Manitoba Pork commits $150,000 to Harvest Manitoba to support
At its annual banquet, Manitoba Pork announced a commitment of $150,000 over three years to Harvest Manitoba. This financial support will be used to supply rural food banks with freezers and ground pork that will help provide essential nutrition for those in need.
Through this collaboration, Manitoba Pork’s investment will go toward purchasing freezers and ground pork for 15 to 20 food banks in rural centres. This approach will provide food banks with the opportunity to expand their food offerings to patrons and ensure that they receive a food item that is always in short supply – a complete and nutritious protein.
Harvest Manitoba feeds more than 90,000 Manitobans per month, including hungry children, hardworking families, and struggling adults. Harvest collects healthy and nutritious food for Manitobans who need support, is the fourth largest distributor of its kind in Canada, and the only provincial food network in the province. •

Sask Pork Consumer Promotions Supporter Dorothy Long Inducted into Sask Ag Hall of Fame
Dorothy Long, along with Bill Huber, Kevin Hursh, John McKinnon, and Laurie Tollefson, were all formally inducted into the Saskatchewan Agricultural Hall of Fame recently. Long is a lifelong champion of Canadian food and farming, having worked for nearly 30 years to promote Canadian-grown foods and the industry that produces them.
Long began working with Sask Pork in 2015 by helping to launch the organization’s first social media platforms. Over the years, she has continued to help build Sask Pork’s website and recipe development through Pick Pork Saskatchewan.
“Only 3 percent of Canadians are involved in food production that means 97 percent don’t have a direct knowledge of how their food is grown, raised or produced. That leaves a lot of room for misinformation and misunderstanding,” explained Long. “The first step in communicating about food and farming is to look for ways and tools to connect to consumers where they are at. Further to do that through finding common ground or shared values and then do it authentically and honestly.”
When I first started doing this work, I had a hard time convincing farmers that recipes, for example, were an important tool for connecting with consumers. Food is the most intimate way that people come to agriculture and a recipe not only tells people how to use an ingredient but also tells a story, connect us to each other and opens the door to other conversations. People live busy lives and they need to feed themselves so recipes work,” added Long.•

Maple Leaf Foods Wins NAMI’s Inaugural Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Award
The North American Meat Institute (NAMI) recently honored Maple Leaf Foods at the Environment, Labor and Safety+ Conference with the highest award for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI).
The DEI Awards were developed to recognize companies committed to promoting and implementing a DEI strategy within their organization. The application criteria includes: Mission, Vision, and Values; Goals, Targets, and Initiatives; Leadership and Accountability; Infrastructure and Implementation; Recruitment and Retention; Training and Education; Community Awareness/Engagement; and Culture.
NAMI recognized eight additional companies for their outstanding efforts in DEI. Those companies are Bob Evans Farms, Inc., Cargill, Clemens Food Group, Greater Omaha Packing Co., Miniat Holdings LLC, OSI Group, Smithfield Foods, and Tyson Foods.
These companies were all eligible for NAMI awards because they reported data in 2022 for The Protein PACT, which is uniting the largest-ever industry effort to strengthen animal protein’s contributions to healthy people, healthy animals, healthy communities, and a healthy environment. •

Jefo, Proud Recipient of Canada’s Best Managed Companies Program Award for an 8th Consecutive Year
Jefo is proud to receive, for an eighth consecutive year, the prestigious title of laureate and continues to maintain its presence in the list of Canada’s Best Managed Companies. This achievement grants the company the distinguished recognition of Platinum Club member for the second year in a row.
This program recognizes the cream of the crop of Canadian-headquartered companies or Canadian-owned and managed companies with annual revenues exceeding $50M. The selected companies demonstrate a strong ability to implement their strategy, exhibit a solid corporate culture, possess adaptability to the economic and business environment, strong governance practices, effective financial management, and sustainable financial results. •

Viterra and Canadian Foodgrains Bank
Celebrate Eight Years of Working Together to End Global Hunger
As the hunger crisis continues to worsen around the world, impacting more than 828 million people, Canadian Foodgrains Bank and Viterra are recognizing eight years of partnership to help in the mission of ending hunger.
For the eighth consecutive year, Viterra is providing 172 acres of land around four of its terminals in Alberta and Saskatchewan to the Foodgrains Bank.
Farmers working at Viterra terminals in Balgonie, Grenfell, Raymore and Trochu who are motivated by the goal of ending hunger will be volunteering their time, expertise and resources to harvest crops, raising funds to support the work of the Foodgrains Bank around the world.
As the Foodgrains Bank celebrates its 40th anniversary of working to end hunger around the world, executive director Andy Harrington says he is especially grateful for the generosity of Canadian farmers, who started this mission in 1983 and have continued it ever since.
Hunger response projects through the Foodgrains Bank include both humanitarian response projects that help people affected by conflicts and natural disaster as well as development projects that help lift people out of poverty in the longer-term, often by providing conservation agricultural training. •