CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – Taking advantage of getting together for Hoos-Hokies clashes across an array of sports, Smithfield Foods Monday donated some 25,000 pounds of protein to the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank’s Verona headquarters to kick off this season’s Commonwealth Clash.

“As a food company, feeding people is what we do, which is why we’re so proud to make donations of proteins just like this to food banks all across the country,” said Smithfield Foods Senior Community Development Manager Jonathan Toms.

Receiving the donation, Blue Area Food Bank Chief Operating Officer, Dave Kraft, said, “Everything we see everyday and what the team does here everyday, it’s nice to have a diversion like the Commonwealth Clash every year to kind of take our minds off it.”

“It brings in our major sponsors and supporters like Smithfield to provide us some of the stuff our guests generally don’t get to see.”

Virginia Sports play-by-play Voice of the Hoos, John Freeman, drew a parallel between what Thanksgiving does for families, and what the new UVA football complex does for players.

“Bringing a football team of over a hundred players together quickly is a hard thing to do,” Freeman said, “And we’ve done it here at Virginia, you can see it just by the results we’ve had just how quickly this team was able to come together.”

“One of the reasons why is our new facility has a dining room, and we’re feeding our players dinner every single night, and that allows them to sit together and eat together and learn about each other, and learn about their backgrounds and bond together as a team.”

Freeman said that’s why Monday’s event was so important, “Because that’s what we’re providing to families across the Commonwealth: the ability to sit at the table, to be together, to strengthen their relationships and enrich their lives.”

A Blue Ridge Area Food Bank release noted the 2025-26 Commonwealth Clash kicks off with a football game on Nov. 29, 2025, in Charlottesville, and spans 22 sports throughout the academic year.

Fans from both universities will participate in food drives, donating thousands of pounds of nonperishable items to help end hunger.

Smithfield’s hunger relief program, Helping Hungry Homes, has provided hundreds of millions of servings of protein in all 50 U.S. states since 2008, according to a Smithfield release.

Smithfield donated more than 25 million servings of protein, valued at nearly $28 million, to food banks, disaster relief efforts and community outreach programs across the U.S. in 2024.