Cargill Efforts in Wichita Help Defeat Kansas Hunger

Working with the Kansas Food Bank, Wichita, Kan.-based Cargill Meat Solutions organized this month’s Holiday Harvest Food Drive with support from the Coleman Co., Via Christi Health and two local law firms. 

The goal is to collect food for the Kansas Food Bank and build holiday season charitable momentum going into Global Poverty & Hunger Relief Awareness Week, Nov. 15 to 19. Employees at sponsoring companies are also conducting food drives. Kansas Food Bank provides meals to 32,000 people each week, and demand has risen 30 percent over the past 12 months.
 
For Global Poverty & Hunger Relief Awareness Week, Cargill is hosting Vicki Escarra, Feeding America president and CEO, for a 90-minute presentation to its employees at the Orpheum Theater, followed by a visit to the Kansas Food Bank Cargill Cares Complex in downtown Wichita. In a separate program, Cargill’s turkey brands, Honeysuckle White and Shady Brook Farms, are already engaged in nationwide holiday season collaboration with Feeding America to provide 1.75 million meals for hungry Americans.

“Cargill has been feeding people for 145 years and giving back to communities where we have a presence is engrained in our corporate culture,” said Jody Horner, Cargill president. “The need is greater than ever, and I am gratified that Cargill, as well as our local employees, are in a position to be able to help relieve hunger for so many deserving and less fortunate people. These efforts underscore how collaboration can achieve solutions to daunting challenges we face in our communities.”

Chicago-based Feeding America is the nation’s leading domestic hunger-relief charity, supporting more than 200 food banks serving 61,000 agencies.