Hormel Foods Donates Product To Victims Of Flooding In Venezuela

Canned food products are being supplied to survivors of massive mud slides and flooding in Venezuela, South America, by Hormel Foods Corporation, a multinational meat and food processor based in Austin, Minn.

Hormel Foods will ship 3,120 cases of 15-ounce Mary Kitchen(r) roast beef hash and Mary Kitchen(r) corned beef hash to residents of Venezuela affected by the devastation. The more than 43,000-pound truckload of hash is being shipped to Miami, Fla., to be transported to Venezuela by a Venezuela Air Force cargo plane for distribution in areas hardest hit. The hash is valued at over $55,500.

More than 120,000 people are homeless from the country's worst natural disaster of the century. Torrential rains Dec. 16 created avalanches of mud, trees and boulders that buried entire neighborhoods, and rains on Dec. 24 caused additional damage from already swollen streams. Total damage in the country is expected to top more than $10 billion.

"We hope the food products provided by Hormel Foods will ease some of the suffering residents of this area of Venezuela are experiencing from this disaster," said V. Allan Krejci, vice president of public relations for Hormel Foods.

In October 1999, Hormel Foods provided relief to people in North Carolina affected by Hurricane Floyd and to residents of Taiwan who suffered from the effects of an earthquake.