"Powering the Spirit" with Wartburg College

Tyson Fresh Meats, Waterloo partnered with Wartburg College in “Powering the Spirit” to end childhood hunger. Tyson Team Members grilled pork chops and shredded BBQ pork sandwiches for the Wartburg home football game vs. Central. This event was planned as a wrap up to college’s participation in hunger and homelessness awareness week and way to raise awareness of the issue of hunger here in the Cedar Valley. Wartburg Students created awareness of the issue and Tyson’s commitment to being part of the solution. In addition, students drummed up sales by carrying signs and offering photo opportunities with a pig picture board. Together the event raised over $1778.00to end childhood hunger in the Cedar Valley.

"Powering the Spirit" Sack Lunch Events

Over 2,000 sack lunches were prepared, packaged and delivered by volunteers from Cedar Valley Community Support Services, the Northeast Iowa Food Bank and Tyson Fresh Meats, Inc. to offices throughout the Cedar Valley in April, July and September. These lunches were preordered and purchased by groups to raise funds to end childhood hunger in the Cedar Valley. Each lunch ($6.00) included: a shredded pork sandwich (precooked meat ready to reheat in the microwave), a piece of fruit, a pasta salad, a cookie and a bottle of water. Over $12,000 was raised with these events.

If you are interested in being on the order mailing distribution list please e-mail andrea.sherwood@tyson.com to receive the next order form.

A special thank you to our sack lunch sponsors:
Hy-Vee
Local 431 UFCW
UPS
Cedar Valley Community Support Services

2nd Annual "Tuggin' for Kids"

The 2nd annual tug of war over a mud pit was held September 11, 2007. It brought out over 200 people to watch the action and pull to end childhood hunger in the Cedar Valley. The competition between the 11 participating teams was fierce while tuggin’ on the rope for the win. The Black Hawk County Sheriff’s Department dug in their heels and out tugged all the teams to take the event win and 2007 braggin’ rights. However, the real winners are the children in the Cedar Valley who are hungry because the funds (over $13,000) raised at this event go toward ending childhood hunger in the Cedar Valley. A special thanks to the following sponsors who helped make this event a success.

Event Sponsors:
Craft Cochran
RSC Rental
The Radio Group (Cool 105.7, Rock 108, News Talk 1540, Starr 1330)
Team Sponsorships ($500):
Ace Refrigeration
A’Hearn
A-Line
All Temp Refrigeration
APC Company
Applied Industrial Technologies
Banner Roofing
Cedar Valley Mechanical
Darling International
Micro-Lube
Midwest Provisions
MW Maintenance
Nelco
Northeast Iowa Food Bank Board of Directors
Packer’s Chemical
Selesky
Stainless Plus, Inc.
Swagelok
Tasler
UFCW Local 431
Waterloo Boiler
WBC Mechanical
Team Pullers for Sponsored Teams:
Black Hawk County Sheriff’s Department
Cedar Valley United Way

Cedar Valley Vikings
Evansdale Fire Department
West High School High School Students

The Tug in Waterloo

On Tuesday, September 4, people from the Waterloo/Cedar Falls community came together for the second annual Tuggin' For Kids tug-of-war to raise money for childhood hunger relief.

All together, more than $13,000 was raised for a great cause as part of the Tyson Foods Powering the Spirit program. Seventy-five percent of the funds will remain in the Waterloo Area to benefit programs offered by the Northeast Iowa Food Bank. Twenty-five percent benefits national hunger and poverty relief organization Share Our Strength.

Some got wet, some got muddy. All had a good time for a great cause.

Photos along RAGBRAI route

dido! Everything was fantastic and funtastic! Thank you Sue for your example of dedication and commitment.

Judy

It Goes Without Saying

I think it goes without saying that everyone did a wonderful job to make RAGBRAI such a success. I want to first start with the over 120 team members from Siouxland, Cherokee, Storm Lake, Perry, Waterloo and Joslin who came out and did whatever they were asked in early morning and late evening hours only to be asked to clean up, set up, cook and clean up more. It was truly an act of working together and was more fun than we had ever expected. If ever there was a way to measure the success of an event, one only needed to listen to the thousands of RAGBRAI riders we served and their support of our efforts to end childhood hunger. We gathered groupies along the route, and they have promised to come back next year.
A special thank you to the volunteers from all of the communities who also came out to help us. They told our story, introduced us to their neighbors and invited us into their communities like we were old friends.

Next, a special thanks to Jim Schmitz who let us try this crazy event, even though it continued to grow over the 4 months of planning. We appreciate the support of all of the plant/complex managers and their continued smiling when we asked for more people and resources as the days grew closer. None of our requests were turned down, and a few were able to come out and grill a little! Working with each and every one of you was a wonderful experience. We learned a few things, including how to cook omelets on the grill!

A very special thanks to the traveling gypsies; Steve and Nancy Louthan, Steve Youngblut and Sherri Austin who slept on floors, ate terrible food, slept in the house of a stranger and a camper with no electricity (all for the experience) and drove across the State of Iowa with thousands of people on bikes and moved equipment from sun up until sun down with not a single complaint. This core group held everything together, fixed equipment, problem solved, loaded and unloaded trucks and slept about 4 hours every day.

No one tells a story like the Mitchell group, and they did not disappoint us as we received excellent media coverage throughout the State of Iowa for 8 days. We were able to post photos on the blog and thousands of Iowans were able to learn more about Tyson Foods and the team members who make a difference every day. Between media releases and advisories, Share Our Strength and A2H, this team was busy every single day!

The fabulous food banks in Iowa let us tell our story and helped us deliver the message of 1 millions meals across the RAGBRAI route. Transportation and dispatch made this possible by having every truck in place and on time for 7 truckloads of protein!. A special thank you to the drivers who attended the events and helped whenever asked. A special thanks for helping us keep product fresh and ready to serve the over 20,000 people we saw everyday! Nothing moves without our friends in transportation!
To Communications who helped us design shirts, banners and signs....ads and whatever else we asked on the fly! Our banners were terrific, and the Tyson logo was displayed everywhere.
And to our newest intern, Thomas Nicholson.....whom we have recruited for next year.
And last but not least, to our leader of this event, Andrea Sherwood from Waterloo who showed leadership throughout. It started out as a little event and became the event across Iowa. When we all wanted to quit, she put us in the cooler truck to have a rest, brought us snacks, made us laugh, gave up her bed for the floor and kept up in good spirits with only one mission........feeding kids. Congrats to everyone......... Looking forward to seeing all of you next year! Thanks so much for help feeding kids in Iowa.