LOS ANGELES, Aug. 29, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- As students across
the country head back to school, one of America's best known
"students," actor Mark Salling is
partnering with ConAgra Foods to raise awareness about a serious
issue facing more than 17 million children nationwide: child
hunger.
(Photo:
http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20110829/CG59007)
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, more than 17
million children are at risk of hunger. That's nearly one in four
kids who are struggling with hunger – in every state, every county
and every school in America. Hunger is a serious issue for kids
during the school year because research has shown that even mild
under-nutrition experienced by young children during critical
periods of growth impacts their school performance, behavior and
cognitive development. The reality is that students who are hungry
may not perform well academically.
This fall, ConAgra Foods is continuing its Child Hunger Ends
Here campaign by partnering with Feeding America, Schools Fight
Hunger and thousands of schools across the country. The program
will rally schools to participate in nationwide food and UPC label
drives this fall, working towards ConAgra Foods' goal of five
million meals donated to children and families facing hunger in
America during the 2011-12 school year.
"Nearly one in four children in this country doesn't have enough
food to live active, healthy lives. Hunger undermines the success
of students in school, but we can solve the problem," said Salling.
"Get involved in the Child Hunger Ends Here school food drives so
no student goes hungry."
Parents and teachers can visit ChildHungerEndsHere.com to
register their school for the program. Each school that
participates will be entered for a chance to win one of several
prizes, including the grand prize – $10,000 to fund school field trips of their
choosing.
From now through the end of the year, there are two simple ways
that schools, parents and students can help in the fight against
child hunger in their own communities:
- Food Drives – Participate in or host school-sponsored
food drives to collect food for local food banks.
- UPCs – Parents can help students collect UPC codes from
any ConAgra Foods brands, including Banquet, Chef Boyardee,
Healthy Choice, Hunt's, Marie
Callender's, Manwich, Orville
Redenbacher's, Peter Pan and Snack Pack. For each UPC
collected, ConAgra Foods will donate one meal* to Feeding America –
the nation's largest domestic hunger-relief organization.
"We're dedicated to helping solve child hunger, but we know we
can't do it alone. Schools – parents, teachers, students and
administrators – are a powerful community that plays a lead role in
fighting child hunger in the United
States," said Gary Rodkin,
CEO of ConAgra Foods. "By bringing together thousands of schools
across the country with one goal – ending child hunger – we know we
are one step closer to ending child hunger in America."
The Child Hunger Ends Here campaign builds on a commitment by
ConAgra Foods and the ConAgra Foods Foundation to end child hunger.
Since 1993, ConAgra Foods has donated more than $35 million and 260 million pounds of food to
Feeding America. The five-year, $10
million pledge from the ConAgra Foods Foundation is the
largest donation ever made to Feeding America specifically to fight
child hunger.
"ConAgra Foods is a longtime, committed partner of Feeding
America, and we are incredibly grateful for their dedication to
fighting domestic childhood hunger," said Vicki Escarra, president and CEO of Feeding
America. "With nearly one in four children across the nation
struggling with hunger, we are in crisis right now. No American,
and especially no child, should go hungry, and we thank ConAgra
Foods for making it possible for us to help more families in more
neighborhoods across the country this school year."
For more information, visit www.ChildHungerEndsHere.com/schools.
You can also follow the discussion at www.facebook.com/ConAgraFoods
and www.twitter.com/ConAgraFoods.
*For every UPC collected by schools through 12/31/11, a
monetary donation will be made enabling one meal to be secured by
Feeding America on behalf of local food banks, up to a maximum of 2
million meals for codes received by 1/12/12. ConAgra Foods will
help provide up to 5 million meals to Feeding America during the
2011-12 school year (9/1/11-5/31/12).
Valid in U.S. only. $1 donated = 8
meals secured by Feeding America on behalf of local food
banks.
About ConAgra Foods:
ConAgra Foods, Inc., (NYSE: CAG) is one of North America's leading food companies, with
brands in 97 percent of America's households. Consumers find
Banquet, Chef Boyardee, Egg Beaters, Healthy Choice, Hebrew
National, Hunt's, Marie Callender's,
Orville Redenbacher's, PAM, Peter
Pan, Reddi-wip and many ConAgra Foods brands in grocery,
convenience, mass merchandise and club stores. ConAgra Foods also
has a strong business-to-business presence, supplying frozen potato
and sweet potato products as well as other vegetable, spice and
grain products to a variety of well-known restaurants, foodservice
operators and commercial customers. For more information, please
visit us at www.conagrafoods.com.
About Feeding America:
Feeding America provides low-income individuals and families
with the fuel to survive and even thrive. As the nation's leading
domestic hunger-relief charity, our network members supply food to
more than 37 million Americans each year, including 14 million
children and 3 million seniors. Serving the entire United States, more than 200 member food banks
support 63,000 agencies that address hunger in all of its forms.
For more information on how you can fight hunger in your community
and across the country, visit http://www.feedingamerica.org. Find
us on Facebook at facebook.com/FeedingAmerica or follow our news on
Twitter at twitter.com/FeedingAmerica.
About Schools Fight Hunger:
Schools Fight Hunger brings together America's schools and
school families around the cause of ending childhood hunger. Each
school year, tens of thousands of schools will unite to combat
hunger in their communities with local food drives and hunger
awareness efforts. Schools Fight Hunger is providing tools,
know-how and resources for those programs and will be tracking and
celebrating the combined achievements of participating schools
across the country. All told, Schools Fight Hunger and
America's schools and school families will be collecting millions
of pounds of food for local pantries each year. For more
information on Schools Fight Hunger on the web:
www.SchoolsFightHunger.org; Facebook at
www.facebook.com/SchoolsFightHunger, or on Twitter at
www.twitter.com/schoolsvhunger.
SOURCE ConAgra Foods