2008 Q2 Newsletters

June 2008 Newsletter (sent June 25, 2008)

Dear Whole Grains Council members,

This member email comes to you monthly, but if you'd like an easy way to keep up with the latest on the momentum of whole grains, sign up for the RSS feed on our WGC blog today. Also, visit our Whole Grain Statistics page for facts and figures you can use in your marketing and media contacts.

NEXT CONFERENCE: APRIL 20-22, 2009 IN DC
Mark your calendars and save the date. We've scheduled our next WGC conference for April 20-22, 2009 in Alexandria, VA. As this is the period when policymakers will be planning the 2010 Dietary Guidelines, it's a good time to be in the DC area with a strong message on the health benefits of whole grains.

This conference, titled "Make Half Your Grains Whole," will feature our trademark mix of science updates and culinary samplings, with an added twist. This time, we're adding interactive sessions to facilitate information exchange: school foodservice directors will be able to tell manufacturers about their needs, and learn about the food-producers' constraints, for example, and health professionals can meet with media representatives to discuss better ways to reach consumers with health messages. If we all work together, we can accomplish great things.

As always, the conference will offer unique marketing opportunities and extra visibility for those who would like to be sponsors. Click here for an overview of sponsorship benefits - or call Cindy Harriman at 617-896-4820, tell us your marketing goals and budget, and we'll customize a sponsorship package to meet your specific needs.

RESEARCH SUMMARY UNDERWAY
As we mentioned above, the 2010 Dietary Guidelines are top-of-mind this year and next. At the request of Brian Wansink, Director of USDA's Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion (CNPP), the WGC is compiling a summary of whole grain health research published since 2004. With advice from Penny Kris-Etherton at Penn State, we've hired Heather Katcher, who worked with Penny on the widely-reported Penn State study published earlier this year, to complete the project this summer.

If any of you have existing compilations of any part of this body of research, please pass them along to us so that we can avoid re-inventing the wheel. Once our compilation is complete, we will make it available to all WGC members. This report will be essential to a strong recommendation for whole grains in the new Guidelines, and will be a valuable reference for our members, also.

MORE WHOLE GRAINS FOR SCHOOLS
The WGC will be making two separate presentations at next month's SNA conference in Philadelphia.

On Saturday July 19 we'll be part of a half-day session titled "Do Your Students Love Whole Grains Yet?", speaking on identifying legitimate whole grain products. Then, on Tuesday July 22, we'll present a program called "Whole Grains: Health vs. Stealth" that will showcase the two main ways school foodservice directors can approach the addition of whole grains to school meals: by sneaking them into foods quietly, or by more direct methods. In most cases, a mix of both approaches works best - but this session will provide a lively debate from two experienced foodservice directors, tied together with an overview from the WGC on the health benefits of whole grains for kids.

In this time of spiraling food prices, some schools who were offering whole grains may be waivering, so this is an important time to make sure that the importance of whole grains stays front and center in the minds of parents and school officials.

One way to do this is to make sure your foodservice offerings are included on the foodservice page of our website. New products will post here if you simply fill in the foodservice section of the standard Product Registration Form at the time you register a product for using the Stamp. For products already registered with us, simply email Kara with the 1) Product name 2) case contents 3) SKU and 4) weight (just look at the page and you'll see what's needed).

UK STAMP LAUNCH A SUCCESS
We stopped in England last week to celebrate the introduction of the first UK product to use the Whole Grain Stamp - a loaf of crusty Multi Wholegrain Bread offered nationwide in the inhouse bakery department of Morrisons, the UK's fourth-largest supermarket chain.

While there we visited with British Bakels and EDME, our first two UK members; La Brea Bakery's UK division has also just joined.

