Manufacturing and Illinois-Distribution of 230K+ Meal Packets Occur August 12, 2020

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE. August 6, 2020. CHICAGO, Ill. -- Due to Coronavirus, and according to Feeding America, the number of Americans who are food insecure is escalating from 1 in 8 last year to 1 in 6 in 2020. Bigger Table, the nonprofit arm of Chicagoland Food & Beverage Network, is helping the food insecure by creating a tasty, high-protein, low-sugar chocolate meal replacement mix. SEE MEDIA ALERT FOR DATES, TIMES.[1] 

Each Bigger Table partner company behind this effort donated time, services, know-how, ingredients, flavors, and skills to develop this delicious and nutritious product that will be donated to food banks free of charge (retail value of this mix is estimated at $3 a packet).

In total, an estimated 19,800 pounds of ingredients, plus packaging, recipe creation, manufacturing time, food safety plans, and more have been donated in-kind to make this product.

This week, the nonprofit is manufacturing and packaging 230,000+ servings of this Chocolate Protein Beverage Mix. “This is the new wave of corporate philanthropy,” says Alan Reed, Executive Director of Bigger Table. “These ingredients are already in our food supply chain. Bigger Table’s role is to ‘direct traffic,’ facilitating the collaboration to create more healthy meals for food banks.”

This large, summertime endeavor follows Bigger Table’s pilot launch of 10,000 packets of high-protein, low-sugar Hot Cocoa Mix (distributed the coldest week of the year in February). As the pandemic erupted, Chicago-based Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), a $65B global leader in human and animal nutrition, asked Bigger Table to fast track a larger project that could sustain more people. “ADM committed ingredients to advance this effort, and with ADM’s leadership, nutrition expertise, and vast portfolio of functional ingredients, we concepted and created this product from scratch in less than four months,” adds Reed.

Others contributing to this Protein Mix include: Bader Rutter (product branding), Blueshoon (website development/management), Coyle Print Group (product labeling), ConnectFood (food safety), Dairy Farmers of America (dry milk, milk protein), Edlong (dairy flavorings), FONA International (flavorings), Imbibe (recipe development, sweeteners), Lithotype Co. (product packaging), Olam Cocoa (cocoa), and Proven Partners Group (manufacturing), and Sweetener Supply (salt). “We are proud to lead an industry effort that utilizes ingredients as a solution to feeding people in need,” says Reed. “We are forging new paths between caring local businesses and food-insecure Americans” 

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ABOUT BIGGER TABLE: Bigger Table is a nonprofit (501c3) organization founded by the Chicagoland Food and Beverage Network. It aims to bring together the area’s food & beverage industry to collaborate and deliver on a series of charitable and economic growth initiatives. By working together, Bigger Table believes it can work more effectively, have a bigger impact on the community, and better engage employees and the communities it serves.

ABOUT CHICAGOLAND FOOD AND BEVERAGE NETWORK: CFBN is a regional food & beverage membership organization representing a rich variety of industry leaders, from established professionals to budding entrepreneurs. CFBN boasts a vibrant and growing membership of companies interested in connecting and learning from others and building the industry in Chicagoland. It brings people together for networking opportunities, to brainstorm great ideas, to collaborate and create to grow business.