Converse bank program to benefit Hoosier food banks
CONVERSE, Ind. (Inside INdiana Business) — A bank headquartered in the town of Converse is launching a program designed to give a boost to food banks. First Farmers Bank & Trust says it is working with Hoosier pork producers and processors to provide protein to food banks throughout Indiana and eastern Illinois.
The bank says “Pigs to People to Pork” is the result of the COVID-19 pandemic causing a “dramatic disruption in the availability of protein to those in need.”
Jeff Rodibaugh, chief agricultural lending officer for First Farmers, says he and other key bank personnel created an ad hoc network of farmers and local processors willing to donate or reduce livestock and processing costs.
The bank is partnering with statewide nonprofit Hoosiers Feeding the Hungry to boost the program’s impact.
“During this time of uncertainty, our lending team called on their lifelong relationships to find the compassion of local processing owners and staffs to put in extra hours to process pigs that are getting precariously big for their stressed owners into one-pound ground pork packages for the people of our communities,” said Rodibaugh. “It is the hope of our employees, processors and pig farmers that through our ‘Pigs to People to Pork’ partnership with Hoosiers Feeding the Hungry that we will provide a smile to a person or child that was looking for a meal this week.”
You can learn more about the program by clicking here.