Hormel Foods Corp. is donating $240,000 to the effort to end hunger in Minnesota and Iowa, the company announced Tuesday.

Part of the donation, $130,000, will go to Hunger-Free Minnesota with the remaining $110,000 being donated to the “Mapping an End to Hunger in Greater Des Moines” project.

“The contribution from Hormel Foods is a testament to the company’s commitment to fight hunger in Minnesota,” said Ellie Lucas, chief campaign officer for Hunger-Free Minnesota, in a news release. “We hope Hormel’s leadership will inspire other Minnesota companies to step forward and join our campaign to feed Minnesota’s hungriest citizens.”

Hunger-Free Minnesota is a statewide coalition of community and corporate organizations focused on closing Minnesota’s missing meals gap by providing 100 million additional meals, annually and sustainably, for Minnesotans in need by 2014.

“Hormel Foods is committed to combating the persistence of hunger in the United States,” said Julie Craven, vice president of corporate communications at Hormel Foods, in a news release. “We have many employees in both Minnesota and Iowa, and because of that, these states are important areas of focus.”

The donations are part of the “On Our Way to Ending Hunger” program at Hormel Foods, which involves collaborating with retailers, nonprofits and the government on hunger relief efforts. Through this program, Hormel Foods has also donated to hunger-relief organizations in more than a dozen communities where it has U.S. manufacturing facilities, including several in both Minnesota and Iowa.