Last week's European trip started with a presentation in Helsinki to the European Millers' Association, where delegates from all 27 EU countries expressed strong interest in the growing worldwide movement toward whole grains. Currently 9% of the WGC's members are based outside of the US, and many of our US members sell outside our borders. While the work of the WGC will continue to focus on reaching US consumers, we're glad to learn that citizens of other countries are interested in coming along for the ride.

GIVEAWAY: 3.4 TONS AND GROWING
What will YOUR company give away, for this autumn's Whole Grain Giveaway? We're highlighting the generosity of our members, by totaling their charitable donations of whole grains during September and October 2008. We'll post them on our website (see the list so far!) and spread the word to the media, with the grand total announced during November as our thoughts turn to being grateful for the bounty of the land.

There's a special place in the For Members section of the WGC website that explains the program, and makes it easy for you to sign up with your commitment. Email us with your donations sooner rather than later, so your project will have plenty of time to inspire others.

Best regards from all of us at Oldways and the Whole Grains Council,

Cindy
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Cynthia Harriman
Director of Food and Nutrition Strategies
Oldways / The Whole Grains Council
603-436-1608 direct
617-896-4820 main office

May 2008 Newsletter (Sent May 28, 2008)

Dear Whole Grains Council members,

We're just back from the National Restaurant Association show in Chicago, and are happy to report that whole grains have made strong progress since last year's NRA show. Talking to WGC members and non-members alike, we heard comments including these:

"The national chains are buying our whole wheat buns and white buns about 50/50."

"If we come out with a new bread, we have to have it in whole wheat too, because they ask for it."

"We just introduced a whole grain version of [our flagship product] and customers said, 'It's about time'."

Last year's Healthy Dining session at NRA was sparsely attended but this year's packed the room, to hear WGC Culinary Advisor Paul Lynch, WGC Director of Food & Nutrition Strategies Cynthia Harriman, top Chicago chef Rick Bayless and others talk about consumers' new insistence on getting both taste and health in their food.

WHOLE GRAINS GIVEAWAY IN SEPTEMBER
As we announced in our March newsletter, one of the events we're planning for Whole Grains Month in September is the Whole Grains Giveaway. It's a simple project aimed to draw attention to the importance of making sure everyone has access to healthy whole grains. It's as simple as this:

· Our members give away whole grains during September.

· We total up the largesse and get great media coverage for The WGC's collective efforts.

We're hoping for 100% participation from ALL our members. Give a little, give a lot. Give to any good cause of your choice - a soup kitchen, a day care center, your local school system, a homeless shelter.

Here are specifics from four of our earliest member commitments:

"During the month of September 2008, King Arthur Flour will teach nearly 1,500 middle school students how to bake with whole grains through its LifeSkills Bread Baking program. The employee-owned company will donate whole wheat flour for the students to bake whole wheat loaves which are then donated to community food pantries."

"Windham, NH-based Gak's Snacks will donate boxes of its allergen-free chocolate chip, brownie chip, and oatmeal cookies to Shepherd's Pantry, a local food pantry serving families in the southern New Hampshire area."

"For Whole Grains Month in September Indian Harvest will donate a variety of whole grains to Schoolcraft Learning Community, a local K-8 charter school in Bemidji, Minnesota. Chef Michael Holleman will lead workshops with the children on the value of whole grains in a balanced diet, the importance of whole foods, and will discuss the idea of heirloom seeds with students in support of their expeditionary learning program on "The World We Want" a rounded look at sustainability in action for ages 5-13. Kid-friendly recipes will be the focus of the workshops and a variety of grains will be donated to the school to feature on the menu the entire month of September. "

"Fresno-based Sunnyland Mills is donating bulgur wheat to the Community Food Bank (an America's Second Harvest affiliate) and contributing volunteer time to teach Community Food Bank employees easy ways to prepare bulgur for delicious and nutritious salads and side dish recipes."

We'll take your private commitments and add them up behind the scenes to come up with an attention-getting total we can make public. From our first few pledges, we're already approaching TWO TONS of whole grains donated, so we know the final total will be impressive!

