Russellville’s cross-country runners have received a little backing to fund their program with a monetary donation from Pilgrim’s Pride.

Kevin Touchstone, complex manager of Pilgrim’s Pride, presented members of the Russellville cross-country team with a check for $2,500 last week as part of Pilgrim’s Pride’s continual work to help the local community by supporting various organizations.

“We love getting to help with stuff like this where we can help kids and see them put the money to good use,” Touchstone said.

Coach Shawn Greenhill said the money will go toward purchasing equipment and sweatshirts and funding travel for the team.

“We are so thankful to them for their support,” said Coach Larsen Plyler. “It would be almost impossible to do what we want to do without them. It is great to have a community partner like this that we can turn to.”

Greenhill said the partnership came about after he approached Touchstone to see if he would be interested in supporting the cross-country team.

“I knew they did a lot to help out the community, so I was really happy that we were able to make this happen,” Greenhill said.

Touchstone said he was more than happy to continue developing the community relationship with Russellville City Schools by helping out a growing program.

“We do a lot of lot of stuff like this to help in the community,” Touchstone said, “and we are very happy to see this program be able to grow.”