OKLAHOMA CITY, March 31, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Today, Smithfield Foods' Helping Hungry Homes® initiative, a program focused on alleviating hunger and helping Americans become more food secure, joined forces with Homeland Stores to donate more than 35,000 pounds of protein to the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma. The donation, equivalent to more than 140,000 servings, will help Oklahomans affected by recent wildfires across Oklahoma—an area with hundreds of Smithfield employees. This donation helps fight hunger across the state, where one in six Oklahomans has inconsistent access to food.

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/3a16eba3-2d4c-4db2-b9d9-d94fff535c23.

"Protein is a resource that is always in high demand and low supply, but during a time of disaster it becomes even more vital," said Katie Fitzgerald, chief executive officer of the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma. "We are grateful to Smithfield and Homeland for today's donation, which will feed thousands of families in need across our area in the coming weeks."

Smithfield and Homeland representatives presented the donation to the Regional Food Bank at the event this morning. Members from all three organizations discussed food insecurity in the local community, the impact of recent wildfires on the livelihood of Oklahoma families and the significance of this donation in helping the more than 126,000 children, families and seniors who are served each week by the Regional Food Bank.

"Today, we are proud to partner with Smithfield and deliver this much-needed donation to our Oklahoma neighbors in need of food assistance," said Marc Jones, CEO of Homeland. "We hope this donation will provide a comforting meal to the many people in this area who have suffered a great deal of loss in the past few weeks."

Smithfield's donation to the Regional Food Bank was a part of the Helping Hungry Homes® 2017 nationwide donation tour. Throughout the annual tour, Smithfield will provide large-scale protein donations to more than 50 food banks across the country. This donation adds to the more than 65 million servings of protein donated since 2011.

"At Smithfield, we value our responsibility to provide food to those in need, especially when it's our people during a time of disaster," said Dennis Pittman, senior director of hunger relief for Smithfield Foods. "We are proud to stand with Homeland and provide the food bank with protein to serve thousands in need throughout Oklahoma as our neighbors continue to recover from this destruction."

Following today's event, Helping Hungry Homes® will visit Lincoln and Omaha, Nebraska next week. For more information about Helping Hungry Homes® and a list of upcoming donation events, visit helpinghungryhomes.com.

About Smithfield Foods
Smithfield Foods is a $14 billion global food company and the world's largest pork processor and hog producer. In the United States, the company is also the leader in numerous packaged meats categories with popular brands including SmithfieldⓇ, EckrichⓇ, Nathan's FamousⓇ, FarmlandⓇ, ArmourⓇ, John MorrellⓇ, Cook'sⓇ, KretschmarⓇ, GwaltneyⓇ, Curly'sⓇ, MargheritaⓇ, CarandoⓇ, Healthy OnesⓇ, KrakusⓇ, MorlinyⓇ and BerlinkiⓇ. Smithfield Foods is committed to providing good food in a responsible way and maintains robust animal care, community involvement, employee safety, environmental and food safety and quality programs. For more information, visit www.smithfieldfoods.com.

About Oklahoma Regional Food Bank
The Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma is the state's largest private, domestic hunger-relief organization and a member of Feeding America's network of Food Banks.  The nonprofit provides enough food to feed more than 126,000 hungry Oklahomans each week through a network of more than 1,300 schools and charitable feeding programs in 53 central and western Oklahoma counties. Since its inception in 1980, the Regional Food Bank has distributed more than 587 million pounds of food to feed Oklahoma's hungry.  For more information, visit http://www.regionalfoodbank.org; find us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/regionalfoodbank or follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/rfbo.

About Homeland Stores
HAC, Inc. is a grocery chain headquartered in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.  As of 2017 HAC operates 73 grocery stores in four states: Oklahoma, Texas, Kansas and Georgia. HAC operates under several banners including United, Cash Saver and Homeland.
Homeland is HAC's largest banner as well as Oklahoma's largest locally-owned grocery store chain with 31 locations statewide.  Homeland has been 100% Employee Owned since 2011.  Homeland's mission is to serve its community by providing exceptional customer service, competitive prices and the freshest meat and produce available.  For more information, please visit http://www.homelandstores.com/ or http://hacretail.com/.

Media Contacts:

Dalton Agency for Smithfield
Kaytee Allaben
(904) 226-9890
kallaben@daltonagency.com

Oklahoma Regional Food Bank
Angie Doss
(405) 604-7109
adoss@regionalfoodbank.org 

Homeland
Ashlee Trotter
405-290-3448
atrotter@hacretail.com