Chicken error benefits needy

DES MOINES, Iowa -- A mistake by a meat processing company will mean 3,000 cooked chickens for the needy.

Des Moines-based Iowa Packing Co. cooked too many chickens for a custom order at its St. Joseph, Mo., plant.

The extra ready-to-eat birds will be distributed this weekend at the Christ the King Catholic Church.

"This is a tremendous donation," said Keith Isley, development director at Hope Ministries, which operates Bethel Mission and Door of Faith shelter and serves an estimated 150,000 meals a year. Hope Ministries will get 800 of the two-pound birds.

"This will help us for many weeks to come," Isley said. "There are many ways a company can deal with overruns, but this is a great way for them and for us."

Monsignor Frank Bognanno said his longtime friend, Dan Ochylski, president of the Pinnacle Food Group, Iowa Packing's holding company, asked the priest if he would like some of the extra chickens.

"I told him we'd take all" of them, Bognanno said.

Christ the King parishioners will hand out the bagged poultry at a drive-through pickup site at the church.

"I suspect we will go through them real fast," Bognanno said.