PURCHASE, N.Y., March 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- In celebration of
National School Breakfast Week, PepsiCo (NASDAQ: PEP) and The
PepsiCo Foundation announced today that more than 25,000 PepsiCo
employees worldwide took 8 billion steps as part of a company-wide
challenge to raise funds to address childhood hunger. In the U.S.,
The PepsiCo Foundation is funding "grab-n-go" breakfast carts with
the youth wellness nonprofit GENYOUth that will serve 4.5 million
breakfasts to nearly 25,000 students across the nation over the
course of a year. Additionally, through a longstanding partnership
with the World Food Programme, 1.6 million meals will be provided
to children in Sudan, Ethiopia, Honduras, Colombia and Canada.
Approximately 815 million people suffer from hunger globally,
and in the U.S., more than 11 million children live in
food-insecure households. Around 30 million students in the
U.S. qualify for free or reduced-cost lunches, and for many
students, school is often the only place where they can depend on
receiving a nutritious meal. However, rushed morning schedules,
late bus arrivals, and the social stigma of picking up a school
breakfast in the cafeteria often prevent students from taking
advantage of these meals.
In the U.S., The PepsiCo Foundation is partnering with GENYOUth
to address these barriers by providing grants that will enable 45
schools to place mobile "grab-n-go" breakfast carts to help schools
deliver a breakfast that meets USDA nutrition standards and provide
students with a variety of fresh fruit, whole grains, including
cereal, muffins, bagels, as well as dairy foods, including milk,
yogurt and cheese sticks. Carts will be distributed at schools in
eight states, including New York,
California, and Georgia, which have some of the highest
numbers of students living below the poverty line and eligible
for school meals. Since 2017, The PepsiCo Foundation and GENYOUth
have funded 112 "grab-n-go" breakfast carts at schools across in
the U.S., providing 11 million meals and reaching more than 60,000
students.
Funding for the carts and meals was driven as a result of
employee steps through a PepsiCo employee challenge called
Ready, Step, Move…Give! Organized by PepsiCo's wellbeing
program, Healthy Living, PepsiCo employees took more than 8 billion
steps in 2019, far exceeding a company goal of 7.5 billion. Since
2017, Ready, Step, Move…Give! has raised funds for more than
15 million meals for students around the globe.
"PepsiCo and our employees are committed to addressing food
insecurity on a global scale—a pressing issue that directly impacts
communities in every corner of the world," said Ronald Schellekens, Executive Vice President and
Chief Human Resources Officer, PepsiCo. "Expanding access to
nutritious food is a critical part of our fight against hunger, and
I'm proud that our employees' hard work and volunteerism delivered
millions of meals and essential nutrition this year, enabling
students, families and communities to thrive."
"School breakfast is a lifeline for millions of students, and as
an important part of their day as history, math or science," said
Alexis Glick, CEO of GENYOUth. "We
are grateful for the long-standing support and volunteerism of
PepsiCo employees in taking strides, for many years, with GENYOUth
to create healthier school communities, especially where their own
employees work and live."
The employee step challenge is part of a year-round effort by
PepsiCo and its employees to help tackle hunger. In late 2019,
3,000 PepsiCo employees in New
York, Illinois,
Texas, Georgia, Michigan, North
Carolina, Wisconsin,
Washington D.C, Ohio, Spain,
India and South Africa, helped package and distribute
1.1 million meals as part of PepsiCo Gives Back, the company's
month-long global volunteering event, which unites employees in
volunteer service and community support. The packaged meals,
distributed by Rise Against Hunger, went to schools, hospitals and
local clinics in the Dominican
Republic and communities in India and Africa. The meals included enriched rice, soy
protein, dried vegetables, and 23 essential vitamins and nutrients
to provide a comprehensive array of micronutrients.
"Rise Against Hunger is very grateful for strategic partners
like PepsiCo and its employees, who are passionate about addressing
food insecurity issues and packaged millions of meals that were
distributed to schools and vulnerable communities," said Edna
Ogwangi, Chief Impact Officer, Rise Against Hunger. "Our
school feeding programs help get children into school and keep them
there by enhancing enrollment and reducing absenteeism; and once
the children are in school, the programs can contribute to their
learning through avoiding hunger and enhancing cognitive abilities.
We are not only providing a meal, but hope and opportunity to the
children and communities we serve."
Together with partners, The PepsiCo Foundation is focused on
alleviating hunger around the world by supporting food banks and
distributing nutritious meals to families in need. Since 2009, Food
for Good, The PepsiCo Foundation's signature nutrition operation,
has delivered over 30 million nutritious meals to children at risk
of hunger; and by 2025, Food for Good is aiming to deliver 50
million nutritious servings per year across 25 cities in the U.S.
The PepsiCo Foundation also has community partnerships with the
World Food Programme and The Global FoodBanking Network to fight
hunger around the world. In 2018, The PepsiCo Foundation and The
Global FoodBanking Network helped deliver more than 85 million
servings of fresh food, reaching nearly 175,000 people in
communities in need.
About PepsiCo
PepsiCo products are enjoyed by consumers more than one billion
times a day in more than 200 countries and territories around the
world. PepsiCo generated more than $67
billion in net revenue in 2019, driven by a complementary
food and beverage portfolio that includes Frito-Lay, Gatorade,
Pepsi-Cola, Quaker and Tropicana. PepsiCo's product portfolio
includes a wide range of enjoyable foods and beverages, including
23 brands that generate more than $1
billion each in estimated annual retail sales. Guiding
PepsiCo is our vision to Be the Global Leader in Convenient Foods
and Beverages by Winning with Purpose. "Winning with Purpose"
reflects our ambition to win sustainably in the marketplace and
embed purpose into all aspects of the business. For more
information, visit www.pepsico.com.
About The PepsiCo Foundation
Established in 1962, The PepsiCo Foundation, the philanthropic arm
of PepsiCo, invests in the essential elements of a sustainable food
system with a mission to support thriving communities. Working with
non-profits and experts around the globe, we're focused on helping
alleviate hunger, managing water and waste responsibly and
supporting women as champions of nutrition from farm to family. We
strive for tangible impact in the places where we live and
work—collaborating with industry peers, local and international
organizations, and our employees to affect large-scale change on
the issues that matter to us and are of global importance. Learn
more at www.pepsico.com/sustainability/philanthropy.
About GENYOUth
GENYOUth empowers students to create a
healthier future for themselves and their peers by convening a
network of private and public partners to raise funds for youth
wellness initiatives that bolster healthy, high-achieving students,
schools and communities nationwide. We believe that all students
are change-agents, who deserve the opportunity to identify and lead
innovative solutions that positively impact nutrition, physical
activity, and student success. For more information about GENYOUth,
visit: www.genyouthnow.org.
ABOUT RISE AGAINST HUNGER
Rise Against Hunger, an
international hunger relief organization, aims to show the world
that it is, in fact, possible to end hunger by the year 2030. With
28 U.S. locations and five international offices, the organization
is committed to nourishing lives, providing emergency aid,
empowering communities and growing the hunger movement. Rise
Against Hunger has facilitated volunteer meal packaging of more
than 534 million meals for distribution in countries around the
world.
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SOURCE PepsiCo, Inc.