UNCLE BEN'S Joins with Feeding America to Fight Childhood Hunger
Celebrity Chef Rick Bayless and Consumers Support Kids Cafe Program
CHICAGO --- September 9, 2008--- In continuation of its multi-year partnership with Feeding America™, UNCLE BEN’S®, the number-one selling rice brand in the country, today celebrates the opening of the newest UNCLE BEN’S®-sponsored Kids Cafe at Chicago’s Marillac Social Center, where Rick Bayless – nationally known chef and owner of Chicago’s Frontera Grill, named “2007 Outstanding Restaurant of the Year” by the James Beard Foundation – will make a special appearance, conducting a cooking lesson and serving food to the 50 children who regularly use the facility.
Since the inception of the partnership in March 2007, UNCLE BEN’S® has opened eight new Kids Cafes around the country. The Kids Cafe program, which provides free meals and snacks to some of the 12 million children in the United States that are hungry or at risk of going hungry, aims to serve more than 12,000 meals within the next year at its newest location in Chicago.
“Uncle Ben’s is proud of its partnership with the Feeding America Kids Cafe program, during which time the brand will give $1 million to refurbish existing or build new Kids Café locations around the country,” said Vincent Howell, President of Mars Food US. “The Mars family and company associates are committed to giving back to the communities where our products are made and we encourage our consumers to get involved to show their support as well. Through donations of money, food and volunteer time, Uncle Ben’s is thrilled to be making a significant impact in the lives of children across the country.”
Throughout the month of September, UNCLE BEN’S® is providing consumers a number of ways to support the fight against hunger and open more Kids Cafes. For example, with each purchase of UNCLE BEN’S® rice the company will donate a dollar, up to $250,000, to Feeding America. Consumers can also visit www.UncleBens.com and sign Ben’s journal or enter a favorite rice recipe in the UNCLE BEN’S® Ultimate Holiday Rice Recipe Contest (www.unclebensgivesback.com). Each journal entry or recipe will generate an additional funding toward the overall brand donation to the fight against hunger.
Ongoing Openings of Kids Cafes
The first UNCLE BEN’S® Kids Cafe opened in September 2007 in Greenville, Miss., the home of UNCLE BEN’S® U.S. rice plant. For more than a year, local Mars employees worked to renovate the Boys & Girls Club – tackling everything from painting and cleaning to refurbishing the kitchen with working appliances.
The Chicago Marillac House Kids Cafe is the seventh UNCLE BEN’S®-sponsored Kids Cafe to open this year. UNCLE BEN’S® has opened Kids Cafes in other U.S. cities near Mars offices and factories including: Carson, Calif., Nashville, Tenn., Oklahoma City, Okla., Reno, Nev., Hillside, N.J., and Chattanooga, Tenn.
About the Feeding America Kids Cafe Program
Feeding America (formerly known as America's Second Harvest) is the largest charitable hunger-relief organization in the country. It started the Kids Cafe program in 1993, which has since grown into the most expansive child-feeding program in the United States, providing nutritious free meals and snacks to low-income children through a variety of existing community locations such as Boys and Girls Clubs.
“On behalf of Feeding America, we have been thrilled with our partnership with Uncle Ben’s, which over the past two years has helped expand the Kids Cafe program to reach even more children in need,” said Vicki Escarra, president and CEO of Feeding America “With their support, we will be able to serve an additional 1,100 children and more than 150,000 servings of food each year.”
About the UNCLE BEN’S® Ultimate Holiday Rice Recipe Contest
This fall, as a way to encourage consumers to gather with families and create new rice recipes, UNCLE BEN’S® is launching the Ultimate Holiday Rice Recipe Contest. For every recipe submitted, UNCLE BEN’S® will donate one dollar to Feeding America, and the winner of the contest will receive a trip to New York City for an exclusive consultation with celebrity event designer Preston Bailey, who will help plan their next party.
For more information about UNCLE BEN’S® Ultimate Holiday Rice Recipe Contest, to learn more about the partnership between Feeding America and UNCLE BEN’S®, or to download recipes and coupons, visit www.unclebens.com.
About UNCLE BEN’S®
UNCLE BEN'S®, the number one rice brand in America, is proud to offer a wide range of rice dishes with flavors and textures that will help bring more to your meals, both for convenient side dishes and savory main courses. UNCLE BEN'S® offers a wide variety of white, whole grain brown, and flavored rices in cook times ranging from 30 minutes to 90 seconds, as well as rice for food service operations such as restaurants, schools and hospitals. The first mass-produced parboiled rice, UNCLE BEN'S® is the top-selling branded rice in the United States and products can be found in more than 100 countries worldwide. UNCLE BEN'S® is manufactured by Mars Food US, part of the United States food, snack and pet care operations of Mars, Incorporated. For more information, visit www.unclebens.com.
About Feeding America™ (Formerly America’s Second Harvest – The Nation’s Food Bank Network)
Feeding America provides individuals and families facing hunger with the fuel to survive and even thrive. As the nation’s largest domestic hunger-relief charity, our network members supply food to more than 25 million Americans each year, including 9 million children and 3 million seniors. Serving the entire United States, more than 200 member food banks operate 63,000 agencies that address hunger through emergency food assistance and programs. For more information on how you can fight hunger in your community and across the country, visit www.feedingamerica.org.
Contact:
Ross Fraser
Feeding America
312.641.6422
Kate Lindley
Current Lifestyle Marketing
312.929.0506
773.454.2748
