to carry that ball. We’re looking for Indiana agriculture and the team players of all the commodities to help us with that. But it is going to take off this month when we make our first deliveries. So we are off and running and the whole organization is set in place to make all this happen.”
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Curless says be on the lookout for information about how you can help the program grow. “Ya, certainly, once we get all the bugs out of it. It did take a lot of hard work to get everything organized to this point, and once we started getting some food flowing through the chain, then we’re going to push a little harder to bring in donations.”
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