We are pleased to announce that Sonia Smith, Quality Assurance Clerk and Lab Technician at Smithfield Packing, is the first Smithfield Foods, Inc. Employee Community Service Award winner. Sonia will receive a company gift, and have her picture taken with CEO C. Larry Pope at Smithfield Foods, Inc. headquarters in Smithfield, VA.

Sonia Smith always knew she wanted to give back to the community. Having grown up in an orphanage, she knew first-hand the importance of community involvement and the effects it has on raising strong, motivated and skilled children. Her first encounter in 2004 with then 6-year old Zachary Bonner, founder of the Little Red Wagon Foundation, showed her the way. Seeing how such a young boy can have an impact and help so many underprivileged kids, Sonia became involved in various activities of the foundation aimed at helping homeless children. Sonia even spent one week of her vacation doing a 7-day walkathon that raised awareness and funds for homeless and disadvantaged children.

Last year, Sonia ended up dedicating 336 hours to community service, while working full time and pursuing her college degree. Her community support efforts were not limited to the Little Red Wagon Foundation. Sonia has also been an "angel" to a homebound senior citizen. Her weekly letters and monthly gifts showed that someone still cared, and reinforced the senior’s sense of wellbeing. She also dedicated time to events for children living in an abused women’s shelter.

In addition, Sonia has been a wonderful mentor. Her current mentee is Eleasah, a 7-year old girl who has been enjoying the educational activities to which Sonia exposed her, including trips to museums, the zoo and the aquarium.

Eleasah wants Sonia to "be her big sister forever". Sonia assured her that regardless of the mentorship agreement timeframe, she will never cease to be her sister.

At Smithfield Foods, we strongly believe that it is our responsibility to give back to the communities where our employees live, work and raise their families. Realizing that many of our wonderful employees are committed to making a positive difference outside the company, and building better communities in which they live and work, we wanted to celebrate and support individual efforts toward charitable causes.  To this end we have established an annual Employee Community Service Award, which acknowledges employees who have spent time and effort outside their work to make an extraordinarily positive difference in the lives of others, and in their communities. We commend the award winner, Sonia Smith, and the runner-up, Conley Nelson of Murphy Brown, for their remarkable contributions.