During the week of December 7th and in the spring of 2020, Christensen Farms donated over $25,000 to food banks across the Midwest. The organization collaborated with local food banks in 16 communities in which it operates to provide pork certificates to those in need.
“At Christensen Farms, we are proud to serve the noble purpose of providing safe, nutritious pork to families across the country,” said Amber Portner, Christensen Farms Communications Manager. “For many families in the Midwest and throughout the country, putting food on the table can be a daily challenge, and providing a key source of protein is not just a daily luxury, it is essential, which has become even more evident this past year due to the unforeseen pandemic.”
In addition to its annual food shelf donations made this holiday season, the Christensen Farms Employee Resource Group ‘Women LEAPP’, takes on helping families in need through an ‘Adopt-A-Family’ program within their local communities of Brown County, a program that pairs the group with multiple families to purchase essentials and gifts for them during the holiday season. The group also does an annual donation of $500 for coats for kids in the county.
“Earlier this year, as the pork industry experienced disruptions across U.S. pork packing plants, our company worked with our contract producer partners to get over 3,000 hogs back into the food supply chain,” Portner added. “We did not request payment for these hogs, but rather asked our contract partners to “pay it forward” in their local communities supporting food shelves, organizations and families in need. Through those efforts, over $50,000 was donated across multiple rural communities in the Midwest.”
Christensen Farms also donated hogs to more than 60 employees that were processed at a local meat locker in southwest Minnesota, as well as coordinated and funded a mutually beneficial “take and bake” program involving 15 restaurants hit hard by COVID-19 providing meals to more than 600 of its committed team members across five Midwest states. The following communities and food banks received pork vouchers from Christensen Farms this holiday season: Sleepy Eye Area Food Shelf, Sleepy Eye, Minn.; New Ulm Area Emergency Food Shelf, New Ulm, Minn.; Springfield Area Food Shelf, Springfield, Minn.; We Care Project Food Shelf, Morgan, Minn.; Kitchen Table-Marshall Food Shelf, Marshall, Minn.; Redwood Area Food Shelf, Redwood Falls, Minn.; Manna Food Pantry, Worthington, Minn.; Neighborhood Food Bank, Forest City, Iowa; Emmet County Food Pantry, Estherville, Iowa; Franklin County Community Food Pantry, Hampton, Iowa; Charleston Food Pantry, Charleston, Ill.; Central Northeast Community Food Bank, O’Neill, NE; Northeast Nebraska Action Partnership – Creighton Family Services, Creighton, NE; Safe Harbor, Aberdeen, SD; Tri-County Good Samaritan Center, Redfield, SD; and Pierre Food Pantry, Pierre, S.D.
