Take Care, Now campaign aims to bring awareness and resources to
rural America
Bayer and Kroger joined forces with country music star Luke
Bryan and Feeding America to bring healthy food to more families
who need it. According to Feeding America’s latest data, more than
44 million people in the United States are food insecure1,
including a nearly 30% increase – more than 10 million – compared
to the previous year.
Building on the successful launch of the "Take Care, Now”
campaign in 2023, the collaborators are announcing their efforts to
again raise awareness, educate communities, and facilitate access
to nutritious food and vitamins and minerals. Their initiatives
will particularly be focused in underserved rural areas where
“hidden hunger” is more prevalent.
Hidden hunger is a form of undernutrition where individuals may
consume enough calories, but lack sufficient vitamins and minerals.
Vitamin and mineral inadequacies such as magnesium, calcium, iron
or vitamins A, D, and C, are common in the United States2. As
nutrition and health are interconnected, this hidden hunger may
result in an increased risk of significant health consequences
which has been acknowledged by the CDC.3
“As a leader in both agriculture and self-care including
nutritional supplements, Bayer is uniquely positioned to positively
improve access to essential nutrients holistically. We’re committed
to bringing nutritious food, multivitamins, and supplements within
physical and financial reach of those who need it most,” said Dave
Tomasi, President, Bayer Consumer Health, North America.
With support of Feeding America, Bayer and Kroger will
distribute educational materials through affiliated food banks
nationwide to enhance nutrition literacy. These toolkits will
include valuable resources on vitamin and mineral education. They
will also include recipes for simple, nutritious comfort foods
prepared with readily available ingredients.
“At Kroger, we are committed to increasing access to fresh,
affordable food for more people across the U.S.,” said Jim Kirby,
chief commercial officer Kroger Health. “We know when families have
more access to fresh foods, they have better long-term health
outcomes. We appreciate everything Bayer and Luke Bryan are doing
to raise awareness of this important issue.”
The initiative is also supported by Ohio Governor Mike DeWine,
who is focused on helping eliminate hunger in his home state of
Ohio.
“Ohio is the heart of it all, and that means that our state is
also the heart of compassion. It is vitally important that we join
together to do everything we can to end hunger in Ohio. Teaming up
with Luke Bryan, Bayer, Kroger, and Feeding America will go a long
way toward making more healthy, nutritious food available to
Ohioans in need,” said Governor DeWine.
For its part, Bayer has worked to support generations of
American farmers to put healthy, nutritious food at the table and
is working on fruit and vegetable varieties that provide better
taste, stay fresh longer, are more water-efficient and grow better
in a changing climate.
To address a widespread nutrition problem, Bayer is partnering
to develop tomato varieties that are nutritionally enhanced with
vitamin D3. In support of "Take Care, Now," Bayer will also donate
up to 1 million meals* – adding to the more than 9 million meals
that have been donated as part of #herestothefarmer campaign that
Luke Bryan is also part of. Building on a long history of donating
vitamins and other nutritional supplements to the Feeding America
network of Food Bank partners, this year, Bayer will also donate
over 100,000 bottles of One A Day® and Flintstones™ Multivitamins
as well as other nutritional supplements to food banks in the
U.S.
Meanwhile, Kroger plays a pivotal role in providing fresh,
affordable food to millions of customers daily across 35 states in
its stores. The retailer also offers telenutrition services,
allowing customers to connect with a nutrition expert over video
chat, offering convenient personalized nutrition coaching and
education. More recently, Kroger collaborated with the U.S.
Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service (USDA) to
enable Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) digital acceptance,
allowing customers to use EBT payments for purchases through the
Kroger app or at Kroger.com for both grocery pickup and delivery,
putting healthy food within reach for more people.
“The fact is, in addition to millions of Americans not knowing
where their next meal will come from, many also experience ‘Hidden
Hunger’ and are deficient in key nutrients,” said Charles
Blazevich, Senior Manager, Corporate Partnerships for Feeding
America. “We’re excited to again be working alongside Bayer, Kroger
and Luke Bryan to create awareness and make an impact in this
area.”
