(West Des Moines, Iowa)- With 1 in 8 Iowa children facing food insecurity, Iowa Select Farms, under the leadership of the Deb and Jeff Hansen Foundation, are driving the change to help end childhood hunger. Through the Power Snack program, Iowa Select Farms employees are giving ham and bread coupons, along with pork sticks, to teachers and schools for distribution to their students. The program is expected to supply enough coupons to total over 1-million ham sandwiches, as well as 20,000 pork snack sticks, to help end childhood hunger, which the Foundation’s Power Snack program has been trying to tackle for 9 years.

Beginning October 20th and continuing until November 15th, Iowa Select Farms employees will distribute Power Snack Teacher Supply Kits to schools across Iowa. In total, 89 school districts will be recipients of the program. Power Snack helps reduce childhood hunger in Iowa by providing kids the means to purchase nutritious food to prepare at home. Four different times throughout the school year, children identified by the school as food insecure receive a $5 coupon for deli ham and $3 coupon for a loaf of whole wheat bread.

Pork sticks were added by the Foundation to the deliveries to provide a non-perishable, immediate infusion of protein for students, resulting in hunger relief and an open door to engagement in the classroom.  Among the area school districts participating in the program, is:

• Afton/East Union Community Schools
• Bedford Community School District
• Carroll Community School District
• Charter Oak-Ute Community School District
• Coon Rapids-Bayard Community Schools
• Corning Elementary
• Creston Elementary/Middle School
• In Denison: Zion Lutheran School
• Diagonal Community SchoolsLenox Community School District
• IKM-Manning Community School District
• Mount Ayr Community Schools
• Schleswig Community School District
• In Villisca: Enarson Elementary