(DES MOINES) - Iowa Gov. Terry E. Branstad today announced he is donating 100 pounds of Iowa ham to the Food Bank of Iowa in Des Moines, Iowa, and 100 pounds of Iowa ham to Grace Place Ministries soup kitchen in Monroe, Louisiana.
The donation comes after a friendly wager with Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal on the 2014 Outback Bowl, which featured the Iowa Hawkeyes and the Louisiana State University (LSU) Tigers. If the LSU Tigers beat the Iowa Hawkeyes, Gov. Branstad was to donate 100 pounds of Iowa pork to a Louisiana food bank and another 100 pounds of Iowa pork to an Iowa food bank. LSU beat Iowa 21-14 on January 1, 2014.
"I'm proud of the season the Iowa Hawkeyes had and for their tremendous effort in the Outback Bowl against Louisiana State University," said Branstad. "I'm pleased today to donate Iowa pork to two fine organizations that help feed the hungry in local communities. I would also like to thank The Deb & Jeff Hansen Iowa Select Farms Foundation for their generosity in donating the pork for this friendly wager."
The Iowa ham will be delivered to the organizations by Iowa Select Farms.
"A core mission of the Deb and Jeff Hansen Foundation is hunger relief which is why we were glad to support Governor Branstad with his friendly wager," said Jeff Hansen, President and CEO of Iowa Select Farms and co-founder of the Foundation. "We're happy to be able to donate hams to both organizations in an effort to help both Iowa and Louisiana families in need."
Iowa taxpayer dollars were not used for the friendly wager between Gov. Branstad and Gov. Jindal.
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Iowa Select Farms, based in Iowa Falls, is Iowa's largest pork producer with nearly 1,000 employees and 300 producers in Iowa. The owners of Iowa Select 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 1.5 million servings of pork to food banks, pantries and shelves across Iowa.
