Saskatchewan Food Banks Receive Pork

CANADA - The Saskatchewan Pork Development Board reports the pork from over two thousand culled sows will end up being diverted to Saskatchewan food banks for distribution throughout the province, writes Bruce Cochrane.
calendar icon 19 June 2008
clock icon 3 minute read

The federal breeding swine herd reduction program is designed to bring Canadian hog production back in line with pork consumption and help restore profitability to hog producers.

Pork from hogs culled under the program must not enter the commercial food production chain but it can be diverted to use by food banks.

Sask Pork manager of producer services Harvey Wagner says, thanks to a grant provided by the provincial government, the pork from over two thousand sows culled under the program will go the province's food banks instead of into rendering.

Harvey Wagner-Saskatchewan Pork Development Board

The provincial government has given us 440 thousand dollars to process the pork that was originally destined for rendering under the cull breeding swine program.

With that money Sask Pork is getting the sows processed in five plants across Saskatchewan and the meat is ground into ground pork, into roasts, into ribs and into tenderloins and then frozen and moved to Regina and Saskatoon food banks for storage.

They have some cooling space on their own and they are also using rented space or donated space in different freezers.

From there it's going to be distributed out of the Saskatoon and Regina food banks but also then moved into North Battleford, into Meadow Lake and Swift Current and all the food banks around Saskatchewan and also to other charitable organizations that do meal projects or food projects in the various cities in Saskatchewan.


Wagner says it'll depend on how the product ends up being distributed but the expectation is that the pork being provided to the food banks will supply the bulk of their protein requirements for the better part of a year.

He says producers are thrilled to see the meat being put to good use.

He says producers take the best care possible of their animals and they would much rather see the pork being used as food for people rather than diverted into rendering.

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