Meat + Poultry - June 2008 - 38

SMITHFIELD-LUTER

Virginia Tech and Iowa State typically
will award about a dozen scholarships
each while a handful are granted to
students attending Wake Forest. As for
the foundation's annual contributions to
the scholarship campaign, Treacy says
it is "in the several hundred-thousanddollar range and growing."

Strong foundation
Luter stepped down as Smithfield's CEO
about two years ago, but the SmithfieldLuter Foundation has continued growing. When Luter passed the torch to his
successor, C. Larry Pope, growing the
foundation was part of the new regime's
commitment. It's no secret, says Treacy,
"Larry is bent on education," and continues fostering the foundation's relationships with other
learning institutions. The company also has developed a similar
program for feeding the hungry including the Paula
Deen-endorsed
Pope
"Helping Hungry
Homes" campaign. While the SmithfieldLuter Scholarship program offered to the
extended families of employees is growing, the company is also expanding its
support of other colleges, as well as high
schools and grade schools in the communities where it has operations. As recently as this past year, after Smithfield's
acquisition of Premium Standard Farms,
the company facilitated the purchase of
library books and computers for the local high school in Milan, Mo., as part of
the foundation's Community Partnership program. "These types of requests
are fulfilled at the request of one or our
plants in concert with an educational institution. The Smithfield-Luter Foundation
also funds the Learners to Leaders program, which supports educational institutions and communities by promoting the
importance of education and developing
programs to help high school students
get a head start on college.
On a larger scale, in 2005 the foundation committed a gift of $5 million
40

MEAT&POULTRY

June 2008

Sioux Rapids, Iowa Central High School (top), was one of the high schools awarded a
scholarship to prepare students for careers in agribusiness; A reception at Virginia Tech.
recognizes recipients of of the Smithfield-Luter Scholarship (middle); Green Bay high school
students attend a seminar on Smithfield's college scholarship opportunities.

to Christopher Newport Univ., Newport News, Va., which established the
Joseph W. Luter III School of Business
along with the formation of a $1 million
merit scholarship program. A year later,
the foundation announced the donation
of $5 million to the Univ. of Virginia
Health System for cancer research and
treatment in honor of Palmer Weber,
a Smithfield employee who died after
battling the disease.
Treacy says while it may sound cliché, the company is putting its money
and efforts where its mouth is when

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it comes to "doing the right thing" in
the communities where Smithfield has
a presence. For instance, Treacy says
he was on hand when the surprise announcement was made at Christopher
Newport Univ. regarding the $5 million gift, which triggered a collective
gasp in the room among attendees. "It
doubled their endowment at the time,"
Treacy says. "That's the type of impact
we like to make."
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Meat + Poultry - June 2008

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