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Smithfield’s donates 35,000 pounds of food for hungry Montanans

Posted at 4:23 PM, Aug 15, 2018
and last updated 2018-08-15 18:23:16-04

MISSOULA – Efforts to feed the hungry in Montana get a major boost, with the donation of an entire truckload of nutritious food.

The semi rolled up to the dock at the Montana Food Bank Network Wednesday morning with an entire trailer of donations Smithfield Food’s “Helping Hungry Homes” campaign. With help from Albertson’s stores, the donation totaled 35,000 pounds of protein food items. That’s important for Montana Food Bank Network and its partners because these products are the most expensive to purchase, and often just beyond the ability of the hungry to acquire for their pantry.

That works out to 141,000 servings.

Smithfield’s campaign has been running for years, and continues the grocery chains efforts to help the hungry in communities across the country.

“Yeah, absolutely. We’re honored to be able to donate from coast-to-coast through this program for the last 10 years," said Jonathan Toms, Smithfield Foods Associate Manager for Charitable Donations. "Over a hundred-million servings that we’ve donated to food banks through this program. It’s a great honor for Smithfield to be able to do this. And really we feel it’s the right thing to do.”

Montana Food Bank Network leaders say the donation will help food banks and pantries across the state for months to come.