CAG ConAgra Brands Inc

SYLVESTER, Ga., Oct. 22 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- ConAgra Foods Foundation recognized the Sylvester, Georgia Peter Pan employees and the community in which they live in by awarding The Food Bank of Southwest Georgia a $30,000 check at the 44th Annual Peanut Festival to help fight child hunger in the 20 counties the food bank serves. This money will help the Food Bank of Southwest Georgia establish a community Kids Cafe in partnership with America's Second Harvest. With more than 1,600 locations, Kids Cafe is one of the country's largest free meal service programs for children at risk of hunger. ConAgra Foods is the national sponsor of Kids Cafe, a program of America's Second Harvest. In addition to this monetary donation, ConAgra Foods will provide 1,000 jars of Peter Pan peanut butter for the Food Bank of Southwest Georgia's BackPack Program. The BackPack Program is designed to meet the needs of hungry children at times when other resources are not available, such as weekends and school vacations. Backpacks filled with food are discreetly distributed to children at risk of hunger on the last day of school before the weekend or holiday vacation. "The partnership between ConAgra Foods, America's Second Harvest and our food bank will enable us to provide meals to children," said Tony Hall, Interim Executive Director of The Food Bank of Southwest Georgia. "This collaborative effort gives parents and caregivers an additional way to ensure that their children receive hot and nutritious meals." Hunger Impacts Children in Southwest Georgia More than 36 percent of the children in Worth County live below the poverty level. The new Kids Cafe at the First African Baptist Church will provide meals three days a week to approximately to 20 to 30 children each day. According to the 2004 U.S. Department of Agriculture report, "Household Food Security in the United States," the number of people living in food-insecure households nationally increased to more than 38 million from 36.25 million in 2003, and the number of children living in food-insecure households rose from 13.3 million to nearly 14 million. Research Shows Kids Cafes Are Effective Research shows that Kids Cafe programs act as an important support system for families while directly addressing child hunger by providing free meals. Children who participate in Kids Cafe reported earning better grades in school, having more energy, less fatigue and improved concentration. Parents and caregivers reported seeing improvements in their children's overall health and learning. They rely on the Kids Cafe program to ensure that their children will have a nutritious after-school meal. "As the national sponsor, we have seen first hand how fostering the Kids Cafe program has benefited communities nationwide," said Chris Kircher, president of the ConAgra Foods Feeding Children Better Foundation. Corporate Commitment is Key This new ConAgra Foods Kids Cafe highlights the company's long-term commitment to its Feeding Children Better program. Since 1999, the Feeding Children Better Foundation has impacted child hunger through two primary initiatives: 1. Getting food to children who need it. As the national sponsor of Kids Cafe, the ConAgra Foods Feeding Children Better Foundation has provided startup funding for more than 250 new sites to date. 2. Improving food distribution. By donating new trucks and investing in technology and transportation programs, ConAgra Foods is helping to recapture millions of pounds of food that is currently lost or discarded. This ensures that America's Second Harvest's food banks and food-rescue organizations move food faster, farther and cheaper. ConAgra Foods has purchased 167 trucks to date across the country. The Food Bank of Southwest Georgia has been fighting hunger by providing over 5 million pounds of food in 2006 - and assistance to a network of over 350 member agencies in 20 counties. More than 36 percent of children in Worth County live below the poverty level. To address this critical problem, the food bank will launch its first Kids Cafe at The First African Baptist Church of Sylvester Georgia in the winter of 2007. For more information, please visit http://www.foodbanks-swga.org/. ConAgra Foods Inc. (NYSE:CAG) is one of North America's largest packaged food companies, serving consumer grocery retailers, as well as restaurants and other foodservice establishments. Popular ConAgra Foods consumer brands include: Banquet, Chef Boyardee, Egg Beaters, Healthy Choice, Hebrew National, Hunt's, Marie Callender's, Orville Redenbacher's, PAM and many others. For more information, visit http://www.conagrafoods.com/. ConAgra Foods Feeding Children Better program is the nation's largest corporate initiative dedicated solely to fighting child hunger. The Feeding Children Better program has funded the startup of over 250 new Kids Cafes, supported technology and transportation programs for the America's Second Harvest Network of food banks (including the purchase of 167 trucks for food banks), and sponsored the Ad Council child hunger campaign. Feeding Children Better is funded by ConAgra Foods, Inc., one of North America's largest packaged food companies. America's Second Harvest -- The Nation's Food Bank Network is the country's largest charitable hunger-relief organization with a Network of more than 200 regional member food banks and food-rescue programs serving all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. The America's Second Harvest Network secures and distributes nearly two billion pounds of donated food and grocery products annually. The America's Second Harvest Network supports approximately 50,000 local charitable agencies operating more than 94,000 programs including food pantries, soup kitchens, emergency shelters, after-school programs, and Kids Cafes. Last year, the America's Second Harvest Network provided food assistance to more than 25 million low-income hungry people in the United States, including more than nine million children and nearly three million seniors. For more on America's Second Harvest, please visit http://www.secondharvest.org/. Kids Cafe is the nation's largest charitable meal service program exclusively for needy children. It is a program of America's Second Harvest and is sponsored nationally by ConAgra Foods Feeding Children Better Foundation. Founded in 1993, there are currently 130 America's Second Harvest food banks and food rescue organizations operating approximately 1,600 Kids Cafe sites, serving more than 13 million meals and snacks each year to children in 44 states and Washington, D.C. DATASOURCE: America's Second Harvest CONTACT: Tony Hall of The Food Bank of Southwest Georgia, +1-229-883-5959 ext.13; or Kori Reed of ConAgra Foods, +1-402-595-6303; or Ross Fraser of America's Second Harvest, +1-312-641-6422 Web Site: http://www.conagrafoods.com/ http://www.foodbank-swga.org/ http://www.secondharvest.org/

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