Report: Food, beverage companies invested $30M in health-and-wellness efforts last year

WASHINGTON — The Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation on Tuesday released new data showing the 11 food and beverage companies participating in the Commitment to Healthy Communities program invested more than $30 million in community-based health-and-wellness initiatives that reached more than 11 million Americans in 2016.  The CHC data was reviewed and confirmed by the City University of New York School of Public Health.



"Food and beverage companies have a strong commitment to providing consumers with the products, tools and information they need to achieve a healthy diet and active lifestyle," stated Becky Johnson, executive director of the Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation.  "These year-one results are an impressive start, and will be used by CHC and its member companies to expand the effectiveness of their investment in a healthier future."



"This data is very important because it provides a great baseline that will help us track and improve the effectiveness of the private sector's community-based health and wellness programs moving forward," added Terry T-K Huang, professor, CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy.  "The year-one results show not only progress and promise, but the need for continued work."



According to the executive summary, 11 food and beverage companies delivered 38 community-based health and wellness programs in 2016. Those participating companies spent more than $30 million on community-based health and wellness programs in 2016 and those 38 programs reached 11.2 million Americans with tools and information to help them achieve a healthy diet and active lifestyle.



In addition, as many as 34,700 schools across America were reached with health and wellness tools and materials and the health and wellness programs facilitated 1.6 million hours of physical activity.



CHC is a novel approach designed to fully leverage the strengths of the public sector (including academia) and the private sector in pursuit of a common goal — reducing the prevalence of childhood obesity within a generation. It was created by HWCF and CUNY to evaluate corporate-community investment in healthful eating and active living programs and catalyzes multi-sector action toward collective impact on community health.



The goal of CHC is to assess corporate programs and use scope and impact data to build a catalog of best practices and concepts companies can use to move toward implementation of impactful new and better programs.  An independent panel of experts oversaw the development of CHC's framework for evaluating company strategies and programs that promote healthy lifestyles in communities across the country. Some of the food companies participating include General Mills, the Kellogg Company, PepsiCo, The Coca-Cola Company, Nestlé, The J.M. Smucker Company and Campbell Soup Company.