“Pork” is not a compliment in Illinois politics. But in Illinois agriculture, that’s a different story. Illinois is the Number Four pork producing state in the nation.
The Illinois Pork Producers Association’s Pork Power program has now donated more than one million pounds of processed pork statewide – to nine regional food banks – over the past fifteen years.
“Being a farmer, sometimes it is not as easy for us to donate time. And one thing that we sometimes do have a plethora of is pork,” said Thomas Titus, president of the association and a pork farmer near Elkhart, in Logan County. “We work very closely locally with different types of food banks and church organizations to donate back within our local community; and on a much larger scale with the Illinois Pork Producers Association. We are glad to be here to springboard and cap off a really lofty goal that started back in 2008.”
Titus says corn and soybean farmers are involved, too, as the pork producers buy those products, and those farmers contribute to Pork Power as well.
For those of you who do not have thousands of pounds of food to donate, cash helps leverage the food banks’ buying power, as they are eligible for bulk deals you and I aren’t.
“Nearly every dollar that’s donated to the food bank can help us procure up to six meals for our neighbors,” said Tim Kirsininkas, spokesman for the Springfield-based Central Illinois Foodbank. “Five dollars can provide up to thirty meals.”