Tyson Foods and Walmart Donate to Food Bank of Iowa

On February 22, 2019, in Industry Notes, by Maggie Ernst

To celebrate a joint donation of 39,200 pounds of food, representatives from Central Iowa Walmart Stores and Tyson Foods volunteered at the Food Bank of Iowa on Thursday, February 21.

This all came as the result of the Tyson Foods Holiday Hunger Challenge that took place during the holiday season in 2018. Walmart stores were given the opportunity to work with Tyson Foods to donate to local food banks and central Iowa was one of the regions chosen. Originally a 10,000 pound donation to the Food Bank of Iowa, Tyson and Walmart worked together to make it nearly 40,000 pounds.

“Our partnership with Walmart goes deeper than just a transnational relationship,” said Pete Louree, team leader at Tyson. “So as part of our holiday program with Walmart, we communicated that we would select certain regions that partnered with us during the holiday season and let them pick a food bank in their region to receive a donation.”

Representatives from both companies also volunteered to break down the donations into smaller family sized portions, to help distribute the donations across the 55 counties the Food Bank of Iowa serves.

“The most nutritious foods are often the most difficult for the people we serve to get a hold of,” said Danny Akright, communications manager for the Food Bank of Iowa. “A donation of this quality in this scale is a rarity, and will provide immense value to our clients. This chicken will form the centerpiece of meals across Iowa, helping feed children, families and seniors in need.”

The donation from Tyson and Walmart will be distributed among 175,000 food insecure Iowans served by Food Bank of Iowa. To learn more about how you can help Iowans struggling with food insecurity, visit foodbankiowa.org.