St. Joe 4-H'ers Take Food Donation Effort to the Next Level
Published: Friday, May 17, 2019
A group of 4-H'ers in St. Joseph County (Ind.) are making an effort to fight food insecurity, one protein-based serving at a time. A brother and sister duo co-founded Meat Hunger, a youth-led 4-H livestock auction buyer's group. The meat purchased is donated to hungry people in the community.
Emily and Noah Zimmer found the inspiration for Meat Hunger in 2017 after learning about Hoosiers Feeding the Hungry. The group allows hunters and farmers to donate animals for meat that will then be donated to local hunger relief agencies for distribution.
Meat Hunger was built on the same foundation, but with animals purchased from 4-H members. The Zimmers also recruited Nathan Spencer, a fellow 4-H'er, to help create the group. Over the next year, they worked on raising money to purchase animals at the next 4-H livestock auction. They raised $8,000.
"When we got to the livestock auction, we were able to buy 13 pigs," Emily said. "And we had a lot of animals donated towards us. We ended up having 24,000 protein-based servings that went to those in need in our county."
They ended up collecting double the amount they had set out to raise. Forty animals were donated after the auction. The total economic impact was about $21,308.
"It was a lot bigger than we expected," Noah added. "This year, now that we know what we're doing we're thinking how much bigger it can be."
By purchasing at local 4-H livestock auctions, Meat Hunger ends up expanding the benefits. Not only does the group help feed hungry people in the community, they also contribute to 4-H members. Emily said that some youths struggle to find buyers for their animals. Their goal is to seek out those individuals so every 4-H'er earns a profit.
"There are kids that have their own buyer's groups sometimes, or they'll have the winning animal and other companies will come in and want to purchase it," Noah said. "But then some kids who still have great animals, just don't win or they don't have their own buyers groups, we're targeting them."
The Zimmers hope that other county 4-H programs will adopt the same concept. Emily said they are helping others get started by showing others what they did in St. Joseph County.
This year, the co-founders are expanding the group by mentoring interested 4-H members. They help recruit sponsors and come up with more ideas to improve the effort. The members are Kylie McMillen, Kaitlyn Prince, Sophia Runyan, Annamarie Veger and Jared Flora.
Noah said one of the best unexpected benefit he's seen from the program is how much it benefits the volunteers they mentor. It's exciting to see some of the youngest members get really involved and enthusiastic about helping others, he said.
Another new addition is a non-perishable food drive during the week of the county fair. The Zimmers said it would be "battle of the barns style." Each barn will compete to raise the largest amount of food. This competition also involves 4-H'ers with projects other than livestock.
Meat Hunger formed a new partnership with Cultivate Culinary, another local organization fighting food insecurity. They recently donated 40 dozen eggs to Cultivate Culinary. The eggs were gathered from poultry that 4-H'ers brought to the fair.
"I didn't know that we were going to get (eggs) until someone came up to us at the auction and said, 'Can we donate these eggs?'" Emily said.
Noah said that many people would hear about Meat Hunger and approach them, asking if they could donate their animal. They were surprised at how many people didn't know much about their program but were so willing to give.
"It wasn't just what we did," Emily said. "It was everyone else donating too."
The Zimmers were able to see the impact from the perspective of 4-H and how it benefitted their community. Everyone united in an effort to feed hungry people that they didn't even know personally. Even though they have not met the people they are helping, they know their program is making a difference.
"The community as a whole coming together was a really cool thing," Emily said. "It was just really nice for everyone to put their differences aside and want to help. I can only imagine what the actual food did for the people who needed it."
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