China Daily Global Edition (USA)
PepsiCo aims to fight poor nutrition
PepsiCo Greater China Region officially launched the “PepsiCo Nutrition In Action” program in China in late 2015, and donated funds and materials totaling 1 million yuan to China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation. It is providing nutritious meals and conducting educational activities on nutritional knowledge for schoolchildren in poor areas of Zhaotong, southwestern China’s Yunnan province.
So far, “PepsiCo Nutrition In Action” has provided 130,000 Quaker Nutrition Breakfasts to more than 1,600 poor pupils in Zhaotong, and completed nutrition and hygiene knowledge training for 200 teachers and canteen staff.
“I don’t need to be hungry in the morning again thanks to PepsiCo’s free breakfast,” said Xu Anyun, a sixth-grade student at Sanzhai Primary School in Zhaotong.
On Sept 20, PepsiCo GCR announced a 700,000 yuan ($105,000) donation to the CFPA.
The donation ceremony was held in Sanzhai Primary School, Zhaotong. The donation will be used to conduct jointly a nutrition improvement project for youngsters in western and central China. This donation, the second in two years from the company, comes from PepsiCo GCR employees, and was matched by the PepsiCo Foundation.
According to the 2012 China Health Statistics Yearbook, the mortality rate of children under the age of five in China was 13.2 per 1,000 live births. Of this number, approximately 13 percent were due to undernutrition. According to government statistics, there are still 40 million children living in concentrated contiguous poverty-stricken areas. In poor rural areas such as Yunnan, more than 30 percent of children are affected by malnutrition.
Michael Lindsey, senior vice-president of Nutrition Category and Commercialization at PepsiCo GCR, said: “Since its entry into the Chinese market in 2004, PepsiCo’s Quaker Oats brand has become indispensable for hundreds of millions of households.
“PepsiCo attaches great importance to food nutrition and nutritional knowledge, and Quaker’s advocacy of health and nutrition dovetails perfectly with CFPA’s program. We are glad to continue to cooperate with CFPA and CNS to contribute to the improvement of nutrition and health problems of children in impoverished areas of China.”
To encourage and influence young people to care for those in need, PepsiCo also leveraged the power of new social media platforms. This time, “Pepsi Co Nutrition In Action” cooperated with the Tencent CSR platform and won widespread support from netizens. More than 400,000 netizens participated in the Walking Donation for Charity program.
Jiang Shaogao, vice-president of CFPA, said: “We are very grateful for PepsiCo’s support to our ‘Nutritious Meals’ program.
“Investing in children’s nutrition is building the future, and nutritional assistance for children is a measure to prevent the transmission of poverty to the next generation and to fundamentally eliminate poverty. In response to the central government’ s call for ‘targeted poverty-alleviation measures’, CFPA will continuously partner with PepsiCo to provide targeted nutrition supplements for students in poor areas, enhance nutrition and health awareness and effectively solve the malnutrition problems in those areas.”