In an effort to help local families and people facing homelessness, Cal Poly’s Meat Processing Center is donating nearly 6,000 pounds of meat to several San Luis Obispo County nonprofits.
Eight San Luis Obispo County charities are receiving 216 cases of pork chops, a total of 6,397 pounds of meat.
The 37th District Buyers Coalition raises funds through grants, nonprofit partnerships and donations from the community to purchase animals from youth exhibitors at the Santa Barbara County Fair.
This year, they worked with the Lao family and their business, Yosemite Foods, to help package the meat.
This is the first year the 5Cities Homeless Coalition has benefited from the event. Executive Director Devon McQuaid said the coalition is receiving around 1,000 pounds of meat.
“Meat is one of our highest costs in terms of feeding our folks that are at our shelter," McQuaid said. "A lot of folks come in and they're very protein-deficient. It's really hard when you're living on the street to get those kinds of meals. A lot of stuff is, you know, prepackaged and processed, and so to be able to give this opportunity to our clients to get, you know, really high-quality, protein-dense meat that is from our local community is a really cool experience.”
McQuaid said it’s exciting to see the large agricultural community on the Central Coast partner with homeless services. She said this donation will last a few months for the Coalition's two homeless shelters and kitchen program.
