Nestle Waters North America Announces Support For Partnership For A Healthier America's New Drink Up Initiative

STAMFORD, Conn., Sept. 12, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Nestle Waters North America announced today its support of the Partnership for a Healthier America (PHA), with Honorary Chair First Lady Michelle Obama, in launching their Drink Up initiative.  This first-of-its-kind program is aimed at encouraging and inspiring everyone to drink more water – one of the easiest, most effective ways to adopt a healthier lifestyle. Nestle Waters North America will join leaders from government, industry and Hollywood, including actress, director and producer Eva Longoria, in launching the nationwide Drink Up initiative today at an event in Watertown, Wisconsin, hosted by PHA. 

Nestle Waters North America is proud of its 36-year history, making bottled water widely available to people wherever they are shopping for beverages whether at vending machines, on grocery shelves or standing at the cooler in a deli, as well as having bottled water delivered to their homes or offices.  This accessibility has helped people to drink more water. 

As the leading bottled water company in the U.S., Nestle Waters North America touches millions of families every day.  The company's Arrowhead^®, Deer Park^®, Ice Mountain^®, Nestle^® Pure Life^®, Ozarka^®, Poland Spring^®, resource^® and Zephyrhills^® brands will take part in a variety of Drink Up activities. People will see the company's support of the initiative through its distinctive water drop logo on certain custom packaging of Nestle Waters North America bottled water products, company trucks, advertising, and in social media for both the general market and Hispanic language blogs. 

"We at Nestle Waters North America wholeheartedly embrace the concept that you are what you drink and when you drink water, you Drink Up.  That's why we're joining forces with the Partnership for a Healthier America and those supporting the effort, including First Lady Michelle Obama, to help guide everyone to think of water as their first and most frequent beverage choice," said Nestle Waters North America Chairman, President and CEO, Tim Brown.  "Getting into the habit of drinking water is one of the easiest things people of all ages can do on their path to adopt lifelong healthy habits." 

"Since we started the Lets Move! initiative, I've been looking for as many ways as possible to help families and kids lead healthier lives. I've come to realize that if we were going to take just one step to make ourselves and our families healthier, probably the single best thing we could do is to simply drink more water," said First Lady Michelle Obama. "That's it – it's really that simple. Drink just one more glass of water a day and you can make a real difference for your health, your energy, and the way you feel.  So Drink Up and see for yourself."

The Drink Up initiative brings together more than a dozen public and private sector partners to encourage Americans to drink more water more often.  PHA is asking people across the country to visit http://www.youarewhatyoudrink.org to upload pictures of themselves drinking water, or find the campaign on Instagram (www.instagram.com/urH2O), tagging their pictures #drinkH2O.

Commitment to Healthy Hydration

Nestle Waters North America is focused on encouraging people to make healthy and balanced beverage choices. The company's bottled water portfolio can suit just about anyone's personal taste preferences whether they like their water still, with minerals or sparkling with natural flavor essences. That variety helps people to drink water all day long. 

Some of the company's efforts in promoting water as healthy hydration include:  

• Nestle Waters North America partnered with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to promote their 2010 Dietary Guidelines, with their recommendation to drink more water. 
• Nestle's "Healthy Steps, Healthy Lives" program works with more than 200,000 students in schools on good habits for eating, drinking and staying active every day.
• The Nestle^® Pure Life^® Hydration Movement has encouraged more than 90,000 consumers to pledge to drink more water and to share their unique stories.
• Tens of thousands of people have participated in walking and running events sponsored by Nestle Waters North America in many local communities, with bottled water at the finish line.

About Nestle Waters North America

The availability of healthful beverages is more important than ever, and Nestle Waters North America provides people with an unrivaled portfolio of bottled waters and other refreshment beverages. The company's bottled water brands in the U.S. include Arrowhead^®, Deer Park^®, Ice Mountain^®, Nestle^® Pure Life^®, Ozarka^®, Poland Spring^®, resource^® and Zephyrhills^® and international brands Perrier^® and S.Pellegrino^®. These well-known brands have led Nestle Waters North America to be the third largest non-alcoholic beverage company by volume in the U.S. Based in Stamford, Conn., with about 7,500 employees. Nestle Waters North America is committed to reducing its environmental footprint across its business and working with others to improve recycling rates in North America. The company is also committed to creating shared value and being a good neighbor in the 94 communities where it has operations in the U.S.  Please visit http://www.nestlewatersnorthamerica.com for more information.

About Partnership for a Healthier America

The Partnership for a Healthier America (PHA) is devoted to working with the private sector to ensure the health of our nation's youth by solving the childhood obesity crisis. In 2010, PHA was created in conjunction with – but independent from – First Lady Michelle Obama's Let's Move! effort. PHA is a nonpartisan nonprofit organization that is led by some of the nation's most respected health and childhood obesity experts. PHA brings together public, private and nonprofit leaders to broker meaningful commitments and develop strategies to end childhood obesity. Most important, PHA ensures that commitments made are commitments kept by working with unbiased third parties to monitor and publicly report on the progress our partners are making. For more information about PHA, please visit http://www.aHealthierAmerica.org and follow PHA on Twitter @PHAnews.

SOURCE Nestle Waters North America