Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation Seeks to Encourage Behavior Change and Provide Tools to Help Consumers Achieve Energy Balance in the Marketplace, in the Workplace and in Schools

WASHINGTON, Oct. 5 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- An unprecedented coalition of more than 40 retailers, non-governmental organizations and food and beverage manufacturers today announced the launch of the Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation, a national, multi-year effort designed to help reduce obesity -- especially childhood obesity -- by 2015. The Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation will promote ways to help people achieve a healthy weight through energy balance. It focuses on three critical areas -- the marketplace, the workplace and schools.

"The stakeholders involved in this commitment recognize that by working together we can make a real difference on the obesity issue in our country," said David Mackay, president and chief executive officer of Kellogg Company and chairman of the board of the Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation. "We are united in an unprecedented, collaborative and focused effort to help children and adults achieve better energy balance between calories in and calories out."

The Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation will promote the concept of energy balance -- balancing calories consumed as part of a healthy diet with calories expended by physical activity -- to people in the places where they spend much of their time: to consumers in the marketplace, to employees through workplace programs and to children in schools.

Members of the Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation have already committed $20 million to this joint initiative to raise awareness about the importance of balancing a healthy diet with physical activity, particularly among children ages six to 11 years old and their parents and caregivers. This effort will include a soon-to-be announced national public education campaign on energy balance.

Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation efforts include:

    --  Connecting with Consumers in the Marketplace: Participating companies
        are committing to build on existing efforts and will be making changes
        to their products, packaging and labeling to make it easier for
        consumers to manage their calorie intake while preserving or enhancing
        overall nutrition quality. Specific options companies may undertake
        include product reformulation and innovation; providing smaller
        portions; redesigning packaging and labeling; placing calorie
        information on the front of products; providing consumers with
        information and educational materials; and in-store promotion of the
        initiative. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) will support an
        independent, objective evaluation of the marketplace initiative. Results
        from that evaluation will be publicly reported.
    --  Empowering Employees in the Workplace: Participating companies will
        undertake new or enhance existing programs to help employees achieve and
        maintain a healthy weight. This may include providing calorie
        information and healthier food and beverage options in cafeterias,
        vending machines and break rooms; providing access to exercise at work
        through individual and group activities; offering weight management
        programs; and implementing tools to track progress, like health risk
        appraisals. The impact of the workplace efforts will be evaluated by the
        National Business Group on Health. Best practices will be shared with
        employers so they may be replicated.
    --  Creating Healthy Habits in Schools: The Healthy Weight Commitment
        Foundation will expand the successful Healthy Schools Partnership to
        additional schools in Kansas City, Des Moines, Washington, D.C., Chicago
        and a tribal community in Iowa. This expansion follows a successful
        pilot in Kansas City. The Healthy Schools Partnership integrates
        nutrition education and physical education through a school-based
        curriculum to help children develop lifelong positive healthy habits.
        The Healthy Schools Partnership was developed by the American Council
        for Fitness and Nutrition Foundation, PE4life and the American Dietetic
        Association Foundation. The Healthy School Partnership is being
        evaluated by the University of California at Berkeley, Center for Weight
        and Health.

"The Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation has the potential to make a difference by reducing the number of excess calories children consume. HWCF members are uniquely positioned to create healthier options that are appealing to children and affordable for families," said Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, M.D., M.B.A., RWJF president and CEO. "The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is pleased to serve as an independent evaluator of the Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation's marketplace initiative, so we can measure the impact of the actions these companies are pledging to take."

"By developing and promoting common sense solutions that society can embrace with certainty, we believe we can help make a difference in the fight against obesity," said Ric Jurgens, chairman, chief executive officer and president of Hy-Vee, Inc., and vice chairman of the board of the Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation. "I know that the dedicated organizations involved in this effort, combined with the tremendous resources at their disposal, will make a significant impact in this critical area."

The Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation is a unique partnership between retailers, non-profit organizations, food and beverage manufacturers and trade associations aimed at helping to reduce obesity. For more information, go to www.healthyweightcommit.org.

Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation member companies and partner organizations include: American Council for Fitness and McCormick & Company, Inc. Nutrition Foundation National Wildlife Federation American Dietetic Association Nestle USA Foundation Our Park Place Brookshire Grocery Company PE4life Bumble Bee Foods, LLC PepsiCo, Inc. Campbell Soup Company Ralston Foods/Post Foods, LLC ConAgra Foods Redner's Markets, Inc. Festival Foods (Minnesota) Safeway Inc. Food Marketing Institute Sara Lee Corporation General Mills, Inc. Schnuck Markets, Inc. Girl Scouts of the USA Shop Rite of Hunterdon Gonzalez Northgate Market County, Inc. Grocery Manufacturers Association Skogen's Festival Foods Harris Teeter The Coca-Cola Company Hy-Vee, Inc. The Hershey Company IGA, Inc. The J.M. Smucker Company Jax Markets Unilever Kellogg Company United Supermarkets, Ltd. Kraft Foods Inc. W.K. Kellogg Foundation Mars, Incorporated Wakefern Food Corporation Martin's Super Markets WalkStyles

SOURCE Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation