Food maker brings home ‘Green’ award for sustainable partnership with Forgotten Harvest and wins ‘Food’ award for Orville Redenbacher’s Pop Up Bowl

Company Website: http://www.conagrafoods.com
OMAHA, Neb. -- (Business Wire)

ConAgra Foods, Inc., (NYSE: CAG) announced today that it won two Edison Awards for innovation. The annual Edison Awards recognize and honor some of the most innovative new products, services and business leaders across industries around the world. Representatives from winning organizations accepted their honors April 26 at the Edison Awards Gala in New York.

ConAgra Foods and Forgotten Harvest, a Detroit-based food rescue organization, won the Gold Edison Green Award, the top award in this category, chosen from entries from multiple industries. This award is designed as a platform to recognize efforts by an organization to reduce participating communities’ carbon footprint, create Green Collar jobs through new innovation methods and improve community health and self-sufficiency. Employees at ConAgra Foods’ Slim Jim® plant in Troy, Ohio, have worked with Forgotten Harvest since June 2011 to find use for 204,554 pounds of perishable meat snacks that otherwise would have gone to waste in a landfill. In making Slim Jim meat snacks, ends of meat sticks that can’t be packaged are set aside. Forgotten Harvest receives the donated pieces in bulk and packages them in bags for distribution to individuals and families through its mobile food pantry system.

“This project preserves the environmental investment in all of the materials that go into making Slim Jims, instead of having some of them go to waste,” said Gail Tavill, vice president of Sustainable Development for ConAgra Foods. “It feeds hungry people, reduces waste and avoids disposal costs – a true triple-win project.”

“We are proud to have served as a partner with ConAgra Foods on this pilot program,” said Susan Goodell, president and CEO of Forgotten Harvest. “With one in five people facing hunger in metro Detroit, this will ensure we can provide a high-protein food source for the kids and families in our community.”

In addition to the Green Award, ConAgra Foods won Silver in the Food category for Orville Redenbacher’s Pop Up Bowl. The revolutionary bag-to-bowl design pops into a ready-to-serve, free-standing bowl that allows for easier snacking, sharing and clean-up. Two transparent sides allow snack lovers to watch their popcorn pop and see when it’s ready. The Edison Award is one of many awards the Pop Up Bowl has won since it hit shelves in March 2011. These accolades include a 2011 World Packaging Organization WorldStar Award, a 2012 Flexible Packaging Highest Achievement Award and a 2012 Product of the Year award.

“We are honored to have received such great validation for the Orville Redenbacher’s Pop Up Bowl,” said Jesse Spungin, vice president and general manager for ConAgra Foods. “This innovation has helped grow microwave category sales and reinforces Orville Redenbacher’s as a true super snack.”

About ConAgra Foods

ConAgra Foods, Inc., (NYSE: CAG) is one of North America's leading food companies. With brands in 97 percent of American households, ConAgra Foods provides some of America’s long-time favorites. Consumers can find Chef Boyardee, Egg Beaters, Hebrew National, Hunt’sTomato Sauces and Ketchup, Marie Callender’s, Orville Redenbacher’s, PAM, Reddi-wip, Slim JimMeat Sticks and Beef Jerky and many other ConAgra Foods brands in grocery, convenience, mass merchandise and club stores. ConAgra Foods operates ReadySetEat.com, an interactive recipe website that provides consumers with Easy Dinner Recipes and more. ConAgra Foods also has a strong business-to-business presence, supplying frozen potato and sweet potato products as well as other vegetable, spice and grain products to a variety of well-known restaurants, foodservice operators and commercial customers. For more information about the company's Corporate Responsibility program, please visit us at http://www.conagrafoods.com/corporateresponsibility.

About Forgotten Harvest

Forgotten Harvest, America’s largest food rescue organization, was formed in 1990 to fight two problems: hunger and waste. Forgotten Harvest is on target to rescue over 40 million pounds of food in the fiscal year ending June 2012. Prepared and perishable foods are rescued from over 450 sources, including grocery stores, fruit and vegetable markets, restaurants, caterers, dairies, farmers, wholesale food distributors, manufacturers and other Health Department-approved sources. This donated food, which would otherwise go to waste, is delivered free-of-charge to more than 250 emergency food providers in the metro Detroit area. Learn more about Forgotten Harvest and how to help drive hunger from our community at www.forgottenharvest.org.

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Contacts:

ConAgra Foods
Kaitlin Arntz, 402-305-0330
kaitlin.arntz@conagrafoods.com
www.conagrafoods.com

Source: ConAgra Foods