Very cool Harvesters news today from Richard Petty and Farmland Foods

FARMLAND FOODS ANNOUNCES $50,000 DONATION TO HARVESTERS AS RESULT OF SUMMER “BACON A DIFFERENCE” CAMPAIGN

Above, from left, Mike Brown, President and Chief Operating Officer; Farmland Foods, Dan Weaver, Harvesters Board Member; George Richter, President and Chief Operating Officer; Smithfield Foods Pork Group; Richard Petty, NASCAR driver and member of NASCAR Hall of Fame. Courtesy: Protential LLC

Partnership provides more than 250,000 meals for Kansas Citians and raises awareness of hunger issues in Farmland’s hometown

Kansas City, MO (October 18, 2012)—Farmland Foods and Richard Petty today presented $50,000 to Harvesters—The Community Food Network as a result of a summer-long campaign to raise awareness about hunger in the Kansas City area. During the “Bacon A Difference” campaign, which ran from Memorial Day through Labor Day, Farmland donated 4.3 cents to Harvesters for each bacon package purchased at participating grocery stores in Kansas City.

In addition, today Farmland Foods donated more than 5,000 packages of signature Hickory Smoked, Thick Sliced Hickory Smoked, Lower Sodium/Less Fat, and Re-sealable Applewood Bacon, helping to ensure families, children and seniors across the region have access to much-needed protein.

“On behalf of Farmland, I’d like to offer my heartfelt thanks to all of Kansas City for their exceptional support of our ‘Bacon a Difference’ campaign this summer,” said Mike Brown, President and Chief Operating Officer of Farmland. “It is through your generosity that Farmland is able to provide a staggering 254,000 meals to families, children and seniors in need in our hometown this fall.”

Beyond today’s donation, Farmland also is raising awareness of Harvesters’ mission by featuring the organization on the legendary No. 43 Ford at the Sprint Cup Series Race at the Kansas Speedway this weekend. If the No. 43 Ford wins Sunday’s race, Farmland has pledged to double the donation to Harvesters for a total donation of $100,000.

“Through Farmland’s partnership with Richard Petty Motorsports, we are taking advantage of this unique opportunity to spread the word about hunger relief efforts to a broad audience,” said George Richter, President and Chief Operating Officer of Smithfield Foods Pork Group.

“We are excited to kick off race weekend with Farmland’s generous donation to Harvesters. Our team is proud that Farmland and Harvesters will appear on the No. 43 Ford at the Speedway this Sunday,” said Richard Petty, legendary racecar driver and team owner.

In addition to cash and bacon donations, Farmland is committed to supporting Harvesters’ hunger relief efforts through ongoing employee volunteering and activation. Since April 2012, Farmland employees have donated more than 400 hours of service to Harvesters. This month has been designated ‘Fight Against Hunger’ month at Farmland Foods. Employees are collecting canned goods and nonperishable items with the goal of overflowing the Harvesters barrels stationed through the Farmland offices in Kansas City.

“Farmland Foods has set a high standard for corporate involvement and demonstrated a company-wide commitment to Harvesters’ mission of feeding hungry people today and working to end hunger tomorrow,” remarked Karen Haren, President and CEO of Harvesters.

About Farmland Foods

Farmland Foods, Inc., based in Kansas City, Mo., provides a broad selection of pork products to retail and foodservice customers in the U.S. and abroad across a variety of categories, including bacon, fresh pork, hams, fresh sausage, hot dogs and lunchmeat. Farmland Foods has a large and growing international business, exporting products to more than 60 countries across six continents. Since its founding in 1959, the company has maintained a proud heritage of working side by side with American farm families. Farmland Foods, which reached over $4 billion in sales in 2011, is a subsidiary of Smithfield Foods.

About Harvesters—The Community Food Network

Harvesters is this area’s only food bank and was Feeding America’s 2011 Food Bank of the Year. Serving a 26-county area of northwestern Missouri and northeastern Kansas, Harvesters provides food and related household products to more than 620 not-for-profit agencies including emergency food pantries, soup kitchens, homeless shelters, children’s homes and others. Agencies in Harvesters’ network provide food assistance to as many as 66,000 different people each week. Harvesters, which was founded in 1979, is a certified member of Feeding America, a nationwide network of more than 200 food banks, serving all 50 states. For more information, visit www.harvesters.org.

About Richard Petty Motorsports

Richard Petty Motorsports (http://www.richardpettymotorsports.com/), co-owned by NASCAR Hall of Famer Richard Petty, Andrew Murstein and Douglas Bergeron, fields two teams in competition in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. Aric Almirola pilots the famous No. 43 Ford Fusion with primary partners Smithfield Foods, U.S. Air Force and STP, and Marcos Ambrose drives the No. 9 machine with primary partner Stanley and DEWALT. In addition, Michael Annett wheels the No. 43 Pilot Flying J Ford Mustang full time in the NASCAR Nationwide Series. The team is headquartered in Concord, N.C.

