Hospital, Foundation benefit from quality competition

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Published on Friday, March 17, 2017

By Kate Jackman-Atkinson

The Neepawa Banner

On Feb. 28, the Neepawa hospital and Beautiful Plains Community Foundation were recipients of a $750 donation from Rolling Acres Colony and the Prairie Livestock Expo. The expo, which is a multi-species livestock show with over 140 exhibits, was held Dec. 14 at the Victoria Inn in Winnipeg. 

Since 1996, a carcass competition has been held in conjunction with the trade show and the Pork Quality Competition is now Canada’s largest pork quality competition. In the competition, hog carcasses are judged based on carcass weight, meat colour and loin eye size; the same criteria used by Manitoba’s pork processing plants, such as HyLife Foods and Maple Leaf. Once judged, the meat is donated to area food banks and cash prizes are awarded to the top 10 producers. The winners have the option of keeping up to half of their winnings and they choose a charity to receive the remainder, up to the full amount of their prize.

A total of 34 carcasses were entered in the competition and Rolling Acres Colony, located by Eden, placed fifth. They selected the Neepawa Hospital as their charity of choice, but chose to donate to the Beautiful Plains Community Foundation’s Neepawa Health Centre Designated Fund.  As an endowment fund, the principal is never touched and each year, the Neepawa Health Centre receives a grant from the interest earned on the donation made to that fund. In 2016, the grant totalled $38,060.