PepsiCo Supports First Lady's Initiative to Help Reduce Childhood Obesity
February 09 2010 - 9:00AM
PR Newswire (US)
Company Pledges to List Calorie Content on the Front of its
Beverage Containers, Vending Machines and Fountain Equipment
PURCHASE, N.Y., Feb. 9 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- PepsiCo, Inc.
(NYSE: PEP), one of the world's largest food and beverage
companies, today expressed its commitment to the White House's
"Let's Move" initiative to combat childhood obesity - and announced
a new beverage labeling plan in support of the initiative. To help
consumers manage their calorie consumption, PepsiCo will list
calorie content on the front of its beverage containers, vending
machines and fountain equipment by the end of 2012. Packages up to
20 ounces will be labeled with total calories and multi-serve
containers will be labeled with calories-per-serving based on
12-ounce servings. "We applaud the effort being led by First Lady
Michelle Obama to address obesity in the United States and believe
that her 'Let's Move' campaign can add significant momentum and
leadership to many efforts underway," said Indra Nooyi, PepsiCo
chairman and chief executive officer. "We have learned over the
years there is no silver bullet to solve obesity. No single entity
can do it alone. We need a guiding coalition in which individuals,
companies, health agencies, consumer groups and governments all
take on their appropriate responsibilities. Major food companies
such as PepsiCo are in a unique position to be leaders in health
and wellness because of our resources, brands, research and
development capabilities, consumer reach and logistics expertise."
PepsiCo's belief in the power of public-private partnerships to
help reduce obesity in the United States led to its partnership in
the Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation (HWCF). The HWCF involves
the collaboration of more than 60 members of the food and beverage
industry, retailers and diverse non-governmental organizations. The
group provides and promotes solutions that will help people,
especially children, achieve a healthy weight by balancing the
calories they consume with the calories they burn. The HWCF's
efforts will provide people with the tools to achieve energy
balance in three key areas: the marketplace, the workplace and
schools. PepsiCo is committed to helping advance action on all four
pillars identified by the First Lady and has already taken steps
that address each of them: 1. Ensuring that affordable healthy food
is available in more communities Last year, PepsiCo launched
"PepsiCo Hope" to help transform inner-city communities by
increasing access to affordable nutrition and creating local
employment in inner-city neighborhoods. Initiated by PepsiCo
employees in Dallas, the program piloted an innovative mobile
delivery model that brought over 50,000 free nutritious breakfasts
and snacks directly to underserved children in Dallas. With the
help of more than 150 PepsiCo volunteers, the program was developed
in partnership with Central Dallas Ministries as part of the
Department of Agriculture's Summer Foodservice Program. PepsiCo
plans to significantly expand its capabilities in Dallas in 2010
and is exploring opportunities for national expansion while sharing
what it has learned with other cities across the country. PepsiCo
Hope is also beginning to tackle another chronic challenge
identified by the local residents: improving access to fruits and
vegetables. PepsiCo also has offered solutions for managing
calories by changing product formulations and package sizes: --
Calorie reduction: Frito-Lay has removed 59 billion calories from
its 99-cent and $1.29 single-serve bags since 2007. --
Reformulation: PepsiCo recently launched SoBe Life Water, the first
zero-calorie, naturally sweetened, vitamin-enhanced water with
PureVia, a natural sweetener made from the stevia plant. The
company also introduced Tropicana Trop 50, which offers the
benefits of orange juice with 50% less sugar and calories, also
with PureVia. Gatorade launched G2, a low-calorie sports drink that
delivers functional hydration. PepsiCo also was the first major
food company to remove trans fats from its snack chips. Today,
Frito-Lay snack chips are made with healthier oils, such as
sunflower oil. -- Portion size: Frito-Lay offers 100-calorie packs,
singles and multi-packs of its most popular products. In 2006,
Quaker Oats introduced 90-calorie packs of Quaker Chewy Granola
Bars and Quaker Granola Bites. 2. Giving parents the information
they need to make good choices for themselves and their families
PepsiCo has long practiced responsible advertising, including
adherence to the Consolidated ICC Code of Advertising and Marketing
Communication Practice. The company acknowledges that children, as
a potentially vulnerable group of consumers, deserve greater
attention. In 2007 in the U.S., PepsiCo was a founding member of
the Children's Food & Beverage Initiative, an industry
self-regulatory organization which is operated by an affiliate of
the Better Business Bureau. PepsiCo pledged to advertise only
products which meet certain nutrition criteria to children under
12. The criteria are among the strictest within the industry and
are based on international and national guidelines from
organizations such as the World Health Organization. PepsiCo
updates its pledge each year and CFBAI monitors and reports on
compliance by all member companies with their pledge every year. 3.
