The Blue Jays have hit eight home runs thus far
By Diego Flammini
Assistant Editor, North American Content
Farms.com
Derek Van Dieten is watching the Toronto Blue Jays’ playoff run with great interest this year.
For every home run the Blue Jays hit, the Seaforth, Ontario farmer is donating 100 litres of milk to local food banks.
Van Dieten is no stranger to donating milk. He’s one of 500 dairy farmers across the province that donates fresh milk each month through the Ontario Association of Food Banks.
The idea came to him last year while tending to some of his 140 Holsteins.
“One day I was out bedding some heifers and the idea came to me. Sometimes you come across a little gem,” he said. “I talked to my buddy about it, he thought it was a good idea and away it went.”
Last year the Blue Jays hit 14 home runs, leading to a 1,400 litre milk donation from Van Dieten.
But Van Dieten said it’s not the number of litres that matter, but more so the message behind it.
“Ontario farmers donate close to one million litres a year and they don’t get a lot of publicity out of it,” he said. “It’s a win for the food banks, a win for Blue Jays and (a win) for dairy farmers.”
To date, the baseball team has already hit eight home runs in this year’s playoffs and have a minimum of four more games to go.
Van Dieten said the Blue Jays would have to hit far more home runs for his idea to become an issue.
“If they hit 60, then maybe that becomes a problem,” he said with a laugh.
“But if they hit 60 it probably means they win the World Series too.”