Who doesn’t love Sara Lee? That’s the question that residents at Chorey Park Apartments can answer with a resounding, &uot;Nobody doesn’t like Sara Lee!&uot;

Those people were recently treated with a special meal served up by the employees of Suffolk’s Sara Lee plant, located in the Wilroy Industrial Park.

Felix Venezuela, the director of manufacturing for Sara Lee Coffee and Tea Consumer Brands Division, said the company’s employees believe that their facility is not only a part of the community, but that the community is part of the company.

&uot;As a result, we decided early on to get involved with as many activities as we could in the Suffolk community,&uot; said Venezuela. &uot;This facility was purchased in late 1999 from the Nestles Corp., and we have always tried to be of community service. We have a community action committee at the facility that consists of a representative from each department. This group is dedicated to understanding, cooperating and helping in any way they can within the community.&uot;

Last year marked the first that Sara Lee employees shared the bounty of their blessings with those less fortunate, partnering with the Suffolk Shelter for the Homeless.

&uot;We served Thanksgiving dinner at the shelter and as it turned out, we found we had more than enough to feed everyone there with plenty left over,&uot; said Venezuela. &uot;Once we finished serving our committee began taking the foods over to a retirement home. This year we decided that we wanted to share our blessings with the residents of Chorey Park, and we also provided transportation to the apartment complex for the residents of the homeless shelter.&uot;

To put the icing on Sara Lee’s cake, the employees at the company have also chosen to participate in their own Angel Tree project. They have adopted three agencies, the Shelter for the Homeless, &uot;F.O.R. Kids,&uot; an organization that assists children in need, and

Hope Haven&uot; a Christian-based facility for orphaned children.

&uot;We go to these three agencies and have the children place their name, age and size and what they’d like for Christmas, and every single employee at Sara Lee participated and made every single wish for every single child come true,&uot; said Venezuela.

&uot;The employees took care of 118 children last year, and this year we’re doing the same things, and we are currently looking at providing gifts for more than 200 children. We’re very excited about these projects that are driven by our employees and the best way I can put it is to say that the level of compassion and devotion to helping the children is unbelievable.&uot;

He said the Sara Lee employees are happy to play a small part in making a child’s Christmas dream come true.

&uot;If everyone would just remember that it’s by the grace of God that their own child is blessed with so much from parents and others who love them,&uot; said the director. &uot;Our feeling is that if every person would take one child and make their wish come true, we feel this world would be a better place in which to live. I’m proud to say that is the feeling of every single employee here.&uot;

The Sara Lee company in Suffolk employs 200 people. They are adding a facility to manufacture their &uot;Liquid Coffee Division.&uot; They will eventually be adding 100 employees for that facility. The Liquid Coffee is known by the Sara Lee-Douwe Egbert brand, sold in restaurants, hotels, cruise lines, and other commercial facilities.