Farmers Feeding Utah Donates $100K In Food For Families

LOGAN, Utah – Struggling families in northern Utah received a big donation Tuesday from farmers and ranchers as Farmers Feeding Utah donated $100,000 in food to families and food pantries in Cache, Box Elder and Rich counties.

As part of the effort, people donate money so farmers and ranchers can process the products, and it then gets out to food banks and struggling families.

“We’re helping the whole food supply chain. We’re helping farmers and ranchers, and we’re helping people who have food insecurity,” said Ron Gibson, Utah Farm Bureau Federation president. “Fifty percent of the food that’s produced in this country goes to foodservice, goes to restaurants and hotels and such. And we didn’t ever have a food supply issue. We just had that food misdirected for a while.”

Chris Chambers, Cache County Farm Bureau president, said Tuesday’s turnout in Logan showed just how much families are being impacted by the pandemic and its effect on the economy.

“You can see the line back there — I mean an hour ago, we did 140 cars, so that’s pretty awesome,” he said. “It just helps everybody survive. We don’t know when this is going to end.”

Over 400 families participated in the drive-up event, which distributed over 40,000 lbs. of potatoes and around $100,000 in food.

But it helped local producers, too.

“The coronavirus has affected the processing plants, the milk plants, the cheese plants, the slaughterhouses,” Chambers said. “And so, it’s backed everything up, and this is just a way to move product to keep the chain flowing, because it’s not that there’s a shortage of it — we just can’t get it to the market.”

Farmers Feeding Utah fixes that. Donations allow them to process all the food and then give it away to those who need it.

“I do daycare and I know a lot of families that are struggling right now, so when I heard of it, I came to get it to give to them when they come to get their kids,” said Paula Gilsdorf.

But this is just one piece of today’s effort… being called the Northern Utah Miracle. 

Food Pantries in three counties, also getting thousands of pounds in food for the families they serve.

Chambers said it even helps him.

“The dairy farmers need hay to feed their cows and so it helps me out in the long run too, because it gives them cash to buy feed,” he said.

Fixing the chain and strengthening the bond that supports families who need that help the most.

 Farmers Feeding Utah, of course, continues to look for ways to help other communities around the state.