As a company committed to creating value for our shareholders, our customers and our people, we also strive to give back to the communities where we live, work and sell our products. With a corporate philanthropic focus of hunger relief, Tyson Foods has become the leading private sector meat protein donor in the United States, providing over 9.5 million pounds of products in both 2008 and 2009 to food banks and hunger relief organizations.

Additionally, our community outreach donations in our areas of operations provide millions of dollars annually to a host of causes. For example, we provided more than $1.4 million dollars in installment contributions throughout our communities of operation in fiscal years 2008 and 2009 for various “bricks and mortar” building and renovation campaigns. These donations encompassed a wide variety of projects, including new or renovated facilities for children and family shelters, hospitals, libraries, community parks and recreation centers, food banks, and a state of the art events center in Sioux City, Iowa. Our $1.4 million dollar contributions represent installment payments for numerous multi-year pledges, all totaling more than $6 million dollars in investments in the communities where our Team Members live and work.

Combining these product and monetary donations, we donated over 10 percent of our company’s pre-tax profits in fiscal 2008, well above the average for corporate giving in America.



Tyson Foods cares about education in our communities and across the country. We sponsor and support numerous programs and organizations dedicated to improving our nation’s educational systems, such as Students in Free Enterprise, Junior Achievement, Historically Black Colleges and Universities Classic sponsorships, public library funds, and monetary and in-kind donations to secondary and post-secondary institutions. We also provide support to numerous scholarship funds, including national Future Farmers of America, League of United Latin American Citizens, Hispanic Women’s Organization, United Negro College Fund, single parent and independent scholarship associations, and donations to various university scholarship programs.




Through the Tyson Project A+™ program, schools can earn extra money. The money may be used in any way the school chooses. Parents, students, faculty members, and others in the community clip and save labels from Tyson products featuring the Project A+ logo. The labels are collected, and the school can redeem them for cash from Tyson Foods. A total of $248,000 dollars was donated to schools through this program during fiscal years 2008 and 2009.


We believe one of the most important things we can do for communities in which Tyson Foods has operations is ensure our Team Members are involved in activities vital to the communities. Our community relations managers, working alongside corporate Human Resources and operations managers, have collaborated to create strategic plans to engage local managers and Team Members in these activities. Plans, custom-tailored to the needs and opportunities in individual communities, were written specifically for all 89 operations locations in fiscal year 2008 and 2009. The plans encourage relationship building with and assistance to local education, government, business, non-profit, public protection, and diversity organizations.


In fiscal years 2008 and 2009, we donated over $5.9 million to charities and nonprofit organizations, primarily in communities in which we have operating facilities. These contributions ranged from sponsorships and support of various nonprofit fundraisers and campaigns to monetary and product donations for our local schools and grass roots community efforts for education, health and human services, families, and the environment. This does not include contributions made by individual company facilities or Team Members.

We are also a major contributor to United Way^® campaigns. Our combined Team Member and company commitments for fiscal years 2008 and 2009 were approximately $3.6 million. Corporate donations supported hundreds of charities with 135 organizations receiving at least $10,000 or more. As an example, in 2008 we committed $150,000 to Seven Hills Homeless Shelter in Fayetteville, Arkansas' to help establish a much needed transitional living facility, and in 2009 pledged $100,000 to the Northeast Iowa Food Bank’s capital campaign to expand services. Other recipients of significant donations are listed below.

In addition to corporate donations, many company facilities raise money and donate to organizations and associations in their community. A few examples of these efforts are shared below.

• In May 2009, Team Members from our Albertville, Alabama, location raised $40,600 for the American Cancer Society as a part of their Relay for Life events. This is the third year in a row Tyson Foods has been the top fund-raiser in the county.
• In fiscal year 2009, the Tyson Foods Forest, Mississippi Team Members raised more than $60,000 in their local Relay for Life efforts.

Numerous disaster relief organizations and communities depend upon the support of Tyson Foods in the wake of disasters such as wildfires in Southern California, flooding in the Midwest and hurricanes in the Gulf. In fact, our Team Members have become very well known among national disaster relief organizations for being on the scene early after a disaster strikes and feeding hundreds of hungry workers and disaster victims in the midst of their efforts.

• In February 2008, Team Members from our Shelbyville and Goodlettsville, Tennessee facilities teamed up to assist relief efforts in Lafayette, Tennessee, following devastating tornados. The locations prepared approximately 300 hot food plates that were distributed in the area. Along with other side items, the Goodlettsville team supplied beef and the Shelbyville team provided chicken for the meals.
• After Hurricanes Gustav and Ike in September of 2008, Tyson sent 26 truckloads of food to the Gulf area to help in recovery efforts.

Tyson Foods assisted many Team Members who endured dangerous conditions after ice storms devastated parts of Northwest Arkansas, Missouri, Kentucky, and Tennessee in January 2009. More than 200,000 pounds of food was provided to Team Members and local food banks to help those who were stranded in their homes without power or forced to stay at shelters to avoid the cold temperatures in homes temporarily without heat or damaged by falling trees and limbs.