In the cold on February 22, the Miracle of Agriculture Foundation through the Utah Farm Bureau distributed farm fresh food straight from Utah farmers and ranchers to 200 military families at Camp Williams in Bluffdale, Utah.
The foundation was created at the beginning of the pandemic to deliver local agricultural products to those in need.
Heidi LeBlanc is director of the Hunger Solutions Institute at Utah State University, a partner of the Utah Farm Bureau. She helped serve the food at this winter’s event.
“We've served 41,000 families already, in the year and a half that we've been going. And we've given out almost 2 million pounds of healthy, fresh farm fresh foods, ” said LeBlanc.
Clayton Beckstead, managing director of Miracle of Agriculture, sees a need to do more.
“One of the one of the saddest things for me is that our military people who protect our freedoms and allow us to do what we do every single day, are having a hard time making ends meet, we read an article 160,000 of our military personnel in this country are on food assistance programs, and that to me is just unacceptable,” said Beckstead.
To help spread the word about this issue, Utah Congressman Chris Stewart was invited to the event.
"Yeah, we're feeding them and we're fixing the problem in the very moment, but what about in two weeks when the food's gone? So we wanted to have a bigger conversation with him. Because it's one thing to sit in an office and for me to call him and tell our story, it is a whole different experience when you come and watch him place milk in the trunk of these cars. And, and to see the tears rolling down people's faces. And just to hear their level of appreciation. It's a whole different experience,” said Beckstead.
For more information about the foundation visit miracleofag.org
