A safe harbor. That’s how 20-year Campofrio Food Group veteran Kim Williams sees her office — and herself as a leader. “I want teammates to be able to talk with me about anything, or to make a request,” she says. “If someone just needs a listener, just an ear, I want to be that person.”
Williams, the specialty meat maker’s product and customer service manager, learned about being present for co-workers from her first professional mentor, Virginia Keller. “She took me under her wing when I worked at a Virginia Tech research center,” Williams says. “She taught me to be patient, to stay calm in the storm.”
And a storm hit in March, challenging Williams and her nearly 500 Campofrio co-workers. Delivery trucks were being turned away at loading docks as restaurants and other commercial food clients closed to limit the spread of the coronavirus. The company also was in the middle of a warehouse move, and it faced a rapid rise in demand for their popular paninos — little sticks of mozzarella wrapped with their pepperoni, prosciutto and hard salami, a favorite of kids who were now snacking around the clock at home.
“Operations put a plan in place and worked around the clock,” Williams says. “They got those paninos made.” And a month later, Campofrio once again had enough to donate them and other items to Feed More, a longtime partner with whom Williams has worked, and other hunger relief agencies in the region. Since January, the company has supplied 16 tons of food to these agencies.
The panino challenge, Williams says, underscores Campofrio’s purpose: bringing communities everywhere favorite foods to love. “And as our divisional vice president of operations says, one of the ingredients put into our product is love.”
