BEAMAN, Iowa As America faces the worst drought in half a century, food pantries across the nation face the possibility of receiving fewer donations on average this fall due to higher projected food costs. Every year when school begins, Operations Threshold experiences a typical donation slowdown, but thanks to the Beaman Monsanto site and the America's Farmers Food Drive, local community members in need will be able to continue their weekly visit to the food pantry.
During the month of August, the Beaman Monsanto site participated in the fourth annual America's Farmers Food Drive, sponsored by Monsanto in conjunction with Farm Progress and the Howard G. Buffett Foundation. The food drive took place at the Farm Progress Show Aug. 28-30 in Boone, Iowa and successfully raised 14,865 pounds of food and more than $22,200 in monetary donations.
"Employees donated the site's refund for a year's worth of empty pop cans and also contributed money to purchase the 260 pounds of canned goods," said Mike Hummel, Beaman Monsanto representative.
Six Monsanto sites across the state participated in the Food Drive Facilities Competition to help collect food for area pantries. The Muscatine Monsanto site raised 5,800 pounds of food and was the winning facility based on the highest percentage of food collected, per employee. The other facilities that participated in the competition include:
Monsanto Ankeny site
Monsanto Boone site
Monsanto Huxley site
Monsanto Storm Lake site
In addition to the food collected at the America's Farmers Food Drive at Farm Progress Show and the Food Drive Facilities Competition, Monsanto donated $10,000 to United Way of Story County, and the Howard G. Buffett Foundation donated $10,000 to Feeding America.
"The monetary matches will help pantries purchase food from the Food Bank of Iowa where, for many items, the cost is only 14 cents per pound," said Jean Kresse, United Way of Story County president and CEO. "At that price, $10,000 equals 71,429 pounds of food."
Monsanto launched the America's Farmers Food Drive in 2009 at the Farm Progress Show in Decatur, Ill. and has donated nearly 55,000 pounds of food to United Ways to date.
To learn more about Monsanto's commitment to farmers across America, please visit www.AmericasFarmers.com.