Smithfield's Helping Hungry Homes program recently made the 10th stop on its 2016 nationwide hunger-relief tour to donate more than 35,000 pounds of protein to Gleaners Community Food Bank in Detroit. The donation will provide more than 140,000 servings and help the food bank continue to provide 79,000 meals each day to families and individuals suffering from hunger throughout southeastern Michigan.
Helping Hungry Homes, now in its eighth year, is Smithfield's coast-to-coast program to help Americans become more food secure. This year, the program will help fight hunger through more than 30 large-scale protein donations to food banks across the U.S., totaling more than 3.5 million servings. To date, Helping Hungry Homes has provided more than 38 million servings of protein to food banks across America.
Representatives from Smithfield presented the donation to Gleaners Community Food Bank in a special event. Speakers discussed the importance of donations like this in southeastern Michigan, where nearly 17 percent of people are food insecure and 300,000 children are on school-assisted lunch programs.
"Smithfield has a long history of supporting our hungry neighbors in southeast Michigan," said Anne Schenk, vice president of communication for Gleaners. "This generous donation of high-quality protein will reach struggling families with the complete nutrition they need but otherwise would not be able to afford. I'm truly grateful to our friends at Smithfield for their continued partnership with Gleaners in solving hunger."
"During the summer months, many children on school-assisted lunch programs don't know from where their next meal will come," said Dennis Pittman, Smithfield senior director of corporate communications and public affairs. "Smithfield is proud to provide Gleaners Community Food Bank with this donation through our Helping Hungry Homes program to help assist these children, as well as thousands of other families and individuals suffering from hunger, throughout southeastern Michigan."
