Chicken Farmers of Ontario

Ryan Merrifield

MEET SOME OF ONTARIO’S CHICKEN FARMERS WHO ARE WORKING HARD TO DELIVER ‘CHICKEN AS USUAL’ AMIDST COVID-19 PANDEMIC

Chicken is the #1 protein choice for Canadian consumers and, while Ontarians have adjusted where and what they eat and how they shop amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, Ontario chicken farmers want consumers to know that while things are not business as usual, it’s ‘Chicken as Usual’ in terms of the commitment to producing safe, healthy, high quality, Ontario-grown chicken. “We understand that many comforting behaviours and routines, particularly surrounding food, have changed for Ontarians recently. One thing that has not changed is the commitment of Ontario’s chicken farmers, who remain hard at work to ensure chicken production continues across the province,” said Ed Benjamins, a farmer in Wellington County and Chair of Chicken Farmers of Ontario. “The dedication, diligence and hard work by farmers during this truly challenging time is outstanding.”

Ed Benjamins

Just like consumers, Ontario’s chicken farmers are also having to adjust to the COVID-19 reality but are each doing their part to minimize disruption and support the industry and families across Ontario.

“In our family life and in our business life, we’ve had to make some changes,” says Steve DeVries, a chicken farmer in Listowel. “As parents, we’ve had to learn how to become educators and as business owners, we’ve had to make some adjustments to keep our employees and our customers safe which is super important to us. On our chicken farming side, it’s been chicken as usual in that we’ve been growing chicken as we always do, and that aspect really hasn’t changed. We’re doing our best and we will continue to do our best.” Ralph Deweerd, a chicken farmer from Huron County, adds, “COVID-19 has changed how I relate to my children and grandchildren on the farm and I miss that. But here on the farm, even though things are not business as usual, I’m still focused on raising safe, healthy, high quality, Ontario grown chicken.”

Ralph Deweerd

“While times are definitely challenging, it’s never been more important to us as a family and as farmers to be able to provide our community the fresh chicken they know and trust,” says Ryan Merrifield, a CFO Artisanal Chicken farmer in Jasper, ON. “We’ve certainly had to change how we market our product, but there has never been more demand for local chicken from consumers.”

Steve and Kahley DeVries and family

On behalf of its farmer-members, Chicken Farmers of Ontario has delivered more than 500,000 chicken meals to food banks since the beginning of March, and made an additional donation of $25,000 to support Feed Ontario’s Emergency Response program during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The CFO Cares: Farmers to Food Banks Program, which provides fresh chicken to food banks across Ontario, has also made some temporary changes to make the program more flexible for food banks, expanding the program to include frozen, prepackaged and further processed Ontario chicken products in order to provide premium Ontario chicken to families and individuals in need.

For more information about CFO, including up to date information as it relates to COVID-19, please visit: ontariochicken.ca

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