Rochelle Foods presented a donation of $5,000 to the Rochelle Area Community Foundation on Tuesday, Sept. 23.

Rochelle Foods Plant Manager Tracy Brown said Hormel is Rochelle Foods’ parent facility and it gives each plant $10,000 for philanthropic endeavors each year to help with food insecurity. After solely supporting the Rochelle Christian Food Pantry with that money in recent years, half of the funds were donated to RACF this year.

RACF Executive Director Emily Anaya said the $5,000 will go into RACF’s Rochelle Foods Hunger Challenge Fund. That fund was started by former Rochelle Foods Plant Manager and RACF volunteer Cal Jacobs, who is a current volunteer at the Rochelle Christian Food Pantry.

Anaya said the Rochelle Foods fund to support hunger started with $5,000 many years ago, was built up with employee payroll deductions, has reached over $200,000 and now grants over $8,000 a year to the Rochelle Christian Food Pantry or school programs that provide meals for kids.

“It always has a food insecurity focus and we’re proud of it and how it’s grown,” Anaya said. “Anyone can donate to it at any time. We know how important the issue of food insecurity is and how much need there is right now. RCFP’s need is up 200% this year. We recently provided RCFP with $30,000 for six months of eggs and they knew they’d run out of it after that. We know we can take this money and invest it and grow it and push it back out to the community and make a huge difference.”

Brown said combatting food insecurity is near and dear to his facility’s mission.

“We support financially, but we donate probably 100,000 pounds of food annually to area food pantries,” Brown said. “Rochelle Foods was created in 1993 and is in its 32nd year. It’s a longtime staple of the community and is owned by Hormel Foods with 40 plants like ours around the world. Philanthropy is something we enjoy doing. We’re here to help the community as its larger employer. We feel the impact.”