Smithfield Packing Company announced in November a joint partnership with the Foodbank of the Virginia Peninsula and the Foodbank of Southeastern Virginia to address child hunger in the Hampton Roads area.

Considered the largest food supply contribution to either food bank, the company will be providing 16,000 meals a month during the nine-month school year, and 8,000 meals a month for the three summer months to all Kids Café sites. This equates to 168,000 meals a year comprised of 84,000 pounds of various meat products including Tender ‘n Easy marinated pork tenderloins, shoulder roasts and chops, as well as Smithfield roast beef, ham and pork BBQ.

“Smithfield’s partnership underscores its commitment to solving the problem of child hunger,” said Joseph W. Luter, IV, president and chief operating officer of Smithfield Packing. “As the world’s largest pork producer, Smithfield recognizes its obligation to give back to the community by supplying nutritious meals to children in need.”

Joanne Batson, executive director of the Foodbank of Southeastern Virginia, believes this partnership is a significant stride in ending child hunger in Hampton Roads.

“There are thousands of children in Hampton Roads who live in food-insecure households,” she said, “and our goal is to ensure that as many of these children as possible receive the proper nutrition to live healthy lives. Smithfield’s generous pledge in providing our Kids Cafes with hundreds of thousands of healthy meals during the year is a tremendous step in supporting our mission that no child goes hungry.”

Kids Café is a national program founded by America’s Second Harvest – The Nation’s Food Bank Network – to solve a nationwide problem of child hunger. Throughout Southside Hampton Roads and the Virginia Peninsula neighborhoods, there are 48 Kids Cafes that provide nutritious after-school meals to low-income, elementary-aged children. The after-school program also offers children a variety of recreational social activities as well as educational assistance from caring volunteers and staff members.

Jane Susan Frank, president-elect of the board of directors of the Virginia Peninsula Foodbank said that Smithfield’s donation was very timely.

“As with many foodbanks across the country, our foodbanks in Hampton Roads have suffered severe shortages due to the redirection of food supply to hurricane victims in the Gulf states,” she said, “so Smithfield’s contribution is much needed and well-timed.”

In addition, the company managed to make the holiday season a little more plentiful for its neighbors by making several large deliveries of pork products to the two food banks in late December. The donations came shortly after the Peninsula branch publicly worried that it would not have enough food for the holidays. After the Smithfield delivery, however, pork was so plentiful that it was shared with other food banks as far away as Richmond and Elizabeth City, NC.