Pork in the Pantry supplies local pantries

MT. PLEASANT — While a majority of food pantries across the country have struggled to supply those in need with meat, the Pork in the Pantry Program has stepped in to fill some of that gap in various counties throughout Iowa including Henry County.

According to the Iowa Pork Producers, this program empowered local pork producer organizations to make greater donations of a highly sought after commodity in food pantries: meat.

This program is a direct answer to what the Food Bank of Iowa says is their greatest and most constant need. Without special donations and programs like this the Food Bank of Iowa states that pantries’ protein inventory commonly relies on canned meat, eggs, and peanut butter.

Laurie McBeth from the New London Tiger Food Pantry says that even these protein choices were sparse and hard for her pantry to come by saying that they rarely receive milk, eggs, or butter.

According to The Fellowship Cup Director Ken Brown, many pantries are seeing increased needs in their communities as benefits returned to normal, but inflation prices kept grocery prices high.

“Food prices are much higher than they were three years ago,” Brown said. “So, that’s a challenge.”

The Pork in the Pantry program worked with forty different county pork producer organizations, including the Henry County Pork Producers to donate nearly $40,000 worth of donations statewide earlier this year.

Washington, Henry, and Jefferson counties were among those that benefited from the program. Other counties included Adair, Adams, Buchanan, Buena Vista, Calhoun, Cass, Cedar, Cherokee, Chickasaw, Clay, Clayton, Delaware, Des Moines, Grundy, Hamilton, Hardin, Howard, Ida, Jasper, Johnson, Jones, Kossuth, Lyon, Madison, Marshall, O’Brien, Page, Palo Alto, Plymouth, Poweshiek, Ringgold, Sac, Sioux Story, Taylor, Webster, and Winneshiek.

“The program provides funding to the county organizations so they may donate up to $1,000 worth of pork products for their local food pantries,” Henry County Pork Producers shared.

Henry County Pork Producers made sure to support local business as they chose to partner with Crawford Meat Plant and Mt. Pleasant Hy-Vee to make donations to Community Action, The Fellowship Cup, New London’s Tiger Food Pantry, and pantries in Wayland and Winfield.

The Washington County Pork Producers teamed up with Bud’s Custom Meats to serve nine Washington County Pantries as well.

According to WACO Food Pantry Director Jenny Kaufmann, the WACO Food Pantry located in Crawfordsville regularly relies on various donations from the community to support the needs of those they serve.

Thanks to this particular donation made possible through the Pork in the Pantry Program, WACO Food Pantry was able to stock their deep freezers with many pounds of ground pork and sausage to serve those utilizing their pantries.

“Thank you for your generosity,” The Fellowship Cup expressed their gratitude for the donations from Henry County Pork Producers.

After seeing an increase in usage from the community, Brown says that this type of community support has been great.

To make additional donations of either food items or monetary donations, interested individuals can directly reach out to the pantry of their choice as all pantries consistently and appreciatively accept donations.

Comments: AnnaMarie.Ward@southeastiowaunion.com