Montana Farmers Union and Farmers Union Enterprise donated 30,000 pounds of pork ribs to the Montana Food Bank Network in Missoula Monday. The pork ribs are from Redwood Farms, one of the entities in the Farmers Union family of businesses owned by Farmers Union Enterprises.
“COVID-19 has impacted all of us, said Walter Schweitzer, President of Montana Farmers Union. “It has affected our livelihoods and our food systems. Farmers Union is all about helping a neighbor in need. This donation came from your neighbors who are family farmers. They care about you and they want to feed you.”
“The donation itself is really a perfect time for us,” said Gayle Carlson, CEO of the Montana Food Bank Network. “Right now we are struggling to get deliveries and resources in a timely enough manner for us. This kind of high level protein which is going to be awesome for families, but the fact that we can get this right now when we have to wait up to three months for a lot of deliveries, this is fantastic.”
Farmers Union Enterprises is made up of several businesses — owned equally by the state Farmers Union organizations in North Dakota, Minnesota, Montana, South Dakota and Wisconsin. Farmers Union Enterprises donated 150,000 pounds of pork ribs to various food pantries in the five states it supports. Redwood Farms supplies premium pork products to high-end restaurants in New York, Chicago and other cities across the U.S.