The Smartfood Brand And SELF Magazine Announce The Top 10 SMARTest Cities In America --- San Francisco Takes The Top Spot

SAN FRANCISCO, June 20, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- The Smartfood brand, with support from SELF magazine, today released the list of the Top 10 SMARTest Cities in America – with San Francisco taking the top spot. The brand also announced its nationwide SMART Search 2013 contest – giving fans across the country the chance to be celebrated for having "smart in the bag" – aligning with the Smartfood brand values of eating and living well. Fans can go to www.Facebook.com/Smartfood to nominate someone they know or themselves to be named the winner of the SMART Search 2013. The contest winner will be featured in the September issue of SELF magazine and receive $10,000 in prize money. Smartfood is one of the many brands from PepsiCo's Frito-Lay division.

Today's announcement is part of the Smartfood brand's summer-long effort to celebrate what it means to live SMART.  To start, the brand broadened and redefined "SMART" by combining five criteria to align with the Smartfood brand's goal of living and eating well. Each letter stands for a specific area of focus: Savvy, Motivated, Accomplished, Responsible and Thoughtful. Based on these criteria, the Top 10 SMARTest Cities as ranked by the Smartfood brand include:

1. San Francisco, Calif.
2. Seattle, Wash.
3. Washington, D.C.
4. Austin, Texas
5. Minneapolis, Minn.
6. Portland, Ore.
7. Denver, Colo.
8. Boston, Mass.
9. Honolulu, Hawaii
10. San Jose, Calif.

To celebrate San Francisco's achievement as the nation's SMARTest city, the Smartfood brand has asked Brooke Burke-Charvet to be in Union Square Park today from Noon to 3 p.m. Burke-Charvet, TV personality, SELF magazine celebrity favorite and co-host of ABC's "Dancing With the Stars," is an amazing example of living and eating SMART through her motivation, passion for philanthropy and balanced active lifestyle. Fans will have the opportunity to participate in SMART showdowns for the chance to win cool prizes, experience a 10-minute bootcamp workout by SELF fitness editor, Marissa Stephenson, and enjoy free Smartfood product samples. The Smartfood brand will also collect submissions for its SMART Search 2013 contest throughout the afternoon. For San Franciscans not able to make it out to Union Square, brand ambassadors will be passing out Smartfood product samples near four BART stations.

"We are excited to be in San Francisco today with Brooke Burke-Charvet and SELF magazine," said Dave Skena, vice president of marketing for Frito-Lay. "As we continue to share what it means to live and snack SMART, we figured there was no better place to launch our SMART Search than in our choice for the country's SMARTest City." 

"I've always believed that living smart goes far beyond book smarts," said Burke-Charvet, TV host, personality and entrepreneur, known for her SMART lifestyle.  "That is why it's so great what the Smartfood brand is doing – taking its own brand mantra of having 'smart in the bag' and creating a larger conversation about what it means to live SMART. I can only hope this will inspire more people to live a conscious lifestyle." 

Making smart choices is what the Smartfood brand has always been about. The Smartfood brand offers a line of snacks including popcorn, puffed corn and popped chip varieties with no artificial flavors or preservatives.  Last year, the Smartfood brand introduced Smartfood Selects, which boast smart flavor combinations of real herbs and spices, providing delicious snack options.  The brand's careful pairing of select ingredients creates perfectly complementary, unforgettably delicious flavors to spice up snack time.  Smartfood snacks are available at retailers nationwide and online through Amazon.com. For more information, visit www.Smartfood.com.

About the SMARTest City
The SMARTest City list was compiled using a combination of five criteria: 

• Savvy measured the availability of balanced foods using 2012 per capita concentrations of farm-to-table restaurants, health food stores and farmers markets.
• Motivated measured the physical activity level in a city using existing city rankings for walkability and bikeability and the American College of Sports Medicine's American Fitness Index.
• Accomplished measured education using the 2012 Scarborough study of people with college degrees as a percent of the total city population.
• Responsible measured environmental stewardship using the 2012 National Resource Defense Council ranking of green cities.
• Thoughtful measured philanthropy using the Chronicle of Philanthropy's 2012 charitable cities ranking.

About the SMART Search 2013 Contest
From now until July 7, the Smartfood brand is conducting a nationwide SMART Search to reward someone who has "smart in the bag" – is savvy and lives a balanced lifestyle, motivated to get regular physical activity, accomplished by achieving their educational, career and life goals, responsible in her or his care for the planet and thoughtful when it comes to philanthropic efforts. For official rules and to nominate someone you know, or yourself, please visit www.Facebook.com/Smartfood. Only one nomination per person. The winner will be featured in a SELF magazine advertorial and win $10,000 in prize money. In addition, every person who submits a nomination will receive a "Buy One, Get One" coupon for Smartfood Selects products.

About Smartfood
Smartfood is one of the many brands that make up Frito-Lay North America, the $13 billion convenient foods business unit of PepsiCo (NYSE: PEP), which is headquartered in Purchase, NY.  Learn more about Smartfood at www.facebook.com/smartfood  and Frito-Lay at the corporate website, http://www.fritolay.com, the Snack Chat blog, http://www.snacks.com/ and on Twitter at www.twitter.com/fritolay.

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.

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About SELF Magazine
I am in charge. I dream large. I choreograph my personal story. The SELF brand provides the content, the tools and the community to inspire a woman to live her most vivid life. Named to the current Adweek Hot List, SELF is the founder of the Pink Ribbon, and an ASME National Magazine Award winner for excellence in journalistic achievement in print and digital. The SELF brand reaches a total print and digital audience of 13 million. SELF is published by Condé Nast, home to some of the world's most celebrated media brands. Visit Self.com and follow @SELFMagazine on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, Foodily and Google+. 

BROADCAST / PRINT / TV MEDIA: Broadcast quality video, photo stills and press information is available to preview, download and share at http://magicbulletmedia.com/MNR/Smartfood. 

SOURCE Frito-Lay North America