Messiah’s Food Pantry loads up on pork loins, part of statewide donation

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

An Iowa Select Farms truck dropped off 240 frozen pork loins at the Messiah’s Food Pantry Monday morning, part of a campaign that will donate 30 tons of pork to food pantries throughout the state.

Local food pantry volunteers unloaded 20 cases of pork loins, with each loin weighing 5 to 6 pounds.

Blair Bailey, a communications intern with Iowa Select Farms, said the donation is one of many that the company and the Deb and Jeff Hanson Foundation make regularly to promote pork and to help fight food insecurity. Deb and Jeff Hanson are the owners of Iowa Select Farms.

Bailey said 102 food pantries across the state are sharing in 60,000 pounds of pork loins, being delivered last week, this week and the beginning of next week. All food pantries are eligible to receive some of the pork, depending on the frozen storage space they have available, she said.

Jeff Hansen, president and CEO of Iowa Select Farms, said, “Food insecurity is an unfortunate reality for too many Iowans. We hope this pork loin donation will help bring families together and provide some stability.”

The Rev. Deb Lincoln, pastor at Jordan River Church, who runs the Messiah’s Food Pantry in the back of the church, called the meat donation “huge.”

“We serve probably about 250 to 300 households a month,” she said. “This will probably last us a couple of months.”

Lincoln said anyone eligible to use the food pantry will be able to pick one of the pork loins as part of the meat allotment in their monthly selection.

The donation is good meat and it’s being distributed during a time of the year when supplies can be stretched thin, she said.

“Summertime can be a little bit rough for us,” Lincoln said. “We can get a little low.”

She said the best way anyone can help the Messiah’s Food Pantry is with a donation of cash.

The food pantry is able to purchase food of all types at a set price of 29 cents per pound from the Northeast Iowa Food Bank, Lincoln said, so a donation of cash helps the donation go further than if the donor purchased products for the pantry.

Donation checks can be sent to Messiah’s Food Pantry, 102 N. Main St., Charles City IA 50616, she said. The food pantry is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, so donations are tax deductible.