Kansas City, Kan.,—Richard Petty Motorsports will be ‘Bacon a Difference’ through a partnership with Farmland Foods, Inc., and will feature Harvesters Community Food Network on the No. 43 driven by Aric Almirola at four stops on the 2012 schedule.
Smithfield Foods initially signed on to sponsor the No. 43 for 15 races in 2012. The partnership with Farmland, who is owned by Smithfield, will be included in the 15 race deal.
Farmland President and COO, Mike Brown said the announcement was the start of two exciting endeavors for the company.
“One is to really continue to drive awareness to the Farmland brand and the markets we serve,” said Brown. “On top of that, when we come back here in October we’ll have a check for roughly $43,000 to donate to Harvesters Food Bank.”
The check will come from a retail promotion by Farmland that will donate 4.3 cents of every pound of bacon sold in stores from Memorial Day to Labor Day. In addition if Almirola wins the October 21 race at Kansas Speedway Farmland will double the donation to $86,000.
“I can’t tell you how exciting it is for Harvesters to be a part of this opportunity,” said Karen Haren, President and CEO of Harvesters. “The Farmland ‘Bacon a Difference’ program comes at a really important time because we know that one in four kids in our community is facing hunger and may not know where their next meal is coming from.”
Haren added that $43,000 would help provide over 200,000 meals to those in need.
Almirola said involvement in the program has offered not only an opportunity, but perspective.
“I’ve always taken for granted that because of what I get to do I never have to worry about eating,” Almirola said. “When I go home at night I eat dinner and then I go to bed sometimes I even have dessert, but some people in this country don’t get a chance to do that.”
“You learn that’s something that is really important to give back to the community,” added Almirola.
Giving back has always been on the top of the list for Richard Petty.
“It’s really good for us to be associated with something like Farmland not only to help us with the racecar, but to give back to the community,” Petty said. “I think that is something the racing crowd is really good at.”
The Farmland partnership will run at Chicagoland Speedway, Kansas Speedway, Texas Motor Speedway, and Phoenix International Raceway.