Iowa Select Farms and Hansen Foundation to give away pork loins in Lake City

The owners of a statewide pork production company and their charitable foundation will be giving away 500 pork loins in Lake City early Wednesday morning.
This is the seventh year Iowa Select Farms and the Deb and Jeff Hansen Foundation have handed out the loins to Iowans in need, and the first time the organizations have taken the giveaways on the road, out of the Des Moines metro. The giveaway in Calhoun County will run from 7 to 9 a.m. at the Lake City Country Club. Iowans who self-identify as being in need this holiday season may pick up a pork loin, while supplies last, a spokeswoman said.
“There’s no requirement or application,” Allyson Ladd said. “People just have to show up.”
In past years in Des Moines, people have formed lines hours before the giveaway began; Ladd said organizers weren’t sure what to expect from the events in 12 small towns across the state.
“We selected towns that are going to be feasible to get to,” Ladd said, explaining how Lake City landed the event. “We have quite a few finishing sites and employees in your area.”
Iowa Select Farms employees are scheduled to help hand out the pork loins.
The meat giveaway isn’t the first foray into Calhoun County for the Deb and Jeff Hansen Foundation, Ladd said. The organization also contributes to the Backpack Buddies program, which provides snacks for children to take home from school, and Haul Away Hunger.
The foundation will continue to hand out pork loins in Des Moines, too. All totaled, Ladd estimated the program will give out 40 tons of pork this year.
“We’re hoping to alleviate hunger in these rural Iowa communities,” Ladd said, adding the program gives away the basis of “a good meal (some county residents) might not be able to afford otherwise.”
A five-pound pork loin contains 24 servings of meat, she added.
“They’re getting a good, nutritious meal,” Ladd said. “With budgets stretched thin, meat is usually of the first things to go from a budget.” 
The foundation and farm group announced the plan Dec. 5.