Food Bank Teams Up with Brookshire’s, Kraft

TYLER — Brookshire Grocery Co. announces it is huddling with Kraft Foods to tackle hunger in East Texas. Brookshire Grocery Co. is part of Kraft Foods’ Huddle to Fight Hunger, which is the food company’s largest branded hunger-relief program designed to achieve a significant goal: give 20 million meals or more to Feeding America. On Tuesday, Brookshire Grocery Co. and Kraft Foods presented a $10,000 check to the East Texas Food Bank, part of the Feeding America network. To celebrate the launch of Huddle to Fight Hunger locally, Brookshire Grocery Co. and Kraft Foods are donating the monetary equivalent of 70,000 meals to Feeding America on behalf of local food banks in the area, as well as encouraging local residents to join the team.

“Hunger is a very serious issue in our country that often goes overlooked,” said Rick Ellis, Senior Vice President/Chief Marketing Officer, Brookshire Grocery Co. “Sadly, 49.1 million Americans, or one in six of our neighbors struggle to put food on their tables. That’s why we’ve joined Kraft Foods in their ambitious effort and are encouraging members of the community to huddle with us to address this problem. It can’t be overlooked anymore.”

Huddle to Fight Hunger combines three things Americans are passionate about – football, food and helping others. To reach the end zone, Kraft Foods has huddled together its power brands and high-profile celebrities including football legend Joe Montana, sports journalist Erin Andrews and chefs Pat and Gina Neely to champion the cause. The company also coordinated a variety of marketing support vehicles, such as consumer incentives, high-impact media like cinema, newspaper and magazine ads, a major public relations campaign, as well as social and mobile activities. The campaign will culminate in San Francisco on January 9, 2011, with the first-ever Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl featuring college football teams from the WAC and PAC-10.

“Having supported Feeding America for decades, we want to make sure everyone knows how committed we and our partners like Brookshire Grocery Co. are to reaching our goal,” said Lisa Mann, Vice President of Consumer Experiences, Kraft Foods. “So we’re pulling out all the stops – we’ve secured great celebrity partners to help champion the cause, enlisted the support of our brands and partners and coordinating a series of local events like those that Brookshire Grocery Co. has planned in East Texas across the country.”

Local residents can help Kraft Foods meet and exceed their donation goal by visiting http://www.HuddleToFightHunger.com to learn about all the ways they can get in the game. For each person that joins the “Huddle” on the site, Kraft Foods will donate one meal donation to his or her local Feeding America food bank.