As the hog auction at the Perry County fair gets underway, one kid after another leads their pig into a pen, steering it in front of an audience on camp chairs and bleachers.
鈥淔our, four, four-fifty, five, will ya give me five?鈥� the auctioneer fires off at breakneck speed. 鈥淪old!鈥�
Some bidders will stock their freezers with this meat. Others buy a pig and return it to the child who raised it, giving it more time to grow or breed.
But in the past few years, a new trend has taken hold at the Perry County fairgrounds: local people and businesses are buying pigs to donate the meat to local food pantries.
It鈥檚 a campaign called 鈥淔ill the Freezer 鈥� one pig at a time.鈥�
鈥淎nyone who purchases hogs and feels that they want to help address food insecurity in the county, we want them to open up their hearts and their minds to donate their hog,鈥� said Tony Fiore, president of the Community Foundation for Perry County, which is leading the effort. 鈥淥ur slogan is simply, 鈥楴o one goes hungry in Perry County.鈥欌��
Filling the freezer
Local pantries say the initiative is picking up steam at a crucial time.
In 2022, the Community Foundation for Perry County found pantries in the region saw in foot traffic.
And demand is continuing to climb, says Eva Bloom, director of development for the Southeast Ohio food bank.
She says that鈥檚 partly because of .
"I think we can actually set an example to address food insecurity across the entire state."Tony Fiore, President of the Community Foundation for Perry County
鈥淔olks have not gotten those additional dollars,鈥� she said, 鈥渁nd we have seen that increase the number of folks who are coming to us directly here at the food bank and also to our partner pantries.鈥�
Amidst this , Bloom says some of the hardest foods for pantries to stock are 鈥渃enter-of-the-plate鈥� proteins 鈥� in other words meats, like sausage and pork.
鈥淧roviding such high quality and nutritious products to the pantries makes a huge difference in the health of the folks who are relying on some of this food to fill the gaps that they can't purchase from the store,鈥� she said.
Last year, Perry County鈥檚 Fill the Freezer campaign kept the freezers at nine local pantries stocked with pork for nine months. Tony Fiore said that was enough to feed more than 14,000 people.
This time, it鈥檚 aiming to keep the freezers full even longer.
And now, the initiative is spreading to other counties. , and counties in Southeast Ohio are all starting their own Fill the Freezer campaigns.
鈥淚t starts with one county trying to do this and a few others now trying to do it,鈥� Fiore said. 鈥淏ut I think we can actually set an example to address food insecurity across the entire state.鈥�
One pig at a time
Back at the auction house, 15-year-old Mylie Forgrave just sold her pig.
She鈥檚 been auctioning off pigs at the fair for eight years. This year, her pig filled the freezer.
鈥淚t feels really good to know that my pig is going to be giving people meat, meals on the table,鈥� she said.
For Tony Fiore, this is another major benefit of the program.
鈥淭hey see the community good that comes out of that animal,鈥� he said. 鈥淭o me, that hopefully is setting an example for a younger generation to take the mantle and keep on doing even better things than we have in the future.鈥�
By the end of the hog auction, 67 pigs were donated to local pantries 鈥� enough, Fiore hopes, to fill the freezers for a full year.
