Download School Foodservice Fact Sheet

School Foodservice
Fact Sheet
One company.
One goal.
Making the food
you love.
School Foodservice brands
With 31 million school lunches served every day, school districts
across the country turn to ConAgra Foods for great-tasting, nutritious
and kid-favorite options. ConAgra Foods is constantly working to
further improve the nutrition, taste and variety of its school
foodservice offerings, including:
ConAgra Foods is one of North America’s
leading food makers. Consumers find
ConAgra Foods brands in grocery,
convenience, mass merchandise and
club stores. The company also has a
strong business-to-business presence
supplying potato, other vegetable, spice
and grain products to a variety of wellknown restaurants, foodservice operators
and commercial customers.
With products found in 96 percent of
American households, ConAgra Foods
has the opportunity to impact childhood
nutrition on a broad scale. Working with
key industry partners such as the School
Nutrition Association and Feeding
America, the company is committed to
providing healthier meals
and nutrition education
to America’s youth.
Ultragrain is an all-natural, 100 percent whole
wheat flour that combines the nutritional benefits
of whole grains with the taste and texture of
traditional refined flour.
The Max offers a wide range of whole-grain pizza
and breakfast options, made with Ultragrain, to
help school foodservice programs bring better
nutrition to the lunch tables. The pizza, featuring
a 51 percent whole-grain crust, contains a full
serving of whole grains meeting one-third of the
daily requirement for whole grains. Each slice of
pizza also provides between three and five grams
of fiber.
Kids get the energy they need with nourishing
meals from Chef Boyardee. Some of the bestselling pasta products feature a full serving of
vegetables and sodium has been reduced in some
Chef Boyardee products. Made with premium meat
and enriched pasta, Chef Boyardee pasta has zero
grams trans fat and no preservatives.
Made with real nonfat milk and no preservatives or
trans fat, Snack Pack pudding is a good source of
calcium and is available in regular and fat-free varieties. It’s the wholesome and portion-controlled
way to satisfy a craving for sweets.
Commitment to Childhood Nutrition
• ConAgra Foods is an active member of the School Nutrition Association (SNA). SNA is devoted exclusively to
protecting and enhancing children’s health and well-being through school meals and sound nutrition education.
•
ConAgra Foods Foundation’s partnership with Feeding America (the nation’s leading domestic hunger-relief
charity) is the largest corporate initiative in the U.S. solely dedicated to fighting child hunger. As the first company to
comprehensively fund child hunger programs nationwide, ConAgra Foods has donated more than 230 million pounds of food
and invested more than $30 million over the past 15 years.
• The ConAgra Foods Foundation’s Nourish Today, Flourish Tomorrow initiative takes an innovative approach to addressing needs
in the core areas of hunger and nutrition education. The Foundation is dedicated to ensuring that all kids in America have
access to the food and facts they need to eat nutritiously, live balanced lifestyles and succeed in school and life.
Commitment to Childhood Nutrition (continued)
• ConAgra Foods Foundation is the national sponsor of Share Our Strength’s Operation Frontline®, which brings together
leading chefs and nutrition educators to teach families how to prepare nutritious meals on a budget in more than 20 cities
across the country.
• ConAgra Foods’ Research, Quality & Innovation team works to enhance the healthfulness and nutritional value of foods
while also improving food quality, safety and convenience.
The facts about the food we make
We know feeding thousands of kids every day isn’t easy. And with high childhood obesity rates and families struggling to make ends meet, school nutrition is more important than ever. So where do “processed” foods fit in the
equation? Some have begun to equate “processed” food, or food that comes in a package, with bad food or poor
nutrition. However, many processed foods do offer nutritional benefits. Processing can include canning, freezing,
refrigeration…things our grandparents may have done to keep green beans on the table year-round.
At ConAgra Foods, our employees make food from recipes our chefs create. We don’t think of it as “processing”—
we make food with the same care and attention to detail that you use in your own kitchen.
Here are the facts on the food we make—things you should know as you make critical decisions around the food
you serve:
•
Our tomatoes are canned within hours of being picked in the field. Some packaged foods, such as canned
tomatoes, actually have a nutritional advantage over “fresh.” The powerful, naturally occurring antioxidants
called lycopene, which give tomatoes their red color, is more easily absorbed by the body from canned
tomatoes than raw tomatoes.
• At ConAgra Foods, we have the expertise to make food with ingredients that deliver extra nutrition such as
whole grain. And we can minimize unneeded ingredients, such as too much sodium or trans fats.
• Want the variety of food that nutrition professionals recommend? Due to climate, natural growing seasons and
regional differences in the best place to grow food, a number of foods may not be available in your local area.
Packaged foods give you the flexibility to serve a greater variety of foods whenever you choose.
• Properly prepared and packaged foods are often less susceptible to early spoilage than raw foods, adding an
element of food safety to your kitchen and reducing food waste.
• ConAgra Foods products are made by employees who have been educated and trained in food safety practices.
• ConAgra Foods maintains strict food safety controls over our ingredients, manufacturing process and
distribution system.
• We’re committed to helping you get kids the nutrition they need and the taste they want, at a very good value.
The importance of whole grains
• Grains are important sources of many nutrients, including dietary fiber, several
B vitamins (thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, and folate), and minerals (iron,
magnesium, and selenium).
•
Because such a large number of U.S. children eat school meals, adding whole
wheat flour, such as Ultragrain, to products served on school menus can make
make a significant contribution to increasing the overall whole-grain intake by
children.
• ConAgra Foods’ commitment to whole grain nutrition is reflected in the
research studies it sponsors and in its sampling programs, which help schools
sample products made with Ultragrain®.
• As a founding member of the Grains for Health Foundation, ConAgra Foods has
a long history of leadership related to school nutrition and increased whole
grain consumption.
©ConAgra Foods, Inc. All rights reserved.
Contacts:
ConAgra Foods
One ConAgra Drive
Omaha, NE 68102-5001
School Foodservice Sales
1-800-357-6543