PepsiCo Teams With Feed The Children to Provide Food and Essentials for 2,000 Detroit Families

DETROIT, Aug. 24, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Feed The Children and PepsiCo today partnered to deliver ten semi tractor-trailers full of food and essentials to help 2,000 families in Detroit. This was the second year the two organizations have joined together at Second Ebenezer Baptist Church to bring assistance to Motown's families in need.

This year, longtime Feed The Children supporter PepsiCo teamed with Wal-Mart, Sam's Club and Associated Food and Petroleum Dealers to bring more food and fresh produce to the families. Nearly 300 Detroit-area employees from those companies volunteered their time to help distribute bags and boxes filled with food and products.

The Vanguard Community Development Corporation pre-identified the families in need of assistance. The items received at this outreach will provide a family of four with enough food for at least a week. Each family received the following items at the event:

Feed The Children provided a 25-pound box of non-perishable food items, a 10-pound box of essentials and a box of Avon products. PepsiCo donated a reusable bag filled with PepsiCo products, including brands from Frito-Lay, Quaker, Tropicana and Pepsi. Products given included LIFE cereal, Quaker Oatmeal, Tropicana orange juice, Quaker Chewy granola bars, Propel Fit water, Lipton Brisk iced tea and Frito-Lay Multi-Pack snack chips. Wal-Mart & Sam's Club distributed a reusable bag filled with fresh fruit and vegetables. Finally, Associated Foods and Petroleum Dealers donated more than 2,000 pounds of bananas to the effort.

The distribution is part of Feed The Children's Americans Feeding Americans Caravan, which has helped more than 270,000 families across the country since it began in 2009.

Nearly half of children living in Detroit (46.5 percent) are at risk of hunger. The number of impoverished children living in Michigan (482,916) could fill Ford Field more than six times. The unemployment rate and poverty rates in Detroit are higher than the national averages.

"We are so grateful for the contributions made by PepsiCo, Wal-Mart and their employees to help children and families in need," said Tony Sellars, spokesperson for Feed The Children. "Our Americans Feeding Americans project is geared toward families who for the first time in their lives have not been able to provide for their families. Their tremendous support brings relief at a crucial time for Detroit families affected by the economic downturn."

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

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. Our mission is providing hope and resources for those without life's essentials. In FY 2010, 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. For more information, visit www.feedthechildren.org

About PepsiCo

PepsiCo offers the world's largest portfolio of billion-dollar food and beverage brands, including 19 different product lines that generate more than $1 billion in annual retail sales each. Our main businesses -- Quaker, Tropicana, Gatorade, Frito-Lay, and Pepsi Cola -- also make hundreds of other enjoyable and wholesome foods and beverages that are respected household names throughout the world. With net revenues of approximately $60 billion, PepsiCo's people are united by our unique commitment to sustainable growth by investing in a healthier future for people and our planet, which we believe also means a more successful future for PepsiCo. We call this commitment Performance with Purpose: PepsiCo's promise to provide a wide range of foods and beverages for local tastes; to find innovative ways to minimize our impact on the environment, including by conserving energy and water usage, and reducing packaging volume; to provide a great workplace for our associates; and to respect, support, and invest in the local communities where we operate. For more information, please visit http://www.pepsico.com

SOURCE PepsiCo