• by Karlene Lukovitz  @KLmarketdaily, October 5, 2009

An unprecedented coalition of more than 40 retailers, food and beverage manufacturers, non-governmental organizations (NGO's) and educators have committed to a national, multi-year effort to help reduce obesity, particularly among children, by 2015.

The Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation will seek to help people achieve a healthy weight through "energy balance" -- meaning balancing calories consumed as part of a healthy diet and calories expended. Efforts will be focused in three areas: the marketplace, the workplace and schools.

The foundation will use a common-sense "laboratory" approach, executive director Lisa Gable said during a kick-off press conference. "We're going to experiment and adjust our approach to determine the most successful, sustainable strategies." All results will be independently evaluated and reported to the public.

In the marketplace, participating companies are committing to "build on existing efforts" to change products, packaging and labeling to help consumers manage calorie intake while preserving or enhancing products' overall nutrition quality. Options include product reformulation and innovation, providing smaller portions, redesigning packaging and labeling, placing calorie information on the front of products, providing consumers with information and educational materials, and in-store promotion of the initiative.

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the nation's largest philanthropy devoted to improving the health and health care of Americans, will support an independent evaluation of the marketplace initiative.

In the workplace, participating companies will establish or enhance programs to help employees achieve and maintain a healthy weight. Options include providing calorie information and healthier food and beverage options in cafeterias, vending machines and break rooms; providing access to exercise at work through individual and group activities; offering weight management programs; and implementing tools to track progress, such as health risk appraisals.

Workplace efforts will be evaluated by the National Business Group on Health, and best practices will be shared with employers so that these practices may be replicated.

In schools, the foundation will expand a Healthy Schools Partnership that was developed by the American Council for Fitness and Nutrition Foundation, PE4life and the American Dietetic Association Foundation. The program, which integrates nutrition education and physical education through a school-based curriculum to instill healthy, lifelong habits, has had a successful pilot in Kansas City, Mo. and will now be expanded to additional schools there, as well as Des Moines, Iowa; Washington, D.C., Chicago and a tribal community in Iowa. This initiative is being evaluated by the University of California at Berkeley Center for Weight and Health.

The Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation will also launch a multimillion-dollar public education campaign on energy balance in 2010, for which the details are to be announced soon, according to Gable.

Participants have committed to an initial investment of $20 million.

Kellogg Company president/CEO David Mackay is acting as the foundation's chairman of the board. The vice chairs are Ric Jurgens, chairman, president and CEO of Hy-Vee, Inc., and Indra Nooyi, chairman and CEO of PepsiCo, Inc.

Participating food and beverage manufacturers include Bumble Bee Foods, Campbell Soup Company, ConAgra Foods, General Mills, Kellogg Company, Kraft Foods, Mars, Inc., McCormick & Company, Nestlé USA, PepsiCo, Ralston Foods/Post Foods, Sara Lee Corp., The Coca-Cola Company, The Hershey Company, The J.M. Smucker Company and Unilever.

Participating retailers include Brookshire Grocery Company, Festival Foods (Minnesota), González Northgate Market, Harris Teeter, Hy-Vee, IGA, Jax Markets, Martin's Super Markets, Redner's Markets., Safeway, Schnuck Markets, Shop Rite of Hunterdon County, Skogen's Festival Foods, United Supermarkets Ltd. and Wakefern Food Corp.

Other participants include the American Council for Fitness and Nutrition Foundation, American Dietetic Association Foundation, Food Marketing Institute, Girl Scouts of the USA, Grocery Manufacturers Association, National Wildlife Federation, Our Park Place, PE4life, W.K. Kellogg Foundation and WalkStyles.