The Junior Livestock Sale at the El Paso County Fair teaches children many life skills, and one nonprofit is making sure kids learn another: giving back to the community.
Since 2021, Protein 4 Helping Others (P4-HO) has used donations to purchase meat at the fair's livestock sale to donate to the Springs Rescue Mission. Cheryl Nunnali, the nonprofit's chairwoman, said last year the organization donated around 3,000 pounds of meat to the shelter.
"It's important to the kids to be able to see their projects go full circle," said Nunnali. She said in previous years most of the donations have been swine, but the nonprofit is working toward securing enough money to purchase cattle from the auction.
The El Paso County Junior Livestock Sale gives children ages eight to 18 the opportunity to sell the animals they've prepared for the market, including beef, goat, lamb, poultry, rabbit, and swine. Buyers at the sale bid on the livestock to either keep for their consumption or place on a "buyback." During a buyback, the buyer pays the difference between the market price and the bid amount of an animal. This option is often used if the buyer wants to support exhibitors, but doesn't want to keep the animal for consumption.
P4-HO gives buyers another option to donate the animal to the Springs Rescue Mission by raising money to cover the buyback amount.
Travis Williams, Chief Development Officer for Springs Rescue Mission, said the shelter serves more than 800 meals to people in need each day. He said the partnership with the Junior Livestock Sale is a big help as protein donations are hard to find.
"As a nonprofit, getting proteins are one of the hardest items to get donated to us. So we look forward to when the county fair happens," said Williams. "It's a significant influx of proteins for the individuals that we serve at this community."
The shelter uses the donated animal carcasses to teach culinary skills to individuals in their programs. The meat then ends up in meals given to their program recipients.
"It's one of those stories that represents community and the heart of Colorado... when good people come together to tackle really interesting problems while desiring to care for those who are in need," said Williams. "We do our best to ensure that individuals who are here can find a pathway out of poverty, homelessness, and addiction, and oftentimes, that hope starts with a meal."
The El Paso County Fair Junior Livestock Sale is on Saturday, July 20 at 1 p.m. at the El Paso County Fairgrounds in Calhan.
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