billings gazette-Ranchers and others organize to feed hungry montanans

The math is simple: Matt Pierson is working to connect people who want to help with people who need help. 

And that's now a statewide nonprofit helping to feed those in need started on one of his ranch pastures in the spring.

Pierson, a Livingston native, owns Highland Livestock and was rounding up cows this spring when one of the ranch hands made a quip about the cattle.

"He said, 'Look at all this hamburger walking around,'" Pierson said. 

The COVID-19 pandemic had just hit Montana and businesses were shutting down. People were staying home, and the devastating potential economic impact was becoming clear. 

"We had been wanting to do something to help our community deal with the virus, and the solution became so obvious to me after that," Pierson said. "I mean, why not? What are we waiting for?"

That was a Tuesday. By the end of the week, Pierson had put together a loose coalition of ranchers who were willing to donate livestock and the owners of two meat processing plants — Brian Engle at Pioneer Meats in Big Timber and Matt Feldtman of Matt’s Meats in Livingston — who were willing to take the animals.

They ended up with 700 pounds of ground beef that they then donated to the Livingston Food Resource Center. 

Important to Pierson was that the meat processing plants not do the work for free; they're local businesses too who were as impacted by the novel coronavirus as any other in the state, he said.

Working with Gavin Clark at the Park County Community Foundation, Pierson applied for a $3,500 COVID-19 Resilience Fund grant. Other donations came in and in under a week, Pierson's group had raised $12,000. 

They named themselves the Producer Partnership and during the past few months, the coalition has created a governing board, filed with the IRS for 501-C3 nonprofit status and set up a website.

And since that initial burst of activity in the spring, the Partnership has donated 12,000 pounds of meat to food banks and other qualified organizations across the region, including Family Service and the Veteran's Meat Locker in Billings. 

"They came walking through our door one day," said Stacy Brown, executive director of Family Service. 

The demand on the food program that Family Service provides has risen exponentially during the pandemic, and the need for quality, versatile protein is always high, she said. 

"We felt honored to have them come to us," Brown said. 

What's become apparent since the coalition launched in the spring is that the need for food — especially good sources of protein — is ever present in the state. Food insecurity is a real, lasting issue. 

"We didn't want to limit ourselves," Pierson said. "The goal is to help people."

The Producer Partnership takes donations of any type of livestock; it doesn't have to be cattle, Pierson said. And doesn't even have to be livestock. They'll also take farm and produce donations, like corn, he said. 

Along with his ranch life, Pierson also works as the head coach for the girls soccer team at Park High School. He's coached soccer in some form since he was a senior in high school and as a result has developed relationships with most of Park County. When it was time to put out the call for help, it wasn't hard to get a response. These are good people, he said.

It's one of the reasons Brown from Family Services is so proud to be connected with the coalition. 

"It really shows how good our community can be," she said. 

The next goal for the Producer Partnership is to distribute 140,000 pounds of meat by the end of the year. To do it, the group has partnered with Yellowstone River Beef, a USDA-certified meat processing plant in Williston, North Dakota. 

The Partnership has four drop-off locations across the state for those who have animals to donate and a page on its website for those who want to donate funding. 

Pierson gets a bit of pushback when he says he wants to distribute 140,000 pounds of meat by the end of the year, said Jennifer Lawson, a marketing specialist helping the Producer Partnership.

But Pierson's not worried. 

"I love nothing more than when someone tells me something can't be done," he said.