A large donation of protein was recently made to the local food pantry in Jefferson.

The Greene County Pork Producers dropped off close to 570 pounds of pork products to the Greene County Action Resource Center (ARC). Board member Alyssa Juergensen says their organization is participating in the Pork in the Pantry Program with the Iowa Pork Association (IPA), where they received a match from IPA, to deliver the close $2,000 donation. Juergensen explains the importance of the Greene County Pork Producers continuing to be a partner in this type of venture.

“We enjoy being a part of it, and want to give back to the community, and promote pork in any way that we can. So we are yet again participating in this program this year. And we’re hoping that this provides the citizens of Greene County the option to stop in and pick up some delicious pork and provide their families with protein.”   

ARC Manager Shirley Haupert says this donation comes at a key time, after a couple of busy months drew down on a lot of their protein inventory. She explains that the food pantry is always seeing lots of food insecure individuals and families across the county.

“March is typically a little bit slower time, which is our average time of about 35 families a week. Back in December, we had upwards of 65-70 families a week. So yeah, we’re a little bit slower, but it’s going to pick up here in another month or so when school starts getting ready to let out (for the summer) and we’re going to be back up to probably 50-60 families a week.”    

The Greene County Pork Producers provided 250 pounds of sliced pork loin, 240 eight-ounce pork chops and 200 pounds of ground pork. Haupert adds if any individual, family or business would like to make a donation to them, to contact the pantry at 515-386-8262 and leave a voicemail, she will return it promptly to coordinate when to make a tax-deductable donation.