FORT BENTON A generous donation from the Twin Hills Colony in Carter is helping fill shelves at the Chouteau County Food Bank, providing thousands of meals for families across the county.

On Thursday morning, the Producer Partnership delivered 1,614 pounds of ground pork processed at its Livingston facility. The donation will provide an estimated 6,400 meals to families in need.

Justin Robicheau reports - watch the video:

Matt Pierson, founder and president of the Producer Partnership, explains, The colony calls us up, and we pick up their pigs. Most producers, when they donate animals, choose where they want it to go, and Twin Hills wanted it to stay local. So were bringing it in here today.

The Producer Partnership, a nonprofit founded in 2020, turns donated livestock into high-quality protein for food banks, schools, and nonprofits across Montana. Since its creation, the organization has donated nearly 270,000 pounds of Montana-raised meat statewide.

Pierson said the need for food is growing across Montana, making partnerships like this one even more critical, saying, Right now, the need is probably bigger than weve seen it in quite some time. I think it's really important to be able to connect producers back to their own communities so that it's much more of local people helping their own.

Chouteau County Health Director Kelly Waldbillig says the food bank has seen that growing demand firsthand, saying, Theres just been an influx of people needing more food at the moment. It's substantially gone up, the requests, last week.

The Chouteau County Food Bank currently serves more than 100 families, providing food baskets that include canned goods, produce, and frozen protein.

It will substantially help our food bank recipients within our facility who come in, Waldbillig says.

But the donations impact wont stop at the Fort Benton location. Waldbillig says part of the meat will also be distributed to food banks in Big Sandy, Highwood, and Carter, as well as added to Christmas Angel Baskets during the holidays.

News Source : https://www.ktvh.com/news/positively-montana/1-600-pounds-of-pork-donated-to-chouteau-county-food-bank