Sodexo and The Coca-Cola Company Celebrate Success of Annual Summer Feeding Program

ATLANTA, July 19, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Sodexo and The Coca-Cola Company today celebrate Feeding Our Future®, an annual summer program that provided more than 7,100 free meals to local youth this year. Volunteers from Sodexo and The Coca-Cola Company gathered along with participants to celebrate the program's success with a special barbeque at the Andrew & Walter Young Family YMCA, with former U.N. Ambassador Andrew Young also in attendance.

Since 2002, Sodexo's Feeding Our Future® program has provided more than 133,000 summer lunches to youth from low-income households in Atlanta who rely on free and reduced-priced meals during the academic year. The program now operates in 24 cities in the United States and is made possible in Atlanta by a grant from Sodexo Foundation, the anti-hunger charitable arm of Sodexo, Inc., and matching funds from The Coca-Cola Company. Across the nation, Sodexo employees work closely with local hunger-relief organizations, partnering vendors and clients to prepare and distribute the meals to children at local feeding sites.

Childhood hunger continues to be a growing problem in the U.S. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, approximately 16.2 million children in America struggle with hunger. In a 2011 study conducted by Feeding America, a national hunger-relief charity, the state of Georgia ranked sixth highest in the nation for child food insecurity with more than 700,000 children experiencing hunger. The resulting impact of that hunger frequently includes health issues, poor academic performance, and limited future employment opportunities.

"There is one simple thing that any of us can do to offer our children a leg up in the world. Feed them," said Robert A. Stern, chair, Sodexo Foundation. "Feeding Our Future does just that, helping to fill the gap of the 19 million U.S. children not reached by other supplemental nutrition programs during the summer months."

"Coca-Cola is committed to supporting the communities where we operate, and this most certainly includes our hometown of Atlanta," said Ed Baines, vice president of the Sodexo account team for The Coca-Cola Company. "Partnering with Sodexo to provide meals to children facing food insecurity in 24 cities across the country is one way we demonstrate our commitment."

This summer, Feeding Our Future will provide 400,000 summer lunches to youth in Atlanta, Boston, Buffalo, N.Y., Camden, N.J., Chattanooga, Tenn., Chicago, Denver, Detroit, Fort Worth, Texas, Honolulu, Houston, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Norfolk, Va., Oklahoma City, Pittsburgh, San Jose, Calif., St. Cloud, Minn., St. Louis, Syracuse, N.Y., Terre Haute, Ind. and Washington.

Programs like Feeding Our Future exemplify the positive contributions that large corporations are making in support of local communities. Working in collaboration with Sodexo are 26 of its vendor partners, including The Coca-Cola Company, Unilever, Sysco and The Schwan Food Company. Together they are providing more than $103,000 in funds which allows Sodexo Foundation to implement these essential supplemental nutrition programs in cities nationwide. Thanks to these efforts, by the end of this summer Feeding Our Future will have provided more than 3 million free summer lunches to children since the program began in 1997.

To make a contribution to the fight against hunger or for more information, please visit www.sodexofoundation.org.

About The Coca-Cola Company
The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE: KO) is the world's largest beverage company, refreshing consumers with more than 500 sparkling and still brands. Led by Coca-Cola, the world's most valuable brand, our Company's portfolio features 15 billion dollar brands including Diet Coke, Fanta, Sprite, Coca-Cola Zero, vitaminwater, Powerade, Minute Maid, Simply, Georgia and Del Valle. Globally, we are the No. 1 provider of sparkling beverages, ready-to-drink coffees, and juices and juice drinks. Through the world's largest beverage distribution system, consumers in more than 200 countries enjoy our beverages at a rate of 1.8 billion servings a day. With an enduring commitment to building sustainable communities, our Company is focused on initiatives that reduce our environmental footprint, support active, healthy living, create a safe, inclusive work environment for our associates, and enhance the economic development of the communities where we operate. Together with our bottling partners, we rank among the world's top 10 private employers with more than 700,000 system employees. For more information, please visit www.thecoca-colacompany.com or follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/CocaColaCo.

ABOUT SODEXO'S FIGHT AGAINST HUNGER
Sodexo Inc. and Sodexo Foundation work to help end hunger in the United States. Sodexo Foundation is an independent 501(c)(3) non-profit with the mission to end childhood hunger. The foundation works to ensure that every child in the United States, especially those most at-risk, grows up with dependable access to enough nutritious food to enable them to lead a healthy, productive life. Sodexo Foundation cultivates and maintains strategic partnerships with regional and national hunger-relief entities and youth mobilization organizations—all part of Sodexo's STOP Hunger Initiative, its global program to end hunger and malnutrition in the communities where it operates. Sodexo is headquartered in Gaithersburg, Md. and funds all administrative costs for Sodexo Foundation, which since 1999 has made more than $17 million in grants to end childhood hunger. Visit www.SodexoFoundation.org for more information.

SOURCE Sodexo, Inc.