Livestock sales are a pinnacle moment at county fairs, bringing community together to support and celebrate local 4-H youth. In Hocking County, this summer ritual also brings community together to support our neighbors facing food insecurity.
In 2022, HCCF debuted its Fill the Freezer campaign, inviting buyers at the Hocking County Fair’s Junior Livestock Sale to donate their hog purchases to fill the freezers of the county’s food pantries and fight hunger – one pig at a time.
In partnership with the Hocking County Fair Board, local 4-H members, the Southeast Ohio Foodbank, local food pantries and meat processors, and the Foundation for Appalachian Ohio, Fill the Freezer brings together local residents and businesses who not only donate their hog purchases but also donate money to cover meat processing costs.
Over the past four years, HCCF’s Fill the Freezer campaign has generated 12,421 pounds of locally raised protein to feed Hocking County residents facing food insecurity. In 2025, 28 hogs were donated, generating 3,416 pounds of sausage.
Fill the Freezer was piloted in the region by the Community Foundation for Perry County in 2021 and has since expanded to six other Appalachian Ohio counties served by FAO affiliate foundations. In 2023, the Gallia Community Foundation launched its Fill the Freezer campaign, and the Vinton County Community Fund helped expand a similar program called “Fair to Family.” The Harrison County Community Foundation started its Fill the Freezer campaign in 2024. In summer 2025, the Lawrence County Community Foundation and the Morgan Community Fund expanded the campaign to their counties.
In 2025 alone, more than 33,000 pounds of locally raised protein were donated through these programs.
Across our region, communities are putting food on the tables of families in need, supporting those working on the front lines of food insecurity and demonstrating the difference we can all make when we work together.