Farmer generosity helps feed the needy
DAIRY: The man behind Meat the Need is a proud proponent of YOLO ideology, Jamie Mackay discovers
Food is what we do and what we produce so why would we have people going hungry in this country? Wayne Langford, Meat the Need
Meat the Need is celebrating its second anniversary this year and cofounder Wayne Langford says the charity’s success is all down to the generosity of farmers.
“Farmers give a lot. You’ll notice everywhere you go the amount of difference farmers have made within their local communities,” Langford told The Country’s Jamie Mackay.
Meat the Need was set up during lockdown in 2020 by Langford and Siobhan O’Malley.
The charity enabled farmers to help feed Kiwi families in need by providing the means for them to donate livestock through its charitable supply chain.
The idea was a no-brainer, Langford said.
“Food is what we do and what we produce so why would we have people going hungry in this country?”
Just one cow could really help a food bank feed the community, he said.
“You’d be surprised just how little some of these rural food banks need, [such as] Wānaka — one cow in there would last a couple of months … that’s a huge difference for an area like that.”
Since it began, Meat the Need had distributed 760,000 mince meals, along with almost 100,000 milk packages through its “Feed Out” partnership with dairy company Miraka, Langford said.
“It’s been a busy couple of years and it’s only onwards and upwards from here really.”
Langford is a busy man himself. The Golden Bay dairy farmer is also the national dairy industry group chairman for Federated Farmers.
However, most people will know him from social media as “the YOLO
Farmer” where he aimed to do a challenge every day, after adopting the phrase “You Only Live Once”.
He said he was lucky that all his roles “meshed into each other” which helped him stay on top of his workload.
“I can tick a number of boxes all at once which is fantastic.”
Having good support was central to Langford’s ability to juggle such a big workload.
“I’ve got a great team on the farm at home which keeps things ticking and we run a pretty simple system and just enjoy life while we’re at it.”
Langford recently gained more of a following through a series of funny videos on TikTok.
He said the secret of his success was that he didn’t take life too seriously.
“We always talk about telling the farming story and to be fair, the farming story can be quite boring so, if we can put it into a way that will relate to people or people can get a hold of and want to view, then why the hell not? And we have a bit of fun while we’re doing it.”
While he couldn’t pick which video was his favourite, he did admit to many of them being dance-heavy with a touch of nudity, despite being “a little weak on the dance moves”.
He said anyone interested in donating to Meat the Need could get in touch with their Silver Fern Farms representative or check out the website.
“It’s really easy to donate and we’d really love your support.”