Smithfield Foods Hunger Relief Day Slated For The 2021 N.C. State Fair

RALEIGH, NC – Hunger Relief Day began at the N.C. State Fair in 1993 and since then, fairgoers have donated over 5.3 million pounds of food to the Food Bank of Central & Eastern North Carolina and its partners. It has become one of the largest one-day canned food drives in the state. Smithfield Foods has come on board as the premier sponsor of Hunger Relief Day this year. The Smithfield Foods Hunger Relief Day is Thursday, October 21, 2021. Bring six cans of canned food (any brand) and receive free admission to the N.C. State Fair.

The Food Bank of Central & Eastern North Carolina coordinates over 600 volunteers each year to collect cans of food at N.C. State Fair gates alongside employees from the North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. The food collected at Smithfield Foods Hunger Relief Day will be spread across their network of more than 900 partner agencies in 32 North Carolina counties.

Helping Communities is one of seven featured pillars in Smithfield’s industry-leading sustainability program spanning initiatives to promote animal care, diversity equity and inclusion, environmental stewardship, food safety and quality, health and wellness, community outreach, and worker health and safety. The company donated more than $10 million in 2020 to North Carolina communities to fight hunger and raise awareness of food insecurity.

Since 2008, Smithfield has donated hundreds of millions of servings of protein to food banks, disaster relief efforts, and community outreach programs in all 50 states across the country through Helping Hungry Homes®, its signature hunger relief initiative, and has pledged to donate an additional 100 million protein servings in the U.S. by 2025.

The 2021 N.C. State Fairs runs Oct. 14- 24 at the State Fairgrounds in Raleigh. More information can be found at ncstatefair.org.