The Canadian meat industry has made a $50,000 donation to the Red Cross to support the response to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak in China.
“We see daily what an impact this virus has had on our customers in China and are aware of all the efforts made on the part of the Chinese to address it. We felt compelled to assist,” says Chris White, president of the Canadian Meat Council, in a release shared with RealAgriculture.
The donation to the Canadian Red Cross is designated to support the Red Cross Society of China in its effort to provide medical supplies and support to prevent and control the spread of the virus.
The following companies and industry groups contributed to the donation: Donald’s Fine Foods, Conestoga Meats, Hylife, Maple Leaf, Olymel, Sunterra, Canada Beef, Canadian Pork Council, Canada Pork, and the Canadian Meat Council.
“Our industry has many business and personal friendships with the people of China and we have all been touched by the scale of this outbreak. We want to strategically assist our friends over the next few months to recover from the outbreak and return to normalcy,” says Canada Pork president Trevor Sears.