Go to the WGC website today and register your pledge for September's Whole Grains Giveaway. We will start a new web page this month, to post your pledges and start generating media interest. Get maximum visibility - while you help others - with your early pledge!

FDA EXPANDS WHOLE GRAIN HEALTH CLAIM
We're pleased to announce that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has now declared brown rice eligible to bear the Whole Grain Health Claim. The Claim, stating "Diets rich in whole grain foods and other plant foods and low in total fat, saturated fat and cholesterol may reduce the risk of heart disease and some cancers," was originally approved in 1999.

To use the Claim, at least 51% of the total weight of a food must be whole grain ingredients - with compliance measured against a benchmark level of 11% fiber in the whole grain component. In the past, this meant that 100% whole grain foods with a naturally lower fiber level, such as a sack of brown rice, could not use the claim even though they clearly exceeded the 51% level of whole grain content.

Now, following a petition from the USA Rice Federation in consultation with the WGC, FDA has ruled that single-ingredient whole grains do not need to prove compliance, since it's obvious from the ingredients list that they qualify as whole grains.

At this time, the ruling only affects single-ingredient foods. Multi-ingredient foods must still meet the fiber compliance levels, leaving all the grains with less than 11% fiber - buckwheat, corn, millet, oats, quinoa, brown rice, sorghum and wild rice - at a disadvantage in formulation. Perhaps someday this inequity can also be addressed.

Read more on the WGC website.

PAPA JOHN'S USES WG STAMP IN A BIG WAY!
One of our newest WGC members, Papa John's International, has introduced a 100% whole grain pizza crust, drawing heavily on the power of the Whole Grain Stamp in their promotion of this new product.

Starting with the May 26th introduction of the new crust, every pizza box leaving Papa John's restaurants features a full-size promo for the whole wheat crust. The crust, by the way, contains a whopping 40g of whole grain per slice.

We urge all our members to take advantage of the widespread consumer recognition of the Whole Grain Stamp to boost their whole grain product sales. The Whole Grain Stamp will appear in front of consumers' eyes more than one billion times in 2008 - which explains why a recent Hartman Group report found that 60% of consumers are now familiar with the Stamp.

INTERNATIONAL STAMP USAGE GROWS
We now have a Spanish Whole Grain Stamp!

As you plan promotions using the Stamp, don't forget that you can also use this symbol in overseas promotions. Currently, our members are already using the Whole Grain Stamp...

* in the UK (standard English-language version)

* in Canada (bilingual French-English version)

* in Mexico and the Dominican Republic (Spanish, shown here)

We have "internationalized" the WGC website to make all references more universal, as interest in whole grains grows globally. We invite you to take a look at our new page on whole grain consumption guidelines in other countries, our bilingual support for the Canadian Stamp, and our Spanish language educational materials.

THE VALUE OF WHOLE GRAINS IN TIGHT TIMES
In this time of rising food prices, the WGC is repeatedly hitting on the theme of value in the many media interviews we do. Our message to consumers is: If you're paying more now, all the more reason to make sure you're getting taste AND good health - full value for your hard-earned dollars.

Whole grains provide extra value, by increasing energy and vitality, while decreasing the risk of costly health problems. Journalists we've talked to seem intrigued by this perspective, so if you're talking to the media, we urge you to echo this common-sense theme.

Best regards from all of us at Oldways and the Whole Grains Council,

Cindy

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Cynthia Harriman
Director of Food and Nutrition Strategies
Oldways / The Whole Grains Council
603-436-1608 direct
617-896-4820 main office

April 2008 Newsletter (Sent April 23, 2008)

Dear Whole Grains Council members,

Media interest continues to be strong in whole grains. Recently we've done interviews with publications as diverse as Ladies Home Journal, Today's Dietitian and Pizza Magazine in the U.S., and worked on a story with Better Health, a new Reader's Digest publication in Canada. Look for stories like these coming soon to a page near you. Make sure we post your new products on the WGC website, so the many journalists visiting our site will notice them!

