Hormel Foods, one of the nation’s largest manufacturers and marketers of consumer-branded meat and food products, has introduced Spammy™, a fortified, shelf-stable turkey spread to help address childhood malnutrition. Over the past 18 months, the charity and Hormel Foods have worked in family centers and orphanages in Guatemala to introduce the food to children and their mothers.
“Through our partnership with Hormel Foods, we are able to provide much-needed protein to the women and children of Guatemala, and we are already seeing progress,” said Robin Mahfood, President/CEO for Food For The Poor. “The children who eat Spammy™ are more active, their grades are improving, and overall, they are happier and healthier.”Spammy™ is a shelf-stable turkey spread that has been fortified with zinc, iron, B vitamins, and other essential vitamins and minerals. The mothers mix it with foods common in their culture – rice and beans – or simply spread it on tortillas, which the children consume with gusto.
“Hormel Foods sought to create a product high in protein to help serve malnourished and poverty-stricken communities worldwide,” said Jeffrey M. Ettinger, chairman of the board, president and chief executive officer at Hormel Foods. “Our company has years of experience in creating shelf-stable proteins, so we employed our expertise to create this new product.”
Hormel Foods has made an initial three-year commitment to deliver 1 million cans of Spammy™ to destitute families in Guatemala through partners Food For The Poor and Caritas Arquidiocesana in 2011. Guatemala was selected because its poverty rate is more than 50 percent and the chronic malnutrition rate is the highest in the Western Hemisphere.
Food For The Poor is a relief and development organization that provides direct relief and development assistance to the poor in 17 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, and Caritas Arquidiocesana is a charity committed to combating poverty.
In addition to the Guatemala initiative, Hormel Foods worked with Food For The Poor and donated more than 100,000 cans of Spammy™ to Haiti after the earthquake in January 2010.
Silgan Containers and Smyth Companies, two longtime suppliers of Hormel Foods, are supporting the cause by donating all of the cans and labels for Spammy™.
Hormel Foods and Food For The Poor created a website to allow individuals to contribute to the Spammy™ program. All donations through the website will go directly and fully to Food For The Poor to purchase Spammy™ fortified turkey spread at cost from Hormel Foods. The product then will be shipped by Food For The Poor to Guatemala and distributed at the orphanages, day care centers, nutritional centers and family centers within the Caritas Arquidiocesana network.
To make a donation or learn more about Spammy™ or Food For The Poor, please visit the charity's Spammy page.
To learn more about the partnership, please visit Food For The Poor's YouTube channel.
About Hormel Foods
Hormel Foods Corporation, based in Austin, Minn., is a multinational manufacturer and marketer of consumer-branded food and meat products, many of which are among the best known and trusted in the food industry. The company leverages its extensive expertise, innovation and high competencies in pork and turkey processing and marketing to bring branded, value-added products to the global marketplace. The company is a member of the Standard & Poor's 500 Index, Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes, Maplecroft Climate Innovation Indexes, Global 1000 Sustainable Performance Leaders and was named one of “The 100 Most Trustworthy Companies” by Forbes in 2010. The company enjoys a strong reputation among consumers, retail grocers, foodservice and industrial customers for products highly regarded for quality, taste, nutrition, convenience and value. For more information, visit Hormel's website.
About Caritas Arquidiocesana
Caritas Arquidiocesana serves the poor, the sick, and the abandoned in Guatemala.
About Food For The Poor
Food For The Poor, the third-largest international relief and development organization in the nation, does much more than feed millions of hungry poor in 17 countries of the Caribbean and Latin America. This interdenominational Christian agency provides emergency relief assistance, clean water, medicines, educational materials, homes, support for orphans and the aged, skills training and micro-enterprise development assistance, with more than 96 percent of all donations going directly to programs that help the poor. For more information, please visit www.foodforthepoor.org.
Contact:
Kathy Skipper
Food For The Poor
Director of Public Relations
954-427-2222 x 6614
kathys@foodforthepoor.com
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