Illinois Farm groups have donated enough food for over ten thousand meals to a Quad Cities food bank. This morning, the River Bend Food Bank in Moline received 45-hundred pounds of pork from the Illinois Corn Marketing Board, The Illinois Pork Producers, and the Illinois Soybean Association. Henry County farmer, and past president of the Pork Producers, Gary Asay says his group started donating to the food bank eight years ago and the three organizations together have given a total of 300- thousand pounds of pork to area food banks.
Food bank Executive Director, Tom Laughlin, says the meat will allow River Bend to serve 16,000 meals to those in need. And 40 percent of that will go to children.
The River Bend Food Bank will start its annual Student Hunger Drive tomorrow. This will be its 27th year, and 18 area high schools will compete to collect the most food. Last year the schools gathered 8 hundred-thousand pounds of food.