Ritchey donates pork to senior center

Hot Springs County junior in high school Jay Ritchey, 16, has donated 175 pounds of pork to the Senior Center as part of the Fair to Fork program. 

According to No Hunger Wyoming, different youth from various countries have participated in Wyoming Hunger Initiative's Fair to Fork Program.

Their website states, "First Lady Jennie Gordon's Wyoming Hunger Initiative, in partnership with Wyoming 4-H and FFA, recently piloted a new program under the Food from the Farm + Ranch banner called Fair to Fork. Thanks to a grant from the Hughes Charitable Foundation, Wyoming Hunger Initiative was able to purchase and pay for the processing on 14 hogs, then distribute them as yet another avenue of providing protein to local communities."

"The program utilizes a lottery system to select youth for participation. In its first year, 14 youth from 14 Wyoming counties participated this year which equates to 2,255 pounds of pork distributed into local communities-18 anti-hunger agencies in all received pork from the program, all while supporting youth development and participation in sustainable agricultural solutions to hunger."

"Fresh food and sources of high-quality protein are notoriously expensive and difficult to procure for the food bank system," says First Lady Jennie Gordon. "Being a producer myself, my initial vision for the Wyoming Hunger Initiative was to encompass a component of agriculture that would be part of the solution to food insecurity in our state. Fair to Fork is another way to execute that vision while encouraging Wyoming's youth to get involved." 

Ritchey described his efforts in the program. He said, "The Fair to Fork program is a program where we raise one of our 4-H or FFA animals and donate it to a place of need in our community or our county. So I decided to donate mine to the Senior Center today."

Ritchey added, "It takes a lot of work. It's about four or five months that I have the pig. And I have to constantly feed him every day, every night. Check on him all the time, wash him. Play with him sometimes."

Regarding the significance of the program, Ritchey said, "I think it's valuable because there's always places in need of more food, and so it helps get those places more resourceful. I've learned through the options that I had to donate my pig to all the places that are in need of food and resources. It takes a lot of responsibility for sure. Like I said, I have to feed them every morning and night, and I have to make sure that they're getting the right amount of food, the right protein."

Ritchey has worked with the high school FFA Advisor Britton Van Heule. Ritchey said that through Van Heule's guidance that he has helped out a lot and that he has even supervised Ritchey in his agricultural experiences.