In 2008, the Illinois Pork Producers Association (IPPA) launched the Pork Power: Partnering to Fight Hunger in Illinois campaign to provide pork products to food banks throughout Illinois.

Farmweld, a hog raising equipment manufacturer and strong supporter of both the Pork Power Program and IPPA, donated $1,000 to Pork Power to feed struggling families during the COVID-19 crisis. The company’s president, Frank Brummer, matched Farmweld’s contribution.

With face mask and shields running low across the state, local businesses and organizations are doing what they can to help first responders and health care workers in the Western Suburbs. In one example, the STEM-education company TinkRworks donated 100 3D-printed face shields to firefighters and paramedics at the Aurora Central Fire Station.

This month we celebrate Black History Month, a time to acknowledge the sacrifices of countless African Americans for all they’ve done to make this country a fairer place, as well as the many contributions they’ve made to American society.

Originally, Black History Month started out as Negro History Week, which was established by Dr. Carter G. Woodson, the second African American ever to receive a doctorate from Harvard. He chose the second week of February because it held the birthdays of two figures integral to the abolishment of slavery: Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass.

The greater Chicago area has once again been named number one metro in the U.S. for site selection according to Site Selection Magazine, which ranks major American metros based on corporate investment.

The city earned the top spot thanks to an influx of projects in Cook County funded by major companies like Facebook and Walgreens. Major corporations have flocked to Chicago to take advantage of its world class workforce, which boasts the second highest concentration of computer science graduates in the nation and the sixth most STEM worker in the country.

The growing number of corporations investing in Chicagoland does not end with the Cook County border. In neighboring Will County, multiple firms have built large distribution centers, including a recent investment from IKEA. Suburbs such as Arlington Heights, Bolingbrook and Naperville are becoming the new homes of manufacturing projects for companies such as IHerb and G&W Electric.

Illinois agriculture extends beyond the fields of corn, beans and wheat you see while driving on the highway. Illinois is ranked first in the country for food processing sales and is home to 2,372 food processing companies, which support more than 71,000 jobs in our state. Every day we are impacted by the agriculture in our state.