Community Foundation for Perry County event returns to the Perry County Fair
NEW LEXINGTON, Ohio – The Community Foundation for Perry County (CFPC) is marking its fifth year of bringing the community together to fight hunger in Perry County – one pig at a time.
CFPC’s Fill the Freezer campaign returns to the Perry County Fair on July 19. 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.
“In 2021, we embarked on a quest to rally our community around one goal: No one goes hungry in Perry County,” said Tony Fiore, CFPC president. “And time and again, this community has shown remarkable generosity. Over the past four years, Fill the Freezer has generated more than 37,000 pounds of locally raised protein to help feed our neighbors and to support the dedicated volunteers who staff our local food pantries.”
The Fill the Freezer campaign is held in partnership with the Perry County Fair Board, local 4-H and FFA members, local food pantries, meat processors and the Southeast Ohio Foodbank, which stores and distributes the donated meat to food pantries serving Perry County.
The meat donated through Fill the Freezer helps individuals and families in Perry County, where more than 16 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 Perry County, reports that only 12 percent of the commodities it receives and distributes to member food pantries is perishable protein like frozen meat, poultry and seafood.
For the past two years, CFPC’s Fill the Freezer campaign has generated enough sausage to stock the freezers of Perry County’s food pantries for an entire year.
“The Fill the Freezer campaign demonstrates what’s possible when we come together to fill the most basic of human needs,” said Julie Paxton, CFPC committee member. “And what began here in Perry County as a simple idea to ensure all have access to nourishing food while supporting our 4-H and FFA youth has grown into a regional movement to end hunger in Appalachian Ohio.”
Since CFPC first piloted Fill the Freezer in the region in 2021, the campaign has expanded to four additional counties served by the Foundation for Appalachian Ohio’s affiliate foundation partners. This summer, the campaign is being launched in two more counties. In 2024 alone, nearly 25,000 pounds of meat were donated through these programs.