From empty rooms to full plates thanks to HyLife initiative

Nearly 2,000 packages of farmer sausages, or about 2,500 pounds of pork will feed those less fortunate this Christmas thanks to a HyLife and Earl’s Meat Market initiative.

The two businesses presented their donation to South East Helping Hands on Monday,

Holding heart-shape farmer sausages, both Earl’s Meat Market owner Earl Funk and HyLife senior director of corporate sustainability Sheldon Stott made the presentation to South East Helping Hands operations manager Ken Dyck.

Funk said they’ve been donating meat at Christmas for more than 20 years, since the business opened.

“I believe that God has given us a gift to make food, and I think its important for us to share our gift, especially at Christmas,” he said. “We do multiple donations during the year as well, but this is a big push every year.”

Making 1,900 sausages, enough to stretch the full length of four and a half NHL hockey rinks, is no easy task but Funk said his employees step up to create the sausages from HyLife’s donated pork.

“They actually take this as a challenge every year to get finished sooner,” he said. “I’m just so impressed and so thankful for my staff and that they also see the benefit in helping our community.”

HyLife’s Holiday Helpers initiative is in its fourth year and this year they launched their new Room to Give campaign.

HyLife challenged team members across the company to transform empty rooms, bins and boxes across its facilities into spaces overflowing with food donations for families in need.

While company wide totals weren’t available, three truckloads were transported from HyLife head office to South East Helping Hands in Steinbach.

Stott said the initiative began with support for three food banks. That number has grown to seven.

“It’s a great way to reach out to the communities that we’re in,” he said. “These are challenging times. Food scarcity is something that a lot of people are experiencing and it’s just nice to have this opportunity to give back for those less fortunate than ourselves and just spread some Christmas cheer.”

Stott said the room they set aside for donations was filled thanks to those dedicated employees.

“We’ve achieved the goal this year and just need a bigger room,” he said.

HyLife has 2,600 employees and produces 3.4 million hogs annually.