When Tom Jackson leans forward and says in his rich, resonant voice, “the gift is in the giving,” it pulls at corporate heartstrings and prompts donations to one of the singer and actor’s favourite charities.
Jackson’s latest effort to support food banks is Beef Relief, an idea conceived this summer as he watched economic hardship spread across rural communities. The economic crisis caused by a single case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy has hurt farmers, ranchers and their communities.
Jackson spent $167,000 to buy 500 sides of beef from Cargill Foods in High River, Alta., and launched a campaign to sell them for $1,000 each. The money has already been recovered with the sale of 267 sides and he wants the rest sold by mid-November. All money collected has been donated to the food bank and charitable tax receipts were issued.
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Buyers had the option of paying for the beef and donating it to the food bank or keeping it.
He recognized government support was paid to many cattle producers, but small communities and families hurt by the economic fallout did not receive help.
“It was clear if we could get the beef to those food banks … then we could get those communities some aid,” Jackson said during a downtown Calgary meeting that included food bank representatives, grocery distributors and charitable foundation leaders.
His challenge to the corporate world was to ante up and buy the remaining beef so rural food banks across Canada could receive as large a benefit as possible.
And the need is great.
For example, the town of Brooks is home to one of Canada’s largest beef packing companies. Unemployment became a reality for the 10,000 people there this summer. Hamper requests to the local food bank went up from an average of 40 a week to as many as 300 at one point, said James McAra of the Calgary Inter-Faith Food Bank.
