PepsiCo Beverages North America Hosts Back-to-School PEP Rally Powering Newark Public School Students for a Strong Start to the New School Year

PBNA, PepsiCo Foundation and its Food for Good platform donated backpacks with school supplies and healthy, shelf-stable meals to 240 students in the Newark Public Schools

PURCHASE, N.Y., Sept. 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Yesterday, the North Division of PepsiCo Beverages North America (PBNA) hosted a "Back-to-School PEP Rally" to help 240 underserved PK-8 students at the Luis Munoz Marin School for Social Justice in Newark, N.J. get a jumpstart on the school year by providing necessary school supplies, backpacks, and nutritious meals to fuel their minds and bodies. New York Giants alum Victor Cruz joined the event to get students motivated and excited for a fun and successful new school year.

According to The National Retail Federation's 2023 back-to-school spending survey¹, families with children in grades K-12 said they expect to spend an average of $890 on school items this year, about $25 more than last year. In addition, according to a report from the School Nutrition Association^2, one in eight children in America live in food insecure homes. This can pose risks to a child's health and development, leading to long-term social and behavioral challenges. PBNA's Back-to-School PEP Rally events aim to address this urgent need and help provide children with the resources they need to thrive in a new school year.

Adelante, PBNA's Hispanic employee resource group, leveraged its members to volunteer at the event, providing backpacks and school supplies directly to students. In addition to the supplies, each student received a bag of shelf-stable meals provided through the PepsiCo Foundation's Food for Good program. Food for Good is the PepsiCo Foundation's global platform for advancing food security and ongoing commitment to make nutritious food accessible for more people.

"At PepsiCo, we are committed to supporting the communities where we live and work. During this pivotal back-to-school time, we want to make sure each student has what they need for a positive start to the school year," says Richard Glover, President, North Division of PepsiCo Beverages North America. "We are proud to be able to make a meaningful difference for families and hope it helps build a great school year ahead for these students."

During the Back-to-School PEP Rally held at the Luis Munoz Marin School for Social Justice in Newark, children met with New York Giants alum Victor Cruz and enjoyed food provided by a local PBNA foodservice partner in Newark.

PBNA hosted its inaugural Back to School PEP Rally backpack distribution event in Miami followed by events in the Northeast at schools in Philadelphia and Cincinnati in August 2023 and will be hosting its final event at a school Boston, Mass. to benefit more than 2,000 students overall in these high need communities by September 2023.

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About PepsiCo
PepsiCo products are enjoyed by consumers more than one billion times a day in more than 200 countries and territories around the world. PepsiCo generated more than $86 billion in net revenue in 2022, driven by a complementary beverage and convenient foods portfolio that includes Lay's, Doritos, Cheetos, Gatorade, Pepsi-Cola, Mountain Dew, Quaker, and SodaStream. PepsiCo's product portfolio includes a wide range of enjoyable foods and beverages, including many iconic brands that generate more than $1 billion each in estimated annual retail sales.

Guiding PepsiCo is our vision to Be the Global Leader in Beverages and Convenient Foods by Winning with pep+ (PepsiCo Positive). pep+ is our strategic end-to-end transformation that puts sustainability and human capital at the center of how we will create value and growth by operating within planetary boundaries and inspiring positive change for planet and people. For more information, visit www.pepsico.com, and follow on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn @PepsiCo.

About the PepsiCo Foundation and Food for Good
Food for Good is the PepsiCo Foundation's global platform for advancing food security and making nutritious food accessible. As a contributor to meeting pep+ (PepsiCo Positive) commitments, Food for Good has delivered more than 270 million meals to more than 46 million people around the world. Learn more at www.pepsicofoodforgood.com.

¹ Cullen, Katherine. (2023). Back-to-Class 2023. National Retail Federation.
² (2023). School Meal Statistics. School Nutrition Association.

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SOURCE PepsiCo