Donated food items to benefit local food banks across the country
Smithfield Foods employees collected more than 32,000 pounds of food and grocery items for the companywide food drive during Feeding America’s Hunger Action Month®, a 28% increase from the previous year. The donated items are equivalent to more than 27,000 meals.
In addition to the food items collected by its employees, Smithfield donated more than 600,000 pounds of protein to food banks in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Maryland, Missouri, Nebraska, North Carolina, Oklahoma and Virginia throughout the month of September. Equivalent to more than 2.4 million servings, these donations will help fight hunger in local communities across the country.
“Smithfield Foods employees rise to the challenge every year during Hunger Action Month,” said Jonathan Toms, senior community development manager for Smithfield Foods. “Smithfield is proud to do our part to help alleviate hunger in local communities where our employees live, work and raise their families.”
Hunger Action Month is a nationwide effort to raise awareness about hunger in America and inspire action. Smithfield’s employee food drive donations will benefit nearby food banks to help address food insecurity across the United States.
“For people facing hunger, donations of protein are valuable during Hunger Action Month and all throughout the year,” said Erika Thiem, chief supply chain officer for Feeding America. “The unwavering commitment and generous support from Smithfield and their team members is vital to our mission to help end hunger.”
Smithfield supports the Feeding America network of local food banks throughout the year with its signature hunger-relief initiative program, Helping Hungry Homes®. This program has provided hundreds of millions of servings of protein in all 50 U.S. states since 2008. Smithfield donated 30.2 million servings of protein to food banks, disaster relief efforts and community outreach programs across the U.S. in 2023 and has pledged to donate 200 million servings of protein by 2025.
***Courtesy of Smithfield Foods***
