Birds Eye® Applauded By Health Leaders For Making A Difference In Feeding Kids Better

PARSIPPANY, N.J., March 7, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Birds Eye, a brand of Pinnacle Foods, is taking a unique approach to our nation's childhood obesity crisis – an approach that suggests "selling health" is good for kids and good for business. Birds Eye, America's leading vegetable company, was invited to share its successful strategy for getting our youth to eat their vegetables at the Partnership for a Healthier America's (PHA) 2013 Building a Healthier Future Summit this week, at a time when childhood obesity experts are looking for new approaches and new options to tackle this complex issue.

Birds Eye has the results to prove that their sustained efforts are helping make veggies fun for kids while also paying off from a business perspective. Sally Genster Robling, president of the Birds Eye Frozen Division at Pinnacle Foods, will profile the company's successful partnership with Nickelodeon during a session at the national health Summit. The company will be featured as an example of the industry's successful marketing – noting Birds Eye's three-year, $6 million investment to inspire kids to eat more vegetables – an important strategy to help children reach and maintain a healthy weight.

"We took a different approach by empowering kids to be part of the solution," said Robling. "We went straight to the source and asked kids to help inspire other kids to eat more vegetables, and encouraged them to get creative in the kitchen to help us develop new vegetable products that other kids would enjoy. And the good news is, we've been able to really begin to make a difference in a hard-to-tackle issue."

The company will announce that their efforts will continue, most notably with the introduction of four new kid-inspired and family-approved products that will make their way to grocery stores in the next few months, including one that will display the PHA logo on package. The new kid-inspired Birds Eye products include four different varieties under the new banner, Birds Eye Family-Approved Steamfresh® Chef's Favorites. Birds Eye Executive Chef Michael Christiansen took cues from kids to develop the new vegetable blends. In fact, the company received more than 16,000 recipes that kids created as part of its partnership with Nickelodeon for the "iCarly iCook with Birds Eye" campaign, which has helped inspire new recipes and new ideas to help kids love their veggies. Chef Christiansen will also participate in the Summit, providing ideas for cooking with kids based on his own experiences as a father, and offering tastings of the new Birds Eye products to the Summit attendees.

Last year Birds Eye committed to a 3-year partnership with the PHA and, as part of its 2012 Progress Report released today, the organization acknowledged that the campaign drove brand sales and overall growth in fresh vegetables in frozen form during the promotional period — helping to reverse a negative trend in that category. Based on syndicated data during the kid-focused promotional campaign, the Birds Eye brand helped contribute to more than a third of the growth in frozen vegetables in the United States. Specific to the Birds Eye brand, the campaign contributed to 20 percent incremental unit volume growth versus the year ago period.  

Birds Eye is continuing its breakthrough approach in marketing vegetables to kids by empowering kids to enjoy veggies on their own terms with a new and exciting Nickelodeon partnership in 2013. Birds Eye is also developing innovative programs, such as a texting campaign with the PHA that provides budget-friendly meal ideas, cost saving tips and shopping tips via mobile phones to lower-income consumers.

Birds Eye offers more than 40 different ways to complete the meal with vegetables, from pure and simple vegetable favorites and steamed varieties to sauced and seasoned side dishes that are especially appealing to kids. Visit www.birdseye.com/kids for more family-friendly recipes and serving ideas.

About Birds Eye
Birds Eye® unlocks the wonder of vegetables and makes them accessible and enjoyable to everyone, everyday. Using vegetables picked and frozen at their peak of freshness, Birds Eye® helps Americans make vegetables a meaningful part of everyday life. Providing a range of tasty and exciting solutions that make eating vegetables a memorable taste experience, Birds Eye® has something for everyone: with pure and simple vegetables under the Birds Eye®, C&W®, Freshlike® and McKenzie's® brand names; Birds Eye Steamfresh® vegetables and vegetable rich blends; and Birds Eye Voila!® complete frozen meals. For more information on Birds Eye® visit www.birdseye.com or www.facebook.com/BirdsEyeVegetables

About Pinnacle Foods
Millions of times a day in more than 85% of American households, consumers reach for Pinnacle Foods brands. Pinnacle Foods is a Top 1000 Company ranked on Fortune Magazine's 2011 Top 1000 companies list. We are a leading producer, marketer and distributor of high-quality branded food products, which have been trusted household names for decades. Headquartered in Parsippany, NJ, our business employs an average of 4,400 employees. We are a leader in the shelf stable and frozen foods segments and our brands hold the #1 or #2 market position in 10 out of 12 major category segments in which they compete. Our Duncan Hines Grocery Division manages Leadership brands such as Duncan Hines® baking mixes and frostings, Vlasic® shelf-stable pickles and Mrs. Butterworth's® and Log Cabin® table syrups and Foundation brands such as Armour® canned meats, Brooks® and Nalley® chili and chili ingredients, Comstock® and Wilderness® pie and pastry fruit fillings and Open Pit® barbecue sauces. Our Birds Eye Frozen Division manages Leadership brands such as Birds Eye®, Birds Eye Steamfresh®, C&W®, McKenzie's®, and Freshlike® vegetables, Birds Eye Voila!® complete bagged meals and Van de Kamp's® and Mrs. Paul's® seafood and Foundation brands such as Hungry-Man® dinners and entrées, Aunt Jemima® frozen breakfasts, Lender's® bagels, and Celeste® pizza. Our Specialty Foods Division manages Tim's Cascade Snacks®, Hawaiian® Kettle Style Potato Chips, Erin's® Popcorn, Snyder of Berlin® and Husman's® in addition to our food service and private label businesses. Further information is available at http://www.pinnaclefoods.com.

About PHA
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 www.aHealthierAmerica.org and follow PHA on Twitter @PHAnews. For more information about the Summit, visit www.ahealthieramerica.org/summit.

SOURCE Pinnacle Foods