PepsiCo Kicks Off Month-Long Global Volunteering Event To Distribute More Than 1.1 Million Nutritious Meals For Those In Need & Support Local Communities
Ensuring families and children have access to nutritious meals is a key part of PepsiCo's effort to alleviate hunger and feed potential around the world
PURCHASE, N.Y., Oct. 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ: PEP) today announced the kickoff of its annual, month-long global volunteering event, PepsiCo Gives Back, which unites its global employees in volunteer service and community support. This year, tens of thousands of PepsiCo employees will participate in volunteer events around the world including nutritious meal packing events which will provide more than 1.1 million nutritious meals to communities in need.
The meals being distributed will include enriched rice, soy protein, dried vegetables and 23 essential vitamins and nutrients to provide a comprehensive array of micronutrients. The meals will be distributed with international hunger relief organization Rise Against Hunger to schools, hospitals and local clinics in the Dominican Republic and to communities in need in India and Africa. PepsiCo's international hunger relief work extends the impact the company has in the U.S. through its signature nutrition program Food for Good, that served 5 million nutritious meals to families in 20 U.S. communities in 2019 alone.
Employees joined today at the company's headquarters in Purchase and other New York-area locations to start packing meals. Over the next month, nearly 3,000 employees in New York, Illinois, Texas, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Washington D.C, Ohio, Spain, India and South Africa are expected to help in this effort.
PepsiCo employees can also give back to their communities by creating their own volunteer events with colleagues, which will be supported by grants from The PepsiCo Foundation. Since 2014, The PepsiCo Foundation has provided nearly $40 million in matching gifts with donations made to United Way, the American Heart Association, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and other leading nonprofits.
"PepsiCo is committed to building a sustainable food system, which we believe depends on making sure nutritious food is more accessible," said Jon Banner President, The PepsiCo Foundation and EVP, Communications. "Our ambitious goal for PepsiCo Gives Back represents an important part of our effort to tackle this pressing issue, and I want to thank our employees for their tremendous passion, shown today and every day, to make positive change in their local communities and around the world."
Last October during PepsiCo Gives Back, 2,000 PepsiCo employees packed meals that were distributed by Rise Against Hunger and global humanitarian organization CARE to food insecure communities in Guatemala, elementary schools in El Salvador and Venezuelan families displaced in Colombia and Brazil with the help of local PepsiCo team members. Additionally, The PepsiCo Foundation's signature nutrition operation, Food for Good, packed 2,000 weekend backpack bundles full of 10,000 meals for families in Westchester County in partnership with Feeding Westchester, a member of the Feeding America network.
Together with partners, The PepsiCo Foundation is focused on alleviating hunger around the world by helping food banks increase their food supply and distributing nutritious meals to families in need. Since 2009, Food for Good has delivered over 100 million nutritious servings to children at risk for hunger; and by 2025, Food for Good is aiming to deliver 50 million nutritious servings per year across 25 cities in the U.S. The PepsiCo Foundation also has community partnerships with the World Food Programme and The Global FoodBanking Network to fight hunger around the world. In 2018, The PepsiCo Foundation and The Global FoodBanking Network helped deliver more than 85 million servings of fresh food, reaching nearly 175,000 people in communities in need.
The PepsiCo Foundation's investments to address hunger are part of PepsiCo's commitment to building a more sustainable food system – one that can meet human needs and continue to drive economic growth and social development, without exceeding the planet's natural boundaries.
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 $64 billion in net revenue in 2018, driven by a complementary food and beverage portfolio that includes Frito-Lay, Gatorade, Pepsi-Cola, Quaker and Tropicana. PepsiCo's product portfolio includes a wide range of enjoyable foods and beverages, including 22 brands that generate more than $1 billion each in estimated annual retail sales.
Guiding PepsiCo is our vision to Be the Global Leader in Convenient Foods and Beverages by Winning with Purpose. "Winning with Purpose" reflects our ambition to win sustainably in the marketplace and embed purpose into all aspects of the business. For more information, visit www.pepsico.com.
About The PepsiCo Foundation
Established in 1962, The PepsiCo Foundation works with nonprofit partners and invests in the essential elements of a sustainable food system – helping alleviate hunger, manage water and waste responsibly, and support women as champions of nutrition from farm to family.
About Rise Against Hunger
Rise Against Hunger, an international hunger relief organization, aims to show the world that it is, in fact, possible to end hunger by the year 2030. With 23 U.S. locations and five international offices, the organization is committed to nourishing lives, providing emergency aid, empowering communities and growing the hunger movement. Rise Against Hunger has facilitated the packaging of more than 417 million meals distributed to countries around the world.
CONTACT:
Erin Thomas
914-253-2196
[email protected]
SOURCE PepsiCo, Inc.
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