Sponsoring Programs Through the YMCA

PepsiCo has partnered with America’s YMCAs to help Americans live healthier lives through a five-year alliance totaling $11.6 million in support to America’s YMCAs through 2010. This new agreement supports YMCA Activate America, the YMCA movement’s innovative public health initiative that seeks to make healthy living a reality for millions of Americans. The alliance includes program development and marketing initiatives designed to strengthen and promote YMCAs as a powerful national resource for healthy living. In addition to supporting YMCA Activate America, PepsiCo will support YMCA of the USA’s national diversity initiative that advances the vision of YMCAs as models of inclusion and acceptance.

YMCA Activate America

YMCA Activate America is an innovative public health initiative of the YMCA movement that seeks to create environments where Americans feel supported in their efforts to eat healthy and be physically active. Through organizational transformation, community leadership, and strategic partnerships, the initiative is helping to enhance YMCAs’ abilities to serve “health seekers” and their families. Health seekers are individuals who want to be active and healthy but continually start and stop the process and, therefore, have been unable to sustain a commitment to healthy living. Visit http://www.ymca.net/activateamerica.

As a part of its national sponsorship of YMCA Activate America, PepsiCo will support several activities:

• Tropicana, a division of PepsiCo, will continue its support as a national sponsor of YMCA Healthy Kids® Day, an annual grassroots community event designed to celebrate healthy living, encourage kids and families to get excited about physical fun and activity and, most importantly, engage kids in play to be healthy. The event occurs in more than 1,000 communities, reaching more than 500,000 people.
• PepsiCo sponsors a joint initiative of YMCA Activate America and the America On the Move Foundation, a non-profit organization that helps Americans commit to healthy living, to develop a community walking program to be offered through local YMCAs and celebrate an annual day of action, rallying Americans to pledge to lead healthier lives by taking 2,000 more steps each day (about 1 mile) and reducing daily caloric intake by 200 calories. In 2006, the “STEPtember” campaign engaged more than 850,000 people who took more than 9.3 billion steps.
• To recognize YMCAs as a valuable resource and support for individuals and families wanting to live healthier, PepsiCo will launch healthy living promotions involving Tropicana Pure Premium, Aquafina, Quaker Oatmeal, and other Smart Spot brands.
• PepsiCo will fund $1 million annually in competitive grants for local YMCAs launching or expanding health and wellness initiatives in their communities.