Increasing the number of "healthy schools" where kids have access
to nutritious food PepsiCo has embraced the U.S. School Beverage
and Competitive Foods Guidelines which were developed by the
Alliance for a Healthier Generation, a joint venture of the
American Heart Association and the William J. Clinton Foundation.
The snack guidelines for K-12 schools include restrictions on
calories, fat, saturated fat, trans fat, sugar and sodium. The
beverage guidelines require that all full-calorie soft drinks be
removed from K-12 schools and replaced with lower-calorie and
smaller-portioned drinks. By implementing these guidelines, PepsiCo
and its industry partners will ship more than 70 percent fewer
beverage calories to schools in 2010 as compared to 2004. 4.
Providing more opportunities for kids to be physically active
PepsiCo's Gatorade brand works on numerous levels to encourage
physical activity to reduce or prevent childhood obesity: --
Gatorade provides active sports opportunities to over 500,000 kids
through support of sports summer camps at 60+ universities across
the country in every sport. -- In 2010, Gatorade will celebrate its
25th year recognizing the nation's top student athletes through the
Player of the Year/Athlete of the Year program. The program
recognizes hundreds of student athletes annually who display
athletic excellence, academic achievement and exemplary character.
-- Gatorade's sponsorship of the Women's Sports Foundation provides
$100,000 in grants for the Go Girl Go program, which creates
opportunities for girls to participate in sports and physical
activity. PepsiCo has partnered with the YMCA of the USA (Y-USA)
for more than a decade on initiatives that improve the lives of
children and families all over the country. PepsiCo has provided
support for numerous YMCA Activate America initiatives, including
YMCA Healthy Kids Day. This annual grassroots community event,
hosted each year by more than 1,700 YMCAs, encourages kids and
their families to pursue healthy lifestyles. PepsiCo Foundation
funding also has helped Y-USA launch the African American and
Hispanic/Latino Health & Well-being Collaborative. This is a
three-year pilot designed to make YMCAs more supportive of healthy
lifestyles for people in these communities. PepsiCo also joined
Y-USA in the Partnership for Play Every Day Alliance which seeks to
increase the number of youth participating in at least 60 minutes
of quality physical activity daily through programs before, during
and after the school day. The PepsiCo Foundation funds the
Consortium to Lower Obesity in Chicago Children (CLOCC), a network
of nonprofits which comprises the largest obesity prevention
network in the country. CLOCC, which is administered under the
Center for Obesity Management & Prevention at Children's
Memorial Hospital in Chicago, collaborates with Chicago Communities
in Schools on the Healthy Foods: Healthy Moves program. This
program delivers effective prevention programs to improve healthy
living for children, families, schools and communities across
Chicago. This program intends to mobilize Chicago-area community
structures and organizations in a coordinated, city-wide effort to
raise awareness of how to achieve healthy lifestyles. -- Healthy
Foods: Healthy Moves brings together various community based assets
to effect changes in nutrition, physical activity, knowledge and
behavior. It works to mobilize networks of community partners and
schools through youth ambassadors to promote a single message
around healthy lifestyles: "5-4-3-2-1 Go!" The 5-4-3-2-1 Go!
message is part of a social marketing campaign to promote healthy
lifestyle choices for children. It represents 5 servings of fruits
and vegetables a day, 4 servings of water a day, 3 servings of
low-fat dairy a day, 2 or less hours of screen time a day, and 1 or
more hours of physical activity a day. -- The 5-4-3-2-1 Go! message
and campaign was approved by the Chicago Department of Health and
gained city-wide support as the single message to be conveyed
across all health promotion efforts to engage children and families
in achieving healthier habits. The project embraces the notion that
community coordination is essential in any effort to address and
prevent an epidemic as critical as childhood obesity. The Healthy
Foods: Healthy Moves model has been replicated in four cities to
date. About PepsiCo PepsiCo offers the world's largest portfolio of
billion-dollar food and beverage brands, including 18 different
product lines that each generate more than $1 billion in annual
retail sales. Our main businesses - Frito-Lay, Quaker, Pepsi-Cola,
Tropicana and Gatorade - also make hundreds of other nourishing,
tasty foods and drinks that bring joy to our consumers in over 200
countries. With more than $43 billion in 2008 revenues, PepsiCo
employs 198,000 people who are united by our unique commitment to
sustainable growth, called Performance with Purpose. By dedicating
ourselves to offering a broad array of choices for healthy,
convenient and fun nourishment, reducing our environmental impact,
and fostering a diverse and inclusive workplace culture, PepsiCo
balances strong financial returns with giving back to our
communities worldwide. PepsiCo is recognized on the Dow Jones
Sustainability World and North American Indexes. For more
information, please visit http://www.pepsico.com/. DATASOURCE:
PepsiCo, Inc. CONTACT: Media, Dave DeCecco, +1-914-253-2655, , or
Michelle Naughton, +1-914-253-2950, Web Site:
http://www.pepsico.com/
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