Iowa Select Farms drops off 180 pork loins at Messiah’s Food Pantry

By James Grob, jgrob@charlescitypress.com

Victoria Mead had to make some special arrangements, but she believed the food pantry has just enough freezer space.

An Iowa Select Farms truck dropped off 180 frozen pork loins at Messiah’s Food Pantry Monday morning as part of Iowa Select Farm’s “Haul Out Hunger” initiative.

“This means that there are 180 families here that are going to get a pork loin dinner,” said Mead, who is pastor at Jordan River Church and runs Messiah’s Food Pantry in the back of the church.

The Haul Out Hunger program is an effort by Iowa Select Farms and the Deb and Jeff Hansen Foundation to support local food pantries while highlighting and building awareness of food insecurity issues in Iowa. The effort restocks refrigerators and freezers in food pantries and community shelves all over the state.

“We travel to our home-grown Iowa communities, where a lot of our employees live and a lot of our farms are in the counties,” said Eleanor Korum of Iowa Select Farms. “There’s a lot of hungry people out there, and we’re very fortunate to be producing what feeds the world.”

The boneless pork loins are approximately five pounds each and can feed 24 people a three-ounce serving of pork. Korum said that the trucks go around each summer for about two weeks and travel to as many counties as possible. Monday was day four of six for her, and Charles City was her last stop of the day.

Mead said that she was expecting 10 cases of pork loins, but the truck had some extra, so 15 were delivered — which amounted to 60 additional pork loin dinners for families in Charles City. There are 12 pork loins in each case.

“This is the best part of my job,” Korum said with a smile.

Korum said that it’s often mentioned that Iowa feeds the world, and that starts with “feeding ourselves and our neighbors.”

“Everyone deserves to have some protein on their plate,” Korum said. “We know that delivering these pork loins to these pantries allows people who might not be able to afford pork — or any meat, for that matter — an opportunity to pick up a pork loin, feed their kids and make sure they’re getting the nourishment they need.”

Anyone eligible to use the food pantry will be able to pick up one of the pork loins as part of the meat allotment in their monthly selection. Hours at the food pantry are 9 a.m. to noon on Wednesday and noon to 3 p.m. on Friday for curbside pickup. Mead said there is currently a surplus of fresh produce. She also said she will have food delivered upon request if there are special circumstances.

“We will find a way to get the food to someone who does not have the transportation to get here,” she said. “I just want to feed people.”