Citizenship
As part of our commitment to contribute to a better quality of life in our communities, pig farmers engage in a number of activities to be good citizens, give back to the community and earn its trust.
In 2018, pig farmers:
- Volunteered over 54,570 hours of their time – equivalent to more than 6 years of volunteering, or 30 people working full-time for a year
- Donated more than $5.5 million to charitable causes
- Donated 804,644 pounds of pork – more than 3.2 million servings
In addition, the National Pork Board sponsors a scholarship program available to college students who plan to pursue a career field related to swine production, attend veterinary or graduate school and major in a discipline with an emphasis on swine. Since 2008, NPB has issued 21 scholarships totaling $50,000 per year, with roughly 80% going to students attending graduate or veterinary school.
Hams Across America
Each year on Giving Tuesday (the Tuesday after Thanksgiving), the pork industry donates pork to local food banks through its Hams Across America giving program. In 2019, pork producers donated over 500,000 pounds of product – or 2 million servings of pork – to their communities through the program. There was a record number of participants in the program (more than 200 individuals and business), and events were held in Iowa, Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, Missouri and Tennessee.
Get InvolvedOperation Main Street
Since its inception in 2004, the Operation Main Street (OMS) program has trained more than 1,300 volunteers across the country to tell the pork industry’s story of innovation, quality and stewardship. This national outreach effort spans 48 states and reaches not only local level groups but also highly influential professionals such as policymakers and food industry leaders. OMS speakers have now delivered 10,000 presentations to 288,000 people, and more than 36 million people have been reached through media stories about the program.
Through “Operation Main Street in the Schools,” the program has reached more than 80,000 culinary, agriculture and environmental science students, including students at all 30 U.S. schools of veterinary medicine.
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