• by Karlene Lukovitz  @KLmarketdaily, January 7, 2011

In a clever departure from a more traditional coin toss, the captains of the University of Nevada and Boston College football teams tossed a Double Stuf Oreo Heads or Tails cookie at the start of the inaugural Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl on Sunday, which took place at the AT&T Park in San Francisco.

Cookie-wise, this latest Oreo variety was uniquely qualified for the purpose, given that it features a chocolate wafer on one side and a golden wafer on the other.

Adding to the impact, Kraft Foods president Tony Vernon and football legend Joe Montana were on hand for the official toss. "In the many years I've been around football, I can honestly say I've never seen a cookie used for a coin toss," Montana said in a release. "I think it's pretty cool and I'm sure it will become a unique tradition for the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl."

Montana, Erin Andrews and Pat and Gina Neely are celebrity ambassadors for Kraft Foods' Huddle to Fight Hunger, the company's most ambitious branded hunger-relief program to date.

The Fight Hunger Bowl, televised on ESPN, was the program's culminating event, celebrating its success and generating further public awareness of hunger in the U.S., which affects 50 million people.

On Jan. 5, Kraft announced that the four-month-long program had exceeded its goal, resulting in a donation of the monetary equivalent of more than 20 million meals to the Feeding America hunger-relief organization.

More than 60 retailers partnered with Kraft brands on the program, featuring special displays in their stores and contributing meals to the overall donation.

The program drew participation from millions of Americans, according to Kraft. Donation-triggering activities included joining a "virtual huddle" on the program's site (huddletofighthunger.com), "liking" the Kraft Foods Facebook page, mobile texting, redeeming branded coupons, and completion of more than 220,000 "passes" through a social app.