There is an old phrase, "Doing well by doing good." Show the public what a nice guy you are and people will be more likely to do business with you.

According to The New York Times, "Responding to the economic downturn, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. plans to give more than 90 million pounds of fresh food annually to the nation's largest nonprofit organization addressing hunger, Feeding America." That seems like a lot of food, probably because it is.

Wal-Mart's (NYSE:WMT) new program will certainly help the poor but it may not bring the retailer more sales. There may be some good PR in it, but there's no guarantee that the initiative will help bring in customers at all. In that way, it is truly charitable.

A number of big companies give money to museums and the arts. Many encourage their employees to contribute to the United Way or help out on community projects. But it would be hard to find something which has such a direct benefit as feeding people who cannot feed themselves.

Wal-Mart has take its share of beatings in the press. It ought to get a lot of credit here.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

This post is part of our Big Company, Small Town series, featuring large companies and the small towns in which they are headquartered.

The town of Orrville sits on the northern edge of the Ohio Amish area, and has that same bucolic feel. A friendly town that once was no more than a railroad stop for the agriculture, and a bedroom community for the heavy industries, of Wooster and Massillon, it is now best known as the jam capital of America, the home of the big (and growing) J.M. Smucker Company (NYSE: SJM).

Smucker has more than just its office in Orrville. For over 100 years, it has made jam in its factory right in the center of town. Of the 8,500 Orrville residents, 1,100 currently work for Smucker. It also operates the Simply Smucker's store in town, where visitors can view 350 varieties of Smucker's products, some available for taste-testing.

Since its fortunes and Orrville's are intertwined, it's fortunate for the community that Smucker appears on Fortune magazine's annual list of the top 100 companies to work for year after year, even finishing number one in 2004. The company is also known for its local charitable contributions. This year, for example, Smucker and its employees provided almost half of all funds raised by the United Way of Orrville.