Continuing what has become an annual, not to mention tasty holiday tradition, Iowa Select Farms is once again giving away 3,500 free pork loin roasts to local Des Moines-area families in need. The popular giveaway is taking place from 5 to 9 a.m. on Wednesday, December 17 at the Iowa State Fairgrounds on the east side of Des Moines (3000 E. Grand Ave.). This event is being held in conjunction with a live remote broadcast of the "Van and Bonnie in the Morning" program on News Radio 1040.

HOLIDAY GIVING: Iowa Select Farms, in coordination with the Deb and Jeff Hansen Foundation, are handing out more than 3,500 pork loins, each weighing 4.5 pounds, to families in need at the Iowa State Fairgrounds on December 17.

Families who need food assistance—or even good Samaritans who would like to deliver the pork to someone or a family who needs it—that would like to participate should enter the fairgrounds through Gate 2 at East 33rd Street and East University Avenue. Then follow the appropriate signs to the west end of the Grand Concourse, where WHO Radio's Crystal Studio is located and the giveaway will take place.

Just drive up and get a pork loin and take it to a family in need
Motorists need not even sign up, much less even leave their cars, as Iowa Select Farms staff members sporting festive Santa hats will hand out the fresh, boneless roasts to the line of cars, while supplies last. Demand for the pork is strong, with the first car lining up at around 1:30 a.m. last year, along with a steady flow of cars arriving thereafter. 

Each 4.5-pound roast provides 24 servings of lean, nutrient-rich pork, with the 3,500 roasts supplying 84,000 total servings. The pork loins, which are free and limited to one per family, have a combined weight of 7.8 tons and a combined value of $36,697.  

Also, 24 tons of fresh pork was delivered to rural food pantries
In addition to the giveaway at the fairgrounds, Iowa Select Farms and the Deb and Jeff Hansen Foundation recently delivered 24 tons of fresh pork to rural food pantries across Iowa. They also continued their annual Ham Sandwiches for Kids campaign, delivering $5 coupons for sliced or shaved ham four times a year to the 8,000 Iowa families with children participating in the Food Bank of Iowa and Northeast Iowa Food Bank BackPack Program.

Iowa Select Farms, based in Iowa Falls, is Iowa's largest pork producer with nearly 1,000 employees and 345 producers in Iowa. The owners of Iowa Select Farms established the Deb and Jeff Hansen Foundation in 2006. Providing hunger relief for Iowans is one of the core missions of the Foundation, which to date has donated more than 2 million servings of pork to food banks, pantries and shelves across Iowa.