COMMUNICATIONS & PRODUCER ENGAGEMENT Ontario Beef Magazine
posted daily to our social channels. We
Ontario Food Box program. As a result,
appreciate our following, but are always
403,000 emergency food boxes were
Ontario Beef was published five times in
focused on increasing our engagement
packaged and shipped to every corner of
2020 (February, May, August, October
and reach with our members.
the province to help alleviate the impact of
and December) and distributed to approximately 16,000 of BFO’s members, industry partners, MPs and MPPs. The magazine provides BFO members and industry stakeholders with timely information, updates on current industry issues, upcoming events, market statistics and more. We continue to update our circulation database to better reflect our active and current membership data, with the goal of ensuring all active members of BFO are receiving this publication. If you have had interruptions in receiving Ontario Beef, please contact the BFO office to verify your complete mailing address. Beginning in 2020, Ontario Beef is now also available digitally on the BFO website.
COVID-19 for families in need.
Sharecost Program The Sharecost Program continues to provide financial support to BFO’s local associations for their hosted producer In 2020, 26 local associations received a total return of just under $62,100.
The e-newsletter captures the headlines of the week, news releases, upcoming events and weekly market information. If you would like to receive The Bull-etin Board in your inbox, please visit the homepage of BFO’s website to sign up.
food banks and community programs across the province.
Sponsorship & Events BFO continued to support a number of
and programs from occurring, we did
initiatives throughout 2020 despite the
see a number of new and innovative
challenges of the pandemic:
engagement ideas take shape by the local associations. Qualifying producer applications in 2020 included drive-thru farm tours and educational workshops, while consumer activities included local
• 4-H Ontario - Virtual Discovery Days • AgScape • Beef Industry Convention • Beef Symposium • Christian Farmers Federation of Ontario • Fall Finale Beef Show • Grey Bruce Farmers’ Week
Partnership with Feed Ontario
• Ontario Federation of Agriculture Virtual
In 2020, BFO provided our annual
• Ontario Forage Council
donation of $20,000 to Feed Ontario to
• Ontario Junior Angus Association Virtual
purchase fresh ground beef. An additional
AGM
Show
$10,000 was also donated to support
• Royal Agriculture Winter Fair
Feed Ontario’s COVID-19 Emergency
• University of Guelph, College Royal
Food Box program that created prepacked emergency food boxes with a week’s worth of food in one centralized
20
farmers continue to support their regional
While COVID-19 prevented some events
Bull-etin Board E-Newsletter issued weekly to our subscribers in 2020.
for Ontario food banks, many local beef
and consumer engagement activities.
beef promotions and drive-thru barbecues.
The Bull-etin Board e-newsletter was
In addition to BFO’s financial support
Producer Engagement
Social Media
location for food banks across Ontario. BFO is pleased to report $3,875 in cash
To provide opportunities for producers
BFO is active on a number of social
donations was also raised after BFO
to network and feel engaged within the
media platforms – Twitter, Facebook,
challenged producers and consumers
industry, BFO’s producer engagement
YouTube and Instagram. Information is
to rally together to support the Feed
team had planned a wide range of
BFO ANNUAL REPORT 2021
