WATERLOO -- Employees at the local Tyson Foods plant banded together to raise money the old fashioned way, and exceeded all expectations.

The Waterloo meat-packing plant raised $53,000 for the Salvation Army and Northeast Iowa Food Bank during its Powering the Spirit fundraiser, a four-month campaign. Tyson Foods also donated 30,000 pounds in protein, enough frozen meat for 120,000 meals, to the food bank because the Waterloo plant was one of its top performers.

"It was the most money raised in our entire company. Of 86 locations that participated, they raised the most," said Susan Brockway, a Tyson Foods spokeswoman.

Workers scraped together the cash through serving sack lunches at banks, walking tacos at area businesses and lunch at Covenant Medical Center.

"Waterloo feels a little like the little engine that could," Brockway said. "I know ($53,000) doesn't sound like very much when you hear of a million dollars here, a million dollars there, but I think you should know how they raised it. They raised it with $1 sack lunches, candy bars, community events."

The money will go to help expand the Northeast Iowa Food Bank's backpack program, which provides weekend meals in a backpack to more than 800 children. The Salvation Army will use the extra cash to fund its after-school and summer children's programming at its newly expanded family center.

Mike Grothe, Tyson's plant manager in Waterloo, said the key to their fundraising success was creating a competition out of it..

"I think if you get a competitive spirit behind a good idea, and childhood hunger is something we all want to eliminate, it grows legs of its own. Everybody got excited about it and we got great results," he said.

While the protein donations means an adequate supply of meat for the near future, a freeze in California last winter destroyed 6 million pounds of fresh citrus that usually makes it to food banks nationwide. The resulting higher prices for citrus and transportation means less fruit rich in nutrients.

Barb Prather, Northeast Iowa Food Bank director, said the shortage has trickled into Northeast Iowa. High prices to package and transport the fruit have made grapefruit and oranges luxuries the food bank can't afford.

"In past years it's been easier to get oranges and grapefruit this time of year," she said. "Produce is the one thing we like to give out, because it's the most nutritious."

Contact Jens Manuel Krogstad at (319) 291-1580 or jens.krogstad@wcfcourier.com.