Heinz’s Focus on Health and Wellness

Deana Tobiczyk, a customer service manager
for Heinz North America, has her blood
pressure taken at one of many Health and
Wellness fairs that Heinz provides free of
charge to employees.

Promoting Wellness and Good Nutrition
Every day, Heinz promotes Health and Wellness through a variety of internal and external programs. Our goals are to increase knowledge and awareness of health issues, encourage nutritious choices and active lifestyles, and accelerate research and development that helps find solutions to health problems and diseases.

For example, Heinz supports America on the Move in Pittsburgh, an initiative hosted by the University of Pittsburgh in collaboration with corporations and community partners in the Western Pennsylvania region. It is a program of the America on the Move Foundation, a national non-profit organization that empowers individuals to take control of their health by making small, measurable changes to their daily eating and activity routines. The organization provides free Web-based programs, tools, and resources to the community. Through this partnership, Heinz nutritionists serve as experts for interviews about healthy eating.

Heinz is particularly concerned about the problem of obesity, especially among children. Through grants from the H. J. Heinz Company Foundation, we provide funding to a variety of organizations around the globe that work to combat obesity.

For example, in the European Union, we support the EU Diogenes (Diet, Obesity and Genes) project. This initiative is an integrated five-year project of the EU Sixth Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development and studies the dietary, genetic, physiological, psychological, and behavioral factors of obesity. This work began in 2005, and will continue until 2009.

We also believe that giving people access to nutrition information can help them make better food choices and maintainphysical wellbeing. That is why we created the Heinz Institute of Nutritional Sciences, a non-profit organization whose mission is to advance the knowledge and practice of nutrition. The H. J. Heinz Company underwrites all costs for the Institute, actively participates in setting and measuring the Institute’s progress on goals, and helps direct its global outreach to Heinz scientists.

The Institute cooperates with food and nutrition scientists, public health agencies, and other professional bodies in a number of countries to evaluate scientific data and find solutions to food and nutrition problems. It also supports applied scientific research and facilitates the dissemination of information to key audiences.

Our commitment to nutrition education in the past two years also included presentations, culinary demonstrations, and distribution of nutrition information at various conferences, such as the American Dietetic Association’s 2006 and 2007 Food Conferences and Exhibitions.

Heinz also supports the Prostate Cancer Research Foundation of America in its mission to prevent cancer through research and education. This organization was selected because of the possible link with lycopene, an antioxidant naturally found in tomatoes, which may be helpful in the battle against prostate and other cancers.

Community health is a priority at Heinz. The Heinz Micronutrient Campaign is a ground-breaking initiative to combat malnutrition in infants and children. We are also engaged in community-based initiatives, such as Dutch Voedselbank, a company-sponsored program that provides hunger relief to people in need in the Netherlands.

Our focus on Health and Wellness extends to helping our employees build healthier bodies and minds. In the U.K., for example, Heinz teamed up with the British Heart Foundation to offer Well@Work, a program that promotes positive differences in employees’ health and lifestyles. The Well@Work program highlights ways Heinz employees can improve their diets, increase physical activity, quit cigarette smoking, and limit alcohol consumption. Through the program, healthy food for lunch, and health checks that include blood pressure screenings, cholesterol tests, and Body Mass Index (BMI) calculations are offered. To date, approximately 40% of the employees at Heinz’s main manufacturing site in the U.K. have participated in a free screening program. In the United States, Heinz subsidizes a portion of the costs for health and fitness club memberships for employees, and sponsors lunch-andlearn classes on a variety of health topics. In Australia, employees can enjoy complimentary fruit available in the office and use a company gym.

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