Applegate Partners with Nonprofit to Donate 7,000 Meals to Hungry Children

Applegate kicked off its partnership with hunger relief and youth empowerment organization Conscious Alliance last week with an inaugural donation of 5,000 packages of natural breakfast sausage. The donation was delivered to school children on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota and will provide more than 7,000 meals for students at six different schools this winter.

Applegate and Conscious Alliance provided more than 7,000 meals for students on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota

Conscious Alliance has been partnered with Hormel Foods’ sister company Justin’s for over a decade, which is how Applegate and other Hormel Foods brands decided to partner with the organization.

Nicole Glenn, Vice President of Marketing, Applegate“When Justin Gold, the Founder of Justin’s, told us about his company’s partnership with Conscious Alliance, we knew right away we wanted to be part of it,” said Nicole Glenn, Vice President of Marketing at Applegate. “Applegate is in a unique position to make a real difference with one of the biggest problems in food insecurity—protein—and we’re so honored to be able to help.”

Applegate’s donation included 13 pallets of frozen Applegate Naturals^® Peppered Turkey Breakfast Sausage. This nutritious protein will help tackle food insecurity—a major problem on the Pine Ridge Reservation, which has the lowest per capita income in the country and only a single grocery store in a geographic area the size of Connecticut—and hunger experienced on the weekends—as Feeding America identifies the weekend as a time that children are most at risk for missing meals or not receiving meals that are rich in vitamins and protein, according to a press release.

“When we are able to send food home with our students over the weekend, we have parents coming back to us and thanking us for supporting them and their children,” said Melody Bohlender, Principal at Batesland School on Pine Ridge Reservation. “Though the food is coming to us through Conscious Alliance, the parents see direct support from our school, which helps us build a consistent and trusting relationship with our community.”

Applegate’s donation included 13 pallets of frozen Applegate Naturals^® Peppered Turkey Breakfast Sausage

In addition to donating to schools on Pine Ridge, Conscious Alliance and its partners work with schools in Boulder and Denver, Colorado, as well as nationwide. This year alone, Conscious Alliance has already distributed over 363,000 meals to schools nationwide.