ConAgra Foods® Launches First Blogger-Hosted Virtual Cooking School

OMAHA, Neb., Jan. 27, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- ConAgra Foods®, one of North America's leading food companies, announced today the launch of Cooking Connections®. This first-of-its kind blogger-hosted virtual cooking school reconnects parents to the joyful, social, family-friendly art of cooking via a unique multimedia format. Celebrity chef and ConAgra Foods spokesperson George Duran will host the first class on January 28, 2011, at Blissdom – the premier blogging conference for women – with an interactive cooking demonstration between attendees and at-home participants.

ConAgra Foods, in conjunction with the award-winning online community TheMotherhood.com, has launched Cooking Connections in response to key consumer trends:

1. Eight-one percent (81%) of moms turn to the Internet to look for different kinds of foods and recipes and 77 percent (77%) agree that the Internet is the No. 1 source for recipes, according to a recent survey by BabyCenter.(i)
2. Mealtime Mom: Family dinner time is a priority for today's moms. Ninety percent (90%) of moms say they eat dinner as a family several times a week. The Internet has become mom's No. 1 source (77%) for recipes, higher even than cookbooks (36%).(ii)

"Cooking Connections is a place for parents to connect online while learning that mealtime preparation can be simple, social and filled with creative twists," says Cooper Munroe, co-founder of TheMotherhood.com. "We're looking forward to serving up an empowering cooking community designed to celebrate food and home cooks, and we're excited to have the opportunity to share real tips from real parents in real time."

How It Works

Developed for the busy, multifaceted parent who looks to the Web for tips and ideas, Cooking Connections is an eight-week series of live blogging classes and conversations that take place on TheMotherhood.com and are cross-posted live on Twitter and Facebook. The classes will be text-based to facilitate interactive conversation and will deliver relevant content to make participation an easy fit within parents' demanding schedules. Cooking Connections will feature one unique cooking and kitchen-related session each week beginning January 27 and ending March 16. Sessions will be hosted by topic-relevant bloggers from TheMotherhood.com community who will lead discussions, prepare recipes and create rich and widespread conversation across the Web.  

Classes are open to all social media moms and dads interested in joining. Participants are encouraged to share their culinary experience via online social channels like Twitter, Flickr and Facebook in an effort to connect others to the Cooking Connections community and experience. For those who cannot participate live, complete classes will remain available as text-based blog posts on TheMotherhood.com and ConAgrafoods.com, with class video content posted on Facebook, YouTube and other multimedia channels.

Topics that Matter to Parents

The Cooking Connections curriculum was developed based on survey feedback from a host of social media parents who were asked what they wanted in a virtual cooking school. At every turn, Cooking Connections was created with the "students" in mind to develop the most comprehensive line-up of classes to represent their cooking interests and goals. ConAgra Foods collaborated with the class co-hosts to showcase recipes that demonstrate the joyful, social act of cooking and ease of preparation, including dinner recipes from ConAgra Foods' just-launched ReadySetEat™ site (www.readyseteat.com).

A Cooking Connections Student Hand Guide filled with robust social media links and content will be accessible online at TheMotherhood.com/CookingConnections to accommodate parents' busy schedules, whether they're on-the-go or in front of a computer. The guide will include class schedules (with built-in reminders via e-mail) host bios, blog posts, recommended RSS feeds, recipes and live discussion opportunities via Twitter (#CookingConnections).

For more information on Cooking Connections and to register for classes, please visit www.TheMotherhood.com/CookingConnections.

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, Slim Jim, Snack Pack 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 THE MOTHERHOOD

The Motherhood is an award-winning Web community and platform for women. Technologically differentiated by proprietary, live weekly "Talks" hosted by experts and co-hosted by mom bloggers, each Talk functions much like a live, interactive press conference with social media moms as the audience. The Motherhood connects brands with mothers in authentic, creative ways that benefit moms and their families. Clients include ConAgra Foods, American Eagle, Verizon, Marriott, Clorox, Tropicana, and many others.  For more information, please visit us at www.themotherhood.com.

(i)  "BabyCenter Study." Babycentersolutions.com. July 2009.

(ii)  Social-media-optimization.com. 8 March 2010.

SOURCE ConAgra Foods, Inc.