Through the joint efforts, the "Take Care, Now" campaign has the
potential to reach 200 food banks and over 60,000 partner agencies,
food pantries and meal programs which positively impacts thousands
of people across rural America every day. To raise awareness of
"hidden hunger" and promote solutions, the campaign will stop at
various events throughout the fall, including the Farm Progress
Show in Boone, Iowa, and all six Luke Bryan Farm Tour concerts.
“As someone who grew up in a rural community, I know firsthand
the importance of having access to healthy, nutritious food,” said
five-time entertainer of the year, Luke Bryan. “I couldn’t be more
proud to be involved in this initiative with organizations like
Bayer, Kroger and Feeding America.”
For more information on the campaign and ways to get involved,
visit www.bayer.us.
1: https://www.feedingamerica.org/hunger-in-america
2:
https://lpi.oregonstate.edu/mic/micronutrient-inadequacies/overview
3:
https://www.cdc.gov/nutrition/php/micronutrients/index.html
*$1 helps provide at least 10 meals secured by Feeding America
on behalf of local member food banks. Bayer guarantees a
contribution of $100,000 by October 31, 2024.
About Bayer
Bayer is a global enterprise with core competencies in the life
science fields of health care and nutrition. In line with its
mission, “Health for all, Hunger for none,” the company’s products
and services are designed to help people and the planet thrive by
supporting efforts to master the major challenges presented by a
growing and aging global population. Bayer is committed to driving
sustainable development and generating a positive impact with its
businesses. At the same time, the Group aims to increase its
earning power and create value through innovation and growth. The
Bayer brand stands for trust, reliability and quality throughout
the world. In fiscal 2023, the Group employed around 100,000 people
and had sales of 47.6 billion euros. R&D expenses before
special items amounted to 5.8 billion euros.
About Kroger
At The Kroger Co. (NYSE: KR), we are Fresh for Everyone™ and
dedicated to our Purpose: To Feed the Human Spirit®. We are, across
our family of companies, nearly half a million associates who serve
over 11 million customers daily through a seamless shopping
experience under a variety of banner names. We are committed to
creating #ZeroHungerZeroWaste communities by 2025. To learn more
about us, visit our newsroom and investor relations site. Visit
Kroger on Facebook or follow us on Twitter or Instagram.
About Luke Bryan
During his career, Luke has amassed a total of 21.3 Billion
global streams, 11.5 Million global album sales and 55.3M track
sales worldwide. He is the most digital single RIAA certified
country artist of all time with 85M digital single units and 16M
album certified units for a total of 101M. He has placed 30 singles
at #1 and has accumulated 56 total weeks spent at #1 in his career.
He was recently presented with the SoundExchange Hall of Fame Award
in recognition of his standing as one of the most streamed artists
in SoundExchange’s 20-year history.
Luke has won 50+ major music awards including five wins as
Entertainer of the Year. Additional awards include six recognitions
as a CMT Artist of the Year, NSAI Artist/Songwriter of the Year,
the first-ever recipient of the ACM Album of the Decade Award for
Crash My Party, seven CMT Music Awards, five Billboard Music
Awards, and four American Music Awards—as well as being named
Billboard’s Top Country Artist of the 2010s, the Most Heard Artist
of the Decade by Country Aircheck, and the Artist Humanitarian
Recipient by the Country Radio Broadcasters.
About Feeding America
Feeding America® is the largest hunger-relief organization in
the United States. Through a network of more than 200 food banks,
21 statewide food bank associations, and over 60,000 partner
agencies, food pantries and meal programs, we helped provide 6.6
billion meals to tens of millions of people in need last year.
Feeding America also supports programs that prevent food waste and
improve food security among the people we serve; brings attention
to the social and systemic barriers that contribute to food
insecurity in our nation; and advocates for legislation that
protects people from going hungry.
Visit www.feedingamerica.org, find us on Facebook or follow us
on Twitter.
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version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240713166055/en/
Bayer Brian Leake Bayer U.S. brian.leake@bayer.com
314-370-3285 Kroger Jenifer Moore Corporate Affairs Manager,
The Kroger Co. Jenifer.Moore@Kroger.com 513.782.8745