New Data Shows Food and Beverage Company Health & Wellness Initiatives Reached More than 11 Million Americans in 2016

"Food and beverage companies have a strong commitment to providing consumers with the products, tools and information they need to achieve a healthy diet and active lifestyle," said Becky Johnson, Executive Director of the Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation.  "These year-one results are an impressive start, and will be used by CHC and its member companies to expand the effectiveness of their investment in a healthier future."

"This data is very important because it provides a great baseline that will help us track and improve the effectiveness of the private sector's community-based health and wellness programs moving forward," said Terry T-K Huang, PhD, MPH, CPH and Professor, CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy.  The year-one results show not only progress and promise, but the need for continued work."

The 2016 data captures the scope and impact of health and wellness programs developed by CHC's participating companies. Report's Executive Summary shows:

• 11 food and beverage companies delivered 38 community-based health and wellness programs in 2016.
• Participating companies spent more than $30 million on community-based health and wellness programs in 2016.
• Those 38 programs reached 11.2 million Americans with tools and information to help them achieve a healthy diet and active lifestyle.
• 34,700 schools across America were reached with health & wellness tools and materials.
• Participating company employees conducted more than 50,000 volunteer hours.
• Participating companies donated 420 million total servings of food to local communities.
• The health and wellness programs facilitated 1.6 million hours of physical activity.

CHC is a novel approach designed to fully leverage the strengths of the public sector (including academia) and the private sector in pursuit of a common goal — reducing the prevalence of childhood obesity within a generation. It was created by HWCF and CUNY to evaluate corporate-community investment in healthful eating and active living programs and catalyzes multi-sector action toward collective impact on community health. 

The goal of CHC is to assess corporate programs and use scope and impact data to build a catalogue of best practices and concepts companies can use to move toward implementation of impactful new and better programs.  An independent panel of experts oversaw the development of CHC's framework for evaluating company strategies and programs that promote healthy lifestyles in communities across the country. Some of the world's largest and most recognized food companies are participating, including General Mills, the Kellogg Company, PepsiCo, The Coca-Cola Company, Nestlé, The J.M. Smucker Company, Campbell Soup Company and others.

"CHC is harnessing the collective strengths of the public and private sectors to develop a roadmap for addressing obesity and helping children and adults achieve a healthy and active lifestyle," concluded Ms. Johnson.

Read the full version of the CHC final report here.

About the Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation
The Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation (HWCF) is a broad-based not-for-profit organization whose mission is to help reduce obesity, especially childhood obesity, by encouraging positive and permanent lifestyle changes among school-aged children and their families. The Foundation develops and implements innovative and collaborative educational, marketplace and community solutions with its coalition of 300 corporate and not-for-profit partners.  Through its free, award-winning Together Counts™ healthy lifestyle school curriculum, the Foundation has reached more than 44 million students in the U.S. As the first commitment to former First Lady Michelle Obama's Let's Move initiative and verified by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the HWCF's food and beverage company members gave consumers more lower calorie options by removing 6.4 trillion calories from their products– surpassing their pledge by more than 400% three years ahead of schedule. In 2016, they expanded their programming to Colombia, Mexico and Brazil.

Contact: Sean McBride 
202.309.3050 
[email protected]

SOURCE Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation