Tyson Foods, which calls itself the world’s largest producer of pork, chicken and beef products, is scheduled to donate 15 tons of food to the Roadrunner Food Bank in Albuquerque today.

In a partnership among Tyson Foods, the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) and America’s Second Harvest, of which Roadrunner is a network member, Tyson is donating more than 15 tons of "much-needed protein" to the food bank as part of its 1-million-pound, three-year commitment to fight hunger together, Roadrunner said in a news release.

An event announcing the donation took place at 11:30 a.m. today at Roadrunner.

"Hunger in our community is continuing to increase," Executive Director Melody Wattenbarger said. "Over the summer, our partner agencies reported to us that they were experiencing a 30 percent increase of people requesting food assistance. Donations such as the association’s are critical for us to respond to the number of people who need access to food assistance."

Roadrunner says it distributed more than 17.3 million pounds of food last year through a statewide network of nearly 600 partner agencies and regional food banks. Wattenbarger said Roadrunner makes it a priority to distribute healthy and nutritious food because many of the individuals served represent vulnerable populations such as children and seniors.

“Having enough food to feed families is a challenge for many in the Hispanic community and LULAC is dedicated to helping families access nourishing foods,” LULAC National President Rosa Rosales said in a statement. “We believe that our relationship with Tyson Foods and today’s donation to the Roadrunner Food Bank are an important step toward our goal of ensuring no one goes hungry.”

In its statement, Tyson said it has donated more than 50 million pounds of protein products to more than 950 hunger-relief agencies nationwide since 2000 as part of an ongoing commitment to be a leader and supporter of hunger-relief initiatives.

Roadrunner says more than 300,000 New Mexicans are at risk of hunger, and that last year about 240,000 families received food assistance through Roadrunner and its network of partner agencies.

Roadrunner says it is also looking for volunteers to help with sorting and packing food.