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Tons of Meat Donated to Fight Hunger in Central Pennsylvania

KELLY TOWNSHIP, Pa. — The Central Pennsylvania Food Bank feeds more than 140,000 people a month, and now, thanks to a large donation, its reach will go ev...

KELLY TOWNSHIP, Pa. -- The Central Pennsylvania Food Bank feeds more than 140,000 people a month, and now, thanks to a large donation, its reach will go even farther.

A Smithfield Foods truck is filled with meat but it's not being delivered to Weis Markets; 40,000 pounds of meat in truck is going to the Central Pennsylvania Food Bank's location in Williamsport.

"It's not every day that we receive a whole truckload of frozen meats, so that's really important and that's expensive. If we had to buy that much meat, it would be an extraordinary cost," said Joe Arthur, the food bank's executive director.

Weis Markets and Smithfield Foods out of Virginia teamed up for the donation. Soon all of these ribs will be given to families in central Pennsylvania.

"That's oftentimes one of the most important, most expensive, and most difficult items for the clients that the food bank serves to obtain," said Jonathan Toms of Smithfield Foods.

The donation will provide more than 160,000 meals for people in central Pennsylvania.

The Central Pennsylvania Food Bank provides food for people in 27 counties and Weis Markets has stores in all those counties.

"When you're in the food business, there's no better place than to give food to those in need, especially in food banks," said Ron Bonacci, Weis Markets' vice president of marketing.

Officials at the food bank say this donation is a huge deal and it won't last long.

"I would be surprised if this lasted a week in our freezers. We have almost 1,000 organizations that we support, so this is going to go very quickly," Arthur said.

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