This month, the Iowa Pork Producers Association provided the West Liberty Area Food Pantry with a $1,000 pork donation through its Purchase Moore Hamann Bacon campaign, which began in October 2024.
Throughout the month of January, residents who stop by the West Liberty Area Food Pantry will receive a $10 pork gift certificate that they can then use at a local grocery store to purchase the pork product of their choosing.
Following the announcement of the donation, the staff at the West Liberty Area Food Pantry stated that they were “humbled” to be chosen for such a gift, seeing it as an “unexpected but very pleasant surprise for West Liberty.”
Though the donation was provided by the IPPA, it was Iowa State University women’s basketball player Kelsey Joens who chose to give the donation to the West Liberty Area Food Pantry.
West Liberty is one of 19 food pantries that have received a pork donation through this campaign, which uses an NIL (name, image, likeness) agreement with Iowa State University athletes to provide the pork donation to a food pantry or bank of the athlete’s choosing in exchange for the athlete’s participation in the media campaign.
In a press release, Matt Gent, President of IPPA stated that the ‘Purchase Moore Hamann Bacon’ campaign has been considered a success by their group.
“We’ve had a lot of fun seeing what new names we could try to fit into the promotion through our series of tryout videos. We’re thankful to all the Cyclones who participated, and to everyone who was inspired to purchase more ham, bacon and other pork products.”
Along with each food pantry or food bank donation, the IPPA is also providing $16,000 worth of pork to the Iowa Food Bank Association, totaling $35,000 – or about 50,000 servings – of pork.