The Big Feed rural telethon, hosted by Dave Letele, Matt Chisholm and Wayne Langford, raised over 700 thousand meals for food banks nationwide.

The 14-hour live telethon was streamed online from 6am to 8pm on the 14th of December from Lincoln University.

Meat the Need co-founder Wayne Langford said it was an incredible day and a heartwarming result despite being a tough financial time for farmers and their communities up and down the country.

"It was fantastic to get to over 700 thousand mince and milk meals for the event itself and with donation lines open, we're still counting and still hoping people can keep giving to grow this number," he said.

The telethon featured 14 hours of interviews, entertainment, challenges, competitions, discussions, and fundraising events.

Langford said that hearing stories from food bank recipients, such as Leasso from the Salvation Army, was a powerful reminder of the importance of the cause.

"It was great to have food banks play a part in the telethon, to raise awareness of how much demand there is out there," he said.

The country came out in force to support the event, which saw food banks throughout the country fill up with donations.

Fonterra and Miraka made dairy donations, Silver Fern Farms chipped in twice before the end of the day, and ANZCO donated 1 tonne of mince for every landmark hit on the Hicky hitchhiking tour as it made its way down the country.

This totalled 13 tonnes, an incredible 104,000 meals.

Farm Right's managed farms gave a cow from every farm, a $30,000 donation, while the Federated Farmers Board emptied their own pockets to the tune of $10,000 under the condition Langford got a cow tattoo.

Chisolm didn't get off lightly, ending the day with a green mohawk, thanks to a similar condition from Ballance Agri-Nutrients.

The lines are still open and will remain open until Christmas if people want to donate to this worthy cause.

Just visit meattheneed.org to learn more, or make a quick donation by texting "feed" to 3493 to give $3 instantly.

"We live in a country that produces so much food, it fills me with pride to see our communities seeing the need, to Meat the Need and help try make sure no one goes hungry," Langford said.

by Pretoria Gordon