TXT 2 SAVE $$: New Nutrition EducationText Messages to Reach Families in Need

Birds Eye®, Partnership for a Healthier America and Share Our Strength Team Up to Pilot Nutrition Education Texting Program for Low-Income Families

Washington, D.C.(April 22, 2013) – Today, Birds Eye®, a brand of Pinnacle Foods, together with the Partnership for a Healthier America (PHA) and Share Our Strength launched a new texting program to help low-income Americans, many of whom are recipients of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly food stamps), get the tools and information they need to make healthier choices.

The “Dinner Made Easy” program will send text messages to subscribers’ mobile devices with cost-saving ideas and tips to make healthy food choices, links to easy recipes and other information to help guide their food shopping experience. Subscribers will receive incentives to join the program through coupons for healthy Birds Eye® vegetable products and a sweepstakes for prizes.

Data from the Pew Research Center shows that text messages are a promising avenue for connecting with low-income families. People living in households making less than $30,000 send and receive an average of about 60 texts a day. That amount drops to 40 texts per day for households making $30,000-$49,000 and to just over 30 texts a day for people in households earning more than $75,000.

“At the Partnership for a Healthier America, we’re looking to help create solutions that make healthier choices easier for parents and families,” said PHA Chief Marketing Officer Drew Nannis. “We’re always looking for new ways to bring healthy ideas, tips and solutions to populations most in need. Texting is an inexpensive tool that allows us to reach specific audiences with messages geared toward their priorities and needs.”

As part of its commitment to PHA, the Birds Eye® brand committed to support a text messaging program that helps inform shoppers about ways to stretch their budgets and shop healthier, bringing this information to lower-income consumers in a new way.

“At Birds Eye, we are passionate about empowering kids and families to eat vegetables more often,” said Rodrigo Troni, senior vice president of marketing for Birds Eye. “We are on a mission to help moms triumph at dinnertime, by helping her serve a complete meal with great-tasting vegetables her whole family, including kids, will enjoy. The ‘Dinner Made Easy’ texting campaign will show families just how easy it is to bring nutritious, vegetable-rich possibilities to their table to complete every meal.”

Share Our Strength’s Cooking Matters – the country’s largest nonprofit nutrition education program – will be engaging their participants to join the texting program as a way to reinforce the lessons learned about healthy eating, cooking, and shopping. Cooking Matters, part of the national No Kid Hungry campaign to end childhood hunger in America, empowers low-income families to buy and prepare healthy food on a budget through hands-on cooking courses and interactive grocery store tours.

“Eighty-five percent of low-income families in America rate healthy eating as important, but only about half are able to put healthy meals on the table most nights,” said Janet McLaughlin, Senior Director of Cooking Matters citing Share Our Strength’s It’s Dinnertime study. “The families we serve are eager to learn about healthy eating, and the texting program will allow us to continue providing needed information in an accessible manner, even after graduation day.”

Coupons for Birds Eye products will be offered to new subscribers along with a chance to win larger prizes. Participants must stay in the program to be eligible to win. During the program, they will receive updates, tips and information about shopping smarter and simple recipes, along with resources from Share Our Strength for how to learn more about healthy, affordable eating.The six-month pilot begins on April 22. Results will be reported at its conclusion in the fall. If successful, similar programs are expected in 2014 and 2015.

About Birds Eye

Birds Eye® unlocks the wonder of vegetables and makes them accessible and enjoyable to everyone, every day. Using vegetables picked and f*rozen at their peak of freshness, Birds Eye® helps Americans make vegetables a meaningful part of everyday life. Providing a range of tasty and exciting solutions that make eating vegetables a memorable taste experience, Birds Eye® has something for everyone: with pure and simple vegetables under the Birds Eye®, C&W®, Freshlike® and McKenzie’s® brand names; Birds Eye Steamfresh® vegetables and vegetable rich blends; and Birds Eye Voila!® complete frozen meals. For more information on Birds Eye® visit www.birdseye.com or www.facebook.com/BirdsEyeVegetables

About Pinnacle Foods

Every day, in more than 85% of American households, consumers reach for Pinnacle Foods brands. Pinnacle Foods is a Top 1000 Company ranked on Fortune Magazine’s 2011 Top 1000 companies list. We are a leading producer, marketer and distributor of high-quality branded food products, which have been trusted household names for decades. Headquartered in Parsippany, NJ, our business employs an average of 3,700 employees. We are a leader in the shelf stable and frozen foods segments and our brands hold the #1 or #2 market position in 10 out of 12 major category segments in which they compete. Our Duncan Hines Grocery Division manages Leadership brands such as Duncan Hines® baking mixes and frostings, Vlasic® shelf-stable pickles and Mrs. Butterworth’s® and Log Cabin® table syrups and Foundation brands such as Armour® canned meats, Brooks® and Nalley® chili and chili ingredients, Comstock® and Wilderness® pie and pastry fruit fillings and Open Pit® barbecue sauces. Our Birds Eye Frozen Division manages Leadership brands such as Birds Eye®, Birds Eye Steamfresh®, C&W®, McKenzie’s®, and Freshlike® vegetables, Birds Eye Voila!® complete bagged meals and Van de Kamp’s® and Mrs. Paul’s® seafood and Foundation brands such as Hungry-Man® dinners and entrées, Aunt Jemima® frozen breakfasts, Lender’s® bagels, and Celeste® pizza. Our Specialty Foods Division manages Tim’s Cascade Snacks®, Hawaiian® Kettle Style Potato Chips, Erin’s® Popcorn, Snyder of Berlin® and Husman’s® in addition to our food service and private label businesses. Further information is available at http://www.pinnaclefoods.com.

About the Partnership for a Healthier America

The Partnership for a Healthier America (PHA) is devoted to working with the private sector to ensure the health of our nation’s youth by solving the childhood obesity crisis. In 2010, PHA was created in conjunction with – but independent from – First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move! effort. PHA is a nonpartisan nonprofit organization that is led by some of the nation’s most respected health and childhood obesity experts. PHA brings together public, private and nonprofit leaders to broker meaningful commitments and develop strategies to end childhood obesity. Most important, PHA ensures that commitments made are commitments kept by working with unbiased third parties to monitor and publicly report on the progress our partners are making. For more information about PHA, please visit www.aHealthierAmerica.org and follow PHA on Twitter @PHAnews.

About Share Our Strength’s Cooking Matters

As part of the national No Kid Hungry campaign working to end childhood hunger in America, Cooking Matters empowers low-income families to stretch their food budgets so their children get healthy meals at home. In hands-on cooking courses and interactive grocery store tours, participants learn to shop smarter, use nutrition information to make healthier choices, and cook delicious, affordable meals. Cooking Matters equips families with the skills they need to stretch their food dollars and maximize the benefits they receive through public nutrition programs like SNAP (food stamps) and WIC (Women, Infants and Children). The ConAgra Foods® Foundation and Walmart are national sponsors of Cooking Matters. For more, visit CookingMatters.org.