Kudos to you, Mr. Petty, and your organization and thank you. Many thanks to you, Farmland and yes, Harvesters, for sure.

Don't forget--Restaurant Week starts tomorrow!

That's right, tomorrow begins Kansas City's second year of "Restaurant Week", benefiting Harvesters, the Community Food Network.

From their website:

10% of the cost of each meal purchased from KC Restaurant Week menus will be donated to Harvesters in an effort to fight hunger in the Kansas City area. In 2010, this event raised more than $55,000, providing some 275,000 meals to our neighbors in need.

Diners can enjoy delcious and budget-friendly meals at 100 participating restaurants during the 10-day event. Select from multiple course prix-fixe menus, with lunch for $15 and dinner for $30.

So if you're going to eat out anyway, please do what you can over the next week to patronize one of the 100 restaurants in town that are participating in this very worthy project.

You can check on your favorite participating restaurant here:  http://www.kansascityrestaurantweek.com/restaurants/

Links:  http://www.kansascityrestaurantweek.com/;  http://www.visitkc.com/;  http://www.inkkc.com/;  http://www.morestaurants.org/;  http://www.harvesters.org/;  http://www.kj.com/;  http://www.discover.com/;  http://www.boulevard.com/;  http://www.kansascity.com/;  http://www.spaceskc.com/;  http://www.pepsirefreshproject.com/; 
http://kansascity.usfoodservice.com/SitePages/Home.aspx;  http://www.theroasterie.com/; 
http://www.kcoriginals.com/;  http://nightlifekc.com/dining;  http://www.opentable.com/home.aspx; 
http://airealmobile.com/

The Quik Trip response to the earlier post

Quik Trip's response to my earlier post today on their discarding usable food in their stores 3 times a week:

Thanks for the email.“First and foremost to QuikTrip and our customers is food safety and quality. Currently QuikTrip has partnered with Harvester in the Kansas City area to develop a program that maintains our food safety program, maintains the quality and integrity of our fresh food offer and helps feed our neighbors who are in need.
We have strict guidelines in place that accomplishes this for some of our food products, the items you mentioned currently do not fit that criteria. The fresh deli sandwiches, salads and fruit cups that are in protective covering, are products we are able to contribute to Harvesters. The fresh pastry items that never leave our sterile production environment are also donated to the food bank.
Hopefully in the near future we will be able to donate all of our unsold food. I hope your piece will say although not perfect in your eyes, QuikTrip is making a difference and will continue to assist those who need help.”

The good news is that at least they do save some food and give it to Harvesters and there is a program in place.

The bad news is that all this other food is being wasted, at least 3 times a week and there's a great deal of it, from each store.

Here's hoping they get the rest of this food going to someone who can use it.

And as soon as possible.

(My thanks to QT for a response---and a quick one, at that, being the same day.)

I have to side with the hunters and killers on this one

Did you see where Harvesters gave away 4 tons of venison (read: deer meat) to needy people in the area, after receiving all the deer that were shot in Shawnee Mission Park?

That's 8,000 pounds of meat to go into all kinds of food to feed and help the less-advantaged and needy.

I'm all about eating healthy and I do eat less meat--especially red meat--myself, personally and while not a vegetarian, I do recognize that eating less meat is far healthier for you. If you've read anything here, you also know I'm not crazy for guns (understatement of the year).

And then there's the issue of having killed all these deer in Shawnee Mission Park instead of trying to, I don't know, herd them up or something and take them elsewhere.

But you know what?

The PETA and all the other people against them killing animals--any animals--come down wrong on this one.

There were far too many deer in the park--I don't think anyone on either side would dispute that--and the herd needed to be shrunk in size.

So they came to the conclusion that these deer could, should and would be killed.

And while that's unfortunate, you have to look at the improvement of the situation in the park, along with the feeding of what has to be thousands of needy people in the area and come to the conclusion that this, indeed, was a darned fine idea.

Check out some of the facts:

"Harvesters received 11,359 pounds of venison from the culling of the Shawnee Mission deer. The Johnson County Human Services Department received 500 pounds for distribution to its food pantries"

"...most of the meat will go to food pantries" and "...some will be served at free-meal programs."

"Darrell Cantrell, executive chef at Micah Ministries’ Monday dinners, said the venison provided by Harvesters will provide 1,600 meals for people who come for dinner."

“'We feed the neighbors, the homeless and the poor every Monday,' Cantrell said. 'We serve between 430 and 500 people each week, and those numbers have been going up.'”

And this is just a small amount of the people who were helped.

So, sorry PETA. On this one, you come down on the wrong side of the issue for once.

Holidays or no holidays.

Links: http://www.harvesters.org/