Feed The Children and PepsiCo Donate Food and Essentials to 4,000 Detroit Families

DETROIT, June 16 /PRNewswire/ -- Feed The Children and PepsiCo today partnered to bring 14 semi tractor-trailers full of food, essentials and personal care items to Second Ebenezer Church (14601 Dequindre St.) to help 4,000 Detroit families. Approximately 300 Detroit Metro Area-based PepsiCo associates, the majority from its Frito-Lay business unit, volunteered to help distribute the items at 10 a.m. Players from the Detroit Lions were also on hand to distribute items to families identified based on their need.

Employees from PepsiCo's various Detroit-area businesses – Frito-Lay, Pepsi Beverages Company and the PepsiCo Warehouse – handed out more than 14,000 boxes of food, essentials and personal care items; 4,000 bags of PepsiCo products like Frito-Lay's Baked! line of snacks, SunChips multigrain snacks, Rold Gold pretzels, Quaker Oatmeal, Quaker Chewy Chocolate Chip granola bars, Tropicana orange juice, Propel Fit water and Lipton Brisk iced tea; and 4,000 pounds of fresh fruit and vegetables donated by PepsiCo customer Associated Food & Petroleum Dealers. Feed The Children partner agency, Vanguard Community Development Corporation, identified the families in need of assistance and provided volunteer assistance at the event. Each family selected was given a voucher to receive the following items at the event:

• 25-pound box of food
• 10-pound box of essentials
• box of Avon products
• fresh fruit and vegetables
• bag of PepsiCo products, including brands from Frito-Lay, Quaker, Tropicana and Pepsi

Detroit is among the cities hardest hit by the recession. In March, unemployment stood at 15.5 percent in Detroit and 16.4 percent in Wayne County—over 6 percent higher than the national average. Nearly half of all children living in Detroit are considered impoverished. Since the economic downturn in 2007, Feed The Children has provided 313 shipments, totaling 5,689,211 pounds of food and essentials to more than 71,000 Michigan families.

The distribution is the latest and largest stop this year on Feed The Children's Americans Feeding Americans Caravan. Including this event, the caravan has helped more than 100,000 families across the country in cities that have been affected by the nation's economic downturn. An additional 100,000 across the nation are targeted to receive assistance by the end of this year.

"The tremendous contribution by PepsiCo, Frito-Lay, Pepsi Beverages Company and their employees has allowed us to make this distribution the largest on our tour so far this year," said Tony Sellars, spokesperson for Feed The Children. "Our Americans Feeding Americans project is geared toward people who are still being affected by the economic downturn, including many who, until recently, considered themselves middle class. A lot of these people, for the first time in their lives, have not been able to provide for their families and this distribution will provide relief for them at a crucial time."

"Giving back to the communities where we live, work and serve is a core value at PepsiCo, and for the local team based here there is no better place to serve than Detroit," said Fred Gongola, Motown metro market director, Frito-Lay North America. "On behalf of the more than 300 Detroit-based Frito-Lay associates who were joined by colleagues at Pepsi Beverages Company and the PepsiCo Warehouse, we are honored to partner with Feed The Children's Americans Feeding Americans Caravan to help make a difference in the lives of 4,000 of our neighbors, families and friends."

To see the impact of Feed The Children's Americans Feeding Americans Caravan in your area visit www.AmericansFeedingAmericans.org .

About Feed The Children

Founded in 1979, Feed The Children is consistently ranked as one of the 10 largest international charities in the U.S., based on private, non-government support. Feed The Children is a Christian, international, nonprofit relief organization with headquarters in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, that delivers food, medicine, clothing and other necessities to individuals, children and families who lack these essentials due to famine, war, poverty or natural disasters. In FY 2008, Feed The Children distributed more than 133 million pounds of food and other essentials to children and their families in all 50 states and internationally, supplementing more than 760,000 meals each day. Since its founding, the organization has reached out to help those in need in 119 countries around the globe. For more information, please visit www.feedthechildren.org.

About Frito-Lay North America and PepsiCo

Frito-Lay North America is the $13 billion convenient foods business unit of PepsiCo (NYSE: PEP), which is headquartered in Purchase, NY.  Learn more about Frito-Lay at the corporate Web site, http://www.fritolay.com/, the Snack Chat blog, http://www.snacks.com/ and on Twitter at www.twitter.com/fritolay.

PepsiCo offers the world's largest portfolio of billion-dollar food and beverage brands, including 19 different product lines that each generates more than $1 billion in annual retail sales. Our main businesses - Frito-Lay, Quaker, Pepsi-Cola, Tropicana and Gatorade - also make hundreds of other nourishing, tasty foods and drinks that bring joy to our consumers in more than 200 countries. With annualized revenues of nearly $60 billion, PepsiCo's people are united by our unique commitment to sustainable growth, called Performance with Purpose. By dedicating ourselves to offering a broad array of choices for healthy, convenient and fun nourishment, reducing our environmental impact, and fostering a diverse and inclusive workplace culture, PepsiCo balances strong financial returns with giving back to our communities worldwide. For more information, please visit www.pepsico.com.

About Vanguard Community Development Corporation

Vanguard Community Development Corporation (CDC) is a comprehensive, holistic community service and development organization that works to facilitate, coordinate and ignite education development, economic development and community development. Founded in 1994, Vanguard CDC has programs and services that encourage and engage economic growth and investment in these areas. In its 15th year, Vanguard has invested more than $50,000,000 and has served 45,000 individuals in Detroit. It is the non-profit development arm of Second Ebenezer Church.  For more information contact us at 313.872.7831 or at vanguardcdc.org

SOURCE Frito-Lay North America