Farmers learn to master nature’s challenges in order to make a living. But in Cullman County, they’re also doing it to make a difference.
In a recent move that cattle farmer David Daily hopes will catch on with more local beef producers, Daily — a Cullman resident with a 500-head beef farm in Russellville — has begun donating a portion of his pasture-raised proceeds to help put an extra helping of protein on the menu at a local food bank.

In partnership with Hartselle-based meat processor Titus Weaver, Daily recently delivered the duo’s first batch of pieced-and-packaged Alabama-raised beef to The Link of Cullman County, a home-grown nonprofit whose food bank outreach already is putting the duo’s contribution to good use. It’s no small contribution, either: Between Daily’s 500 pounds of ground beef and Weaver’s 200 pounds of breakfast sausage, the delivery required a small tow trailer to pull off.

Daily first learned of The Link and its mission while seeking ways to help out during the COVID-19 pandemic, and now he’s aiming to recruit other area beef producers to spare a little of their yield for local food banks, too.

“Farmers around here are pretty generous people,” Daily said. “If we can get the word out to them that there’s actually a need — and that there’s actually a place where you can process your beef and have it taken where it can do some good — it can be a great way to connect more farmers who feel inclined to donate some of their animals to this program.”

Daily was already looking for a way to share before he’d ever even heard of The Link. “I go to church at Daystar, and during COVID, I asked [lead pastor] Jerry Lawson how I could help. I did not know at that time that The Link existed,” he said. “I went up to Jerry after a service and I said, ‘You know, if you know a needy family, I’ve got resources — I’d be glad to help out.’ and he’s like, ‘Well, do you know that we have our own food bank?’ and I’m like, ‘No, I didn’t have a clue.’

“So Jerry pointed me in this direction right when COVID kicked off and nobody could find meat in a grocery store. I don’t remember how many, but in that first year, I brought two or three [animals]. and then the next year, I brought another one or two. Then I kind of thought, with COVID being over, that the demand would go down. But it hasn’t turned out that way. I realized — Okay, this is, this is a niche that I can fill; this is my thing. I grow beef — it’s one of the things I do very well. So here we are, with me raising the beef, Titus processing it, and bringing it to a place where it can hopefully help some people.”

Daily and Weaver came together through their mutual membership in Alabama Farm Credit, which now serves as a centralized coordinator for local beef producers who are interested in following Daily’s lead.

“The connection between me and Titus — what brought us together — is that I’m on the board of Alabama Farm Credit,” Daily said. “Titus is on our young farmer advisories board. Our mission is — number one, we’re there to serve farmers; and number two, we’re there to serve the community.

“So we were like, ‘Okay, here’s something we can do. We sit around in meetings and talk about how you can do something — but let’s actually put something into action. How do we grow this? How do we make it more inclusive; bring more people in and make it more sustainable?’ So that’s really what we’re trying to do. We might have sort of gotten the ball rolling, but we don’t want to be the only ones.”

Located on Cullman’s east side at 708 9th Street SE, The Link opens its food pantry twice each week (Tuesdays and Thursday from 9 a.m. until 3:30 p.m.), offering food recipients a store-like shopping experience where families can browse the nonprofit’s selection of donated food items. To learn about how you (or a local farmer you know) can contribute, contact the nonprofit at 256-755-0028, or reach out via email at info@linkingcullman.org.