Gallia Community Foundation event aims to fight hunger – one pig at a time
GALLIPOLIS, Ohio – The Gallia Community Foundation (GCF) is once again rallying the community to fight hunger in Gallia County – one pig at a time.
GCF’s Fill the Freezer campaign returns to the Gallia County Fair on Aug. 2. The campaign invites buyers at the fair’s junior livestock sale to donate their hog purchases to fill the freezers of the county’s food pantries and others to donate money to cover the meat processing costs.
“For the past two years, Gallia County residents, businesses and organizations have answered the call to help put food on the tables of our neighbors who don’t have enough to eat,” said Olivia Rees, GCF committee member. “Twenty-five hogs have been donated to Fill the Freezer each year, producing a combined 6,000-plus pounds of much-needed protein. This is a campaign everyone can support – whether donating hogs or money to help cover meat processing costs or simply spreading the word or being at the livestock sale to cheer on this growing tradition of giving.”
The Fill the Freezer campaign is held in partnership with the Gallia County Fair Board, local 4-H members, local food pantries, meat processors and the Southeast Ohio Foodbank, which stores and distributes the donated meat to food pantries serving Gallia County. Columbia Gas and the NiSource Charitable Foundation have served as corporate sponsors for the campaign since it was launched in Gallia County in 2023.
Meat donated through Fill the Freezer helps individuals and families in Gallia County, where 17 percent of the population experiences food insecurity, as well as the food pantries striving to fill that need. The Southeast Ohio Foodbank, which serves 10 Appalachian Ohio counties including Gallia County, reports that only 12 percent of the commodities it receives and distributes to its member food pantries is perishable protein like frozen meat, poultry and seafood.
GCF is one of five affiliate foundation partners of the Foundation for Appalachian Ohio to spearhead Fill the Freezer or similar campaigns in their counties in previous years. In 2024, these programs provided a total of nearly 25,000 pounds of meat to families experiencing food insecurity. This summer will see Fill the Freezer expand to two additional Appalachian Ohio counties.