The Alliance for a Healthier Generation – a joint initiative of the William J. Clinton Foundation and the American Heart Association – announced a breakthrough collaboration today with five of the nation's leading food manufacturers to help combat childhood obesity in America. Campbell Soup Company, Dannon, Kraft Foods, Mars and PepsiCo have joined with the Alliance to establish first-ever voluntary guidelines for snacks and side items sold in schools that will provide healthier food choices for the nation's children.

These five food industry leaders will invest in product reformulation and new product development, while encouraging broader support of the guidelines. The new guidelines, which were developed in conjunction with nutrition experts at the American Heart Association, will apply to foods offered for sale in schools outside of the National School Lunch Program to students before, during and after the school day. The guidelines cover foods and snacks, desserts, side items and treats sold throughout schools, including school vending machines, ala carte lines, school stores, snack carts and fundraisers.

"Ensuring that children have healthier food choices at school is another critical step in the fight against childhood obesity," said President Clinton. "I'm proud of these five companies for making an important statement about this health challenge and an even more important commitment to doing something about it. What we are setting in motion with these guidelines will dramatically change the kind of food that children have access to at school. It will take time, but through coalitions like this of industry and the non-profit sector, we are going to make a real difference in the lives of millions of children by helping them eat healthier and live healthier."

The new, science-based guidelines will provide kids with food and snack products that are lower in calories, reinforcing the nutrition lessons they learn at home and in the classroom about healthy, balanced diets. Notably, the guidelines promote the consumption of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nutrient-rich foods, fat-free and low fat dairy foods and place limits on calories, fat, saturated fat, trans fat, sugar and sodium. These foods cover a wide range of choices, including everything from chips to chocolate, crackers to cookies, candy, ice cream, granola bars, nuts, soup and yogurt. With these key companies on board, the guidelines will have a real impact across America.

"Kids across America will benefit from today's agreement," said Raymond Gibbons, M.D., American Heart Association president. "Our goal is to point kids to foods that are healthier and that will contribute to a healthier lifestyle overall. By working with schools and industry to implement these guidelines, we are helping to give parents peace of mind that their kids will be able to make healthier choices at school."

"By considering the waist line as well as the bottom line, these leaders in the food industry are taking a huge step to ensure good health of our children," said Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee. "The fight against childhood obesity must be waged on many fronts and I commend these companies for making a positive impact on our children."

The five participating companies are already demonstrating their commitment to the new guidelines:

• Campbell will promote the benefits of its products that are lower in calories, fat and sodium and will leverage its expertise with lower sodium natural sea salt to provide additional reduced sodium soup options in food service.
  
• Dannon will reduce the sugar content of its Danimals yogurt cups for kids by 25 percent, even though the products already conform to the Guidelines before the reduction.
• Kraft will add the Alliance's sodium and calorie caps to its current vending guidelines and extend them to include all of its competitive foods sold in schools.
• Mars will create a new line of nutritious snack products that are formulated with the specific needs of children and teens in mind and that meet or exceed the Alliance guidelines.
• In addition to its products like Baked Lay's that already qualify, PepsiCo will reformulate several products and also encourage schools, distributors and vending partners to offer products that meet the new Alliance guidelines.
  

Fifty four million students attend nearly 123,000 elementary, middle and high schools nationwide, making schools a natural place to promote and reinforce healthy habits in youth. The participating companies have committed to working with the Alliance to help encourage broad acceptance of these new guidelines by schools and food distributors alike, as well as to increasing the range of qualifying products to schools, all with the aim to curb increasing trends in childhood obesity.

"In keeping with our corporate vision, ‘nourishing people's lives, everywhere, every day,' Campbell is proud to participate in this major effort to help reverse the childhood obesity trend," said Joseph Kiely, President of Campbell Away from Home, the company's food service division. "Many of our products such as Campbell's soups, V8 juices and Pepperidge Farm snacks already meet the proposed guidelines and we will continue to innovate with new or improved products meeting these guidelines for our customers serving the school community. This includes leveraging our new advances utilizing lower sodium natural sea salt to offer great-tasting, reduced sodium options in our food service portfolio."

"Good nutrition and health have always been core commitments for Dannon, and all but a few Dannon products already meet the guidelines, including all of our Danimals kids and Light & Fit products," said Juan Carlos Dalto, President and CEO of The Dannon Company. "Furthermore, today we are announcing that we reduced the sugar content of our Danimals yogurt cups by 25 percent beginning this month and just awarded the first Dannon Next Generation Nutrition Grants to selected community organizations to improve children's nutrition education."

"As one of the world's leading food manufacturers and a leader in snack foods, Mars is proud to be in the forefront of this initiative and do the right thing for America's school children," said Jamie Mattikow, President, Mars Nutrition for Health and Well-Being. "By applying the sound science expertise that we have developed from years of nutrition research, we will launch a new line of nutritious products that meet or exceed the Alliance guidelines for children and teens in schools. Some products are already in test market and we look forward to sharing more exciting information soon."

"Kraft's participation in the Alliance builds upon the voluntary efforts we've taken to help people lead healthier lifestyles from introducing better-for-you Sensible Solution products to changing how and what we market to children," said Rick Searer, EVP of Kraft Foods Inc. and President, Kraft North America Commercial. "This agreement aligns well with our current in-school practices since these nutrition guidelines are similar to those we created for school vending machine products in 2003."

"As one of the leaders in the food industry, PepsiCo's Frito-Lay division has a long-standing commitment to healthy lifestyles built around a sensible diet and exercise," said John Compton, CEO, PepsiCo North America. "Whether it's in the unique school environment or at home, Frito-Lay continues to meet consumers' needs and demands by developing healthier snack options. Beyond developing products, our work with the Alliance to support these guidelines is another example of our commitment to encourage healthier lifestyles. We're particularly pleased to have signed a similar agreement for beverages earlier this year with the Alliance for a Healthier Generation."

These guidelines are the latest addition to the Healthy Schools Program and the Alliance's broad approach to combating childhood obesity. On May 3, 2006, the Alliance for a Healthier Generation announced a similar agreement with leading beverage companies to establish beverage guidelines for schools.

About The Alliance for a Healthier Generation:

The Clinton Foundation and the American Heart Association partnered in May 2005 to create a new generation of healthy Americans by addressing one of the nation's leading public health threats – childhood obesity. The Alliance focuses on preventing childhood obesity and creating healthier lifestyles for all children.

The Alliance launched its Healthy Schools Program in February of this year. The program takes a comprehensive approach by supporting schools seeking to improve the nutrition of the foods sold in schools, to provide high quality physical and health education programs, to offer after school programs that incorporate physical activity; and to establish staff wellness programs. The Alliance will recognize schools that meet recognition criteria in these areas. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is the major funder of the Healthy Schools Program.

The Alliance targets several areas that will spark change and slow the increasing rates of childhood obesity in the U.S. and encourage healthier lifestyles for young people. The effort will focus on four key areas: industry; schools, healthcare professionals and kids. For more information visit: www.healthiergeneration.org.