Cargill’s turkey processing facility in Springdale, Ark., collaborated with the tri-state Poultry Federation representing Arkansas, Missouri and Oklahoma to donate 600 turkeys—totaling 15,400 pounds—to the Arkansas Foodbank in Little Rock, including a truckload of turkeys delivered this week for Thanksgiving.
Over the past 20 years, Cargill’s Springdale facility has donated more than 288,000 pounds of turkey to charitable organizations throughout Arkansas.
“With this summer’s drought, the price of corn needed to feed poultry has increased dramatically, making it harder for people living on the margins of society, and people on fixed incomes, to have a traditional Thanksgiving turkey for dinner,” says Marvin Childers, president of the Poultry Federation. “It is our wish that this donation will help many families have a better holiday season.”
Cargill’s Honeysuckle White turkey brand partners with Feeding America, which annually helps feed two million people in need throughout the nation.
“The Cargill team of more than 1,600 Arkansans working in the area’s turkey complex are thrilled to help fellow citizens who deserve a nice Thanksgiving dinner,” says Shane Acosta, GM of the Springdale turkey processing plant. “We believe it is important to support people in communities and states where we have significant operations, and that philosophy has been part of Cargill’s cultural fabric since the company’s rural Iowa founding in 1865.”
The Arkansas Foodbank serves more than 250 food pantries, soup kitchens, shelters and agencies that provide aid directly to hungry Arkansans. In 2011, the Arkansas Foodbank, a member of Feeding America and the Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance, distributed more than 13.3 million pounds of food.
“Nobody in America should go hungry, especially this time of the year, because Arkansas is the third largest turkey producing state in the U.S., having produced 31 million turkeys in 2011, representing 603 million pounds of turkey, valued at $412 million,” Childers says. “Working with Cargill and the Arkansas Foodbank in a collaborative way, we will make certain many Arkansans have something to be thankful for on Nov. 22.”
