Retailers, NGOs and Food and Beverage Industry Launch National Initiative to Help Reduce Obesity

WASHINGTON, D.C.—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 http://www.healthyweightcommit.org.   

Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation member companies and partner organizations include:

American Council for Fitness and Nutrition Foundation

American Dietetic Association Foundation

Brookshire Grocery Company

Bumble Bee Foods, LLC

Campbell Soup Company

ConAgra Foods

Festival Foods (Minnesota)

Food Marketing Institute

General Mills, Inc.

Girl Scouts of the USA

González Northgate Market

Grocery Manufacturers Association

Harris Teeter

Hy-Vee, Inc.

IGA, Inc.

Jax Markets

Kellogg Company

Kraft Foods Inc.

Mars, Incorporated

Martin’s Super Markets

McCormick & Company, Inc.

National Wildlife Federation

Nestlé USA

Our Park Place

PE4life

PepsiCo, Inc.

Ralston Foods/Post Foods, LLC

Redner’s Markets, Inc.

Safeway Inc.

Sara Lee Corporation

Schnuck Markets, Inc.

Shop Rite of Hunterdon County, Inc.

Skogen’s Festival Foods

The Coca-Cola Company

The Hershey Company

The J.M. Smucker Company

Unilever

United Supermarkets, Ltd.

W.K. Kellogg Foundation

Wakefern Food Corporation

WalkStyles