QUINCY, ILL. -- The Adams County Farm Bureau is teaming up with area farmers to help stock area food pantries with protein. It pays for the meat-processing costs, if local farmers donate the livestock.

Wednesday, they also helped provide for the Meals on Wheels program at the Quincy Senior Center.

To date, a total of eight farming families have donated more than 54-hundred pounds of ground meat. That's a huge boost to food pantries.

"From what I hear, with the food banks, the need is just unbelievable. It seems like our donations are, of course, greatly appreciated every time they get it, because meat is one of the more expensive things on a person's plate. So they absolutely enjoy getting the meat, and it sounds like the customers of the food banks enjoy getting it too," said Adams County Farm Bureau President Terry Smith.

The latest donation came from two area farms, donating 20 hogs to the pantries.

"The best way to get involved is to contribute something that you're familiar with and something you have, in a sense, an excess of. We are a pork farm so naturally, the easiest thing to donate was pigs," said Ryan Rabe, a local farmer.

Smith says the two groups will continue to give as long as donations from area farmers come in.