(SPRINGFIELD) Meat from the 2024 Illinois State Fair Sale of Champions is being donated to Feeding Illinois food banks through a new partnership. The College of Agricultural, Consumer, and Environmental Sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign has teamed up with the Illinois Department of Agriculture on the initiative. The agreement has 80% of the meat from Sale of Champions animals & the Illinois State Fair Processed Meats Competition donated to the Feeding Illinois network, while the College of ACES retains 20% to support education, research, and public outreach through the Meat Sciences Lab, which advances workforce training while providing meat products to the public. A part of the Feeding Illinois network is the Eastern Illinois Foodbank, based in Urbana, provides food to a network of 170 partner agencies which includes several sites in the area counties of Richland, Jasper, Lawrence, Clay, & others. For details, go to the eifoodbank.org website.
