Sysco Honored with Southern Smoke Foundation Hall of Flame Award

Recognition celebrates Sysco’s longstanding support of Southern Smoke Foundation and its mission to care for food and beverage industry workers

HOUSTON, Oct. 05, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Sysco Corporation, the global leader in foodservice distribution, is honored to announce it has been named a 2026 recipient of the Southern Smoke Foundation Hall of Flame Award, recognizing the company’s longstanding support of food and beverage industry workers through financial contributions and product donations.

Southern Smoke Foundation works to create a healthier and more sustainable food and beverage industry by providing emergency relief funding and access to mental health services for industry workers. The award recognizes Sysco’s financial and product donations that help fund emergency relief and expand access to mental health services for hospitality workers across the food and beverage industry.

“Sysco is honored to receive this recognition from Southern Smoke Foundation and proud to stand alongside them as they care for the people who make our industry what it is,” said April Love, Sysco’s vice president, chief inclusion & community impact officer. “This partnership is a meaningful expression of our Purpose of Connecting the World to Share Food and Care for One Another, and we’re grateful to support an organization that shows up for food and beverage workers when they need it most.”

Sysco was honored Saturday evening at the annual Southern Smoke Festival in Houston, where the foundation brings together chefs, restaurants, partners and supporters to raise funds and awareness for their mission.

"We established the SSF Hall of Flame Award in 2022 to recognize corporate partners and individuals who have contributed in a meaningful way to our organization,” said Lindsey Brown, executive director and co-founder of the James Beard award-winning Southern Smoke Foundation. “Sysco has been such a large supporter of SSF for years—both financially and with product donations—that we’re so happy to honor them as one of our Hall of Flame recipients this year."

About Sysco

Sysco is the global leader in selling, marketing and distributing food and related products to customers who prepare meals away from home. This includes restaurants, healthcare and educational facilities, lodging establishments, entertainment venues, and more. Sysco operates 333 distribution centers, in 10 countries, with 75,000 colleagues serving approximately 670,000 customer locations. The company generated sales of more than $84 billion in fiscal year 2026 that ended June 27, 2026.

As the world’s largest food-away-from-home distributor, Sysco offers customized supply chain solutions, bespoke specialty product offerings, and culinary support to drive customers to innovate and optimize their operations. We act as a trusted business partner to our customers, helping them grow through our industry-leading portfolio that includes fresh produce, premium proteins, specialty products, sustainably focused items, equipment and supplies, and innovative culinary solutions.

For more information, visit www.sysco.com. For important news and key information for Sysco investors, visit the Investor Relations section of the company’s website at investors.sysco.com.

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ABOUT SOUTHERN SMOKE FOUNDATION

Founded in 2015 by award-winning chef Chris Shepherd and Executive Director Lindsey Brown, Southern Smoke Foundation provides access to no-cost mental health services through its program, Behind You, and emergency relief funding to food and beverage (F+B) workers nationwide. This includes restaurant, bar, and cafe workers; farmers and ranchers; winemakers, distillers, and brewers; and anyone in the industry faced with financial hardship because of a medical emergency, accident, or other unforeseen incident.

Since 2017, the James Beard Foundation Impact Award-winning organization has provided more than $16.9M in emergency relief funds to F&B workers facing crises, and since 2020, has provided access to more than 12,600 no-cost counseling sessions to F+B workers across 14 states and Washington D.C. To support Southern Smoke Foundation or to apply for assistance, visit southernsmoke.org.

For more information contact:
                 
Media Contact
Ramit Plushnick-Masti
Ramit.Masti@sysco.com
713-703-4898

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SYY-NEWS

Sysco Receives Southern Smoke Foundation Hall of Flame Award

Sysco's April Love, vice president, chief inclusion & community impact officer, and Devin Graves, community impact director, receive the Southern Smoke Foundation Hall of Flame Award from James Beard award-winning chef Chis Shepherd. The foundation recognized Sysco's longstanding support of food and beverage industry workers through financial contributions and product donations.

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Southern Smoke Festival 2026

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