Pure Leaf™ Iced Tea Partners With FOOD & WINE And Wholesome Wave To Share The Love Of Leaves

PURCHASE, N.Y., March 24, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Pure Leaf™ Iced Tea, a product of The Pepsi Lipton Tea Partnership, today announced its partnership with FOOD & WINE to unveil a consumer engagement platform for the magazine's Grow for Good program, beginning with the relaunch of its co-branded website. Grow for Good is a national campaign to raise public awareness and support for charitable initiatives aimed at increasing consumer access to locally and sustainably grown foods. All 2014 initiatives between Pure Leaf and Grow for Good strive to benefit Wholesome Wave, a nonprofit that focuses on making fresh, healthy, locally grown food affordable and accessible to everyone.

"Pure Leaf has always been committed to providing premium taste through tea made from real tea leaves, and in 2014, we want to reinforce our passion for realness and help to provide others with access to wholesome and sustainable foods," said Eric Whitehouse, Marketing Director, The Pepsi Lipton Tea Partnership. "Our shared passion for superior quality makes FOOD & WINE, and specifically the Grow for Good platform, the best partner to help us affect change through our joint commitment to Wholesome Wave."

"Since 2007, FOOD & WINE has been committed to supporting farms, encouraging sustainable agriculture and increasing access to affordable, locally grown food with our Grow for Good initiative," said FOOD & WINE SVP and Publisher Christina Grdovic. "It is with great excitement that we found a partner in Pure Leaf who shares our objective in bringing awareness of healthy food choices to underserved communities."

FOOD & WINE's Grow for Good, Benefitting Wholesome Wave
Through its partnership with FOOD & WINE, Pure Leaf is integrated in the relaunch of the Grow for Good website, in turn spreading the word about Pure Leaf's campaign, events and consumer engagement initiatives. The website also features Q&As from featured chefs Hugh Acheson and Wholesome Wave founder Michel Nischan, seasonal recipes from both chefs and FOOD & WINE, and information on upcoming farmers market events where consumers can participate.

"We believe that everybody in the world should be able to put the same beautiful, ripe tomato on their table. That's our mission—to make good, healthy, locally grown food available to everyone," said Michel Nischan, award-winning chef and CEO/founder of Wholesome Wave. "Pure Leaf and FOOD & WINE's Grow for Good platform is integral in elevating our mission by raising awareness and funding for our programs all over the country."

Through the partnership, Pure Leaf will participate at FOOD & WINE's marquee events, including the Austin FOOD & WINE Festival and FOOD & WINE Classic in Aspen. The brand was also recently the sponsor of the Pure Leaf Farm to Table brunch at South Beach Wine and Food Festival.

Share the Love of Leaves Campaign
Pure Leaf's 2014 "Share the Love of Leaves" campaign will focus on sharing great content that appeals to the brand's target audience, including recipes, DIY tips and daily inspiration. This spring, fans can get involved to make a difference in the lives of others and in their communities through Pure Leaf's commitment to real food with Wholesome Wave as the beneficiary. The "Share the Love of Leaves" campaign will include print, digital, traditional event and editorial components.

Pure Leaf is available in 18.5-oz. single-serve bottles and a 59-oz. multi-serve carafe. Additional Pure Leaf flavors include, Unsweetened Iced Tea, Sweetened Iced Tea, Extra Sweet Iced Tea, Iced Tea With Raspberry flavor, Iced Tea With Lemon (diet and regular), Iced Tea With Peach flavor (diet and regular), Not Too Sweet Peach flavor Tea and Not Too Sweet Honey flavor Green Tea.

To learn more about Pure Leaf, visit Facebook, www.Facebook.com/PureLeaf.

About PepsiCo
PepsiCo is a global food and beverage leader with net revenues of more than $65 billion and a product portfolio that includes 22 brands that generate more than $1 billion each in annual retail sales.  Our main businesses – Quaker, Tropicana, Gatorade, Frito-Lay and Pepsi-Cola – make hundreds of enjoyable foods and beverages that are loved throughout the world.  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 from treats to healthy eats; to find innovative ways to minimize our impact on the environment by conserving energy and water 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 www.pepsico.com.

About Unilever North America
Unilever is one of the world's leading suppliers of fast moving consumer goods with strong operations in more than 100 countries and sales in 190. Consumers buy 170 billion Unilever packs around the world every year, and our products are used over two billion times a day. In the United States and Canada the portfolio includes brand icons such as: Axe, Becel, Ben & Jerry's, Bertolli, Breyers, Caress, Clear Scalp & Hair Therapy, Consort For Men, Country Crock, Degree, Dove personal care products, Good Humor, Hellmann's, I Can't Believe It's Not Butter!, Just for Me!, Klondike, Knorr, Lever 2000, Lipton, Magnum, Motions, Nexxus, Noxzema, Pond's, Popsicle, Promise, Q-tips, Ragu, Simple, Skippy, Slim-Fast, Soft & Beautiful, St. Ives, Suave, tcb, TIGI, TRESemme, Vaseline, and Wish-Bone. All of the preceding brand names are trademarks or registered trademarks of the Unilever Group of Companies.

Our ambition is to double the size of our business, while reducing our overall environmental impact (including sourcing, consumer use and disposal). We are also committed to doing what we can to improve health, nutrition and hygiene, with goals to help more than a billion people take action to improve their health and well-being, as well as to source all our agricultural raw materials sustainably by 2020. Supporting our three big goals are more than 50 time-based targets in the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan.

Unilever employs more than 13,000 people across North America—generating over $9 billion in sales in 2011. For more information visit www.unileverusa.com or www.unilever.ca.

About FOOD & WINE
FOOD & WINE is the ultimate authority on the best of what's new in food, drink, travel, design & entertaining. FOOD & WINE has an extensive social media following on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Tumblr and Foursquare. FOOD & WINE includes a monthly magazine; digital editions on the iPad, Kindle Fire and Nook Color; a website, foodandwine.com; a books division; FWx, a digital brand and website for millennials; plus newsletters, clubs, events around the globe and a restaurant partnership, Chefs Club by FOOD & WINE.

About Wholesome Wave
Wholesome Wave is a national 501(c)3 organization dedicated to empowering people in underserved communities to make healthier food choices by increasing affordability and access to healthy, locally grown food in ways that improve health and generate significant impact on local economies.

We operate by partnering with farmers, farmers markets, community leaders, healthcare providers, like-minded nonprofits, corporations and government entities to implement our programs, including our Double Value Coupon Program, the Fruit and Vegetable Prescription Program™ and Healthy Food Commerce Investments.

Wholesome Wave is now in 25 states and the District of Columbia with more than 60 partners implementing our programs at nearly 400 participating farmers markets and benefiting over 3,200 farmers. For more information, visit www.wholesomewave.org.

SOURCE Pure Leaf Iced Tea