TELL US YOUR WHOLE GRAINS MONTH PLANS
We're already gearing up for Whole Grains Month in September, and we hope you are too. Now is the time to remind your retail customers about the extra emphasis on whole grains that will be taking place that month.

During May, we'll be sending a mailing to all major supermarkets, reminding them that September is Whole Grains Month, and that the time is right to plan special promotions around whole grains. We will of course offer the resources of the WGC to assist them!

Do you have any special deals planned for Whole Grains Month? If so, tell us the details by May 15, and we'll include them in our supermarket mailing, as examples of widespread industry support for this special month.

Supermarket support for the Whole Grain Stamp is strong. Three chains (Whole Foods, Martin's Supermarkets, and Costco) are now members of the WGC, and more and more of our members are making private-label products for other chains, with packaging showing the Stamp. This week Kroger shared with us a great video clip they made on the importance of dietary fiber. This clip ran on local TV stations in Kroger's mid-Atlantic territory, with a nice close-up and explanation of the Whole Grain Stamps.

NEW SUPPORT MATERIALS FOR MEMBERS
We've posted some new PDFs on our "For Members - Get Support Materials" page , to help you in promoting whole grains with your customers. There are now three handouts posted here that you can download and print as often as you like, to support your sales efforts. The three handouts are:

For Schools. A handout explaining the importance of whole grains, and the current range of government standards that may affect schools.

For Restaurants and Foodservice. A handout detailing the explosive interest diners have shown in finding whole grains when they eat out, and information about the WGC's new Menu Symbol and the 2008 Whole Grains Challenge. Tell your foodservice customers about these programs - and help them get free PR for their whole grain efforts.

For Retail. Are your retail customers asking you for details about how the Whole Grain Stamp helps speed turnover of products? This handout makes a great leave-behind explaining the success of the Stamp program to the retail stores you work with.

WHEN WILL YOU USE THE CANADIAN STAMP?
Kudos to Canadian companies Ryza Rice/Soyaworld and ACE Bakery for being the first WGC members to use the new bilingual Canadian Whole Grain Stamp. We visited Toronto last week and it was a pleasure to see the Canadian Stamp on supermarket shelves so quickly!

The WGC's initial press release in February led to a CP story that was widely distributed in Canada; now that the Stamp is appearing in stores, we're planning additional Canadian PR in late May.

Please email us with details about your planned use of the Canadian Stamp, so we can include your company in this upcoming PR blast.

DIETARY GUIDELINES ADVISORY COMMITTEE IDEAS
U.S. law requires that the Dietary Guidelines be updated every five years, with the next update scheduled for 2010. The WGC is working to make sure that the benefits of whole grains will be appropriately reflected in the new Guidelines. We invite members to help us in two ways:

Tell us your suggestions for members of the Advisory Committee. May 24, 2008 is the deadline for nominations, and we will be submitting names of leading scientists who are knowledgeable about whole grains.

Help us update our research list. Brian Wansink, Director of USDA's Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion, recently urged the WGC to make sure that the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee has the most complete list possible of recent research on whole grains and health.

If you are aware of any studies not already listed on our website , or have nominations for the committee, please email Cynthia Harriman with the specifics.

WGC WEBSITE ADDS BLOG PAGE
This month, the WGC entered the blogosphere, adding a blog to our website . While we will continue to disseminate press releases regularly when there's Big News, our blog page will enable us to frequently post small news blurbs and reflections on the momentum of whole grains.

Our web programmers are adding an RSS feed to this page, so interested consumers, industry members and media can subscribe and have the latest news tidbits delivered right to their desktops.

CULINARY ADVISORS HELP WGC
Every day the WGC staff fields a never-a-dull-moment array of questions from consumers, manufacturers and restaurants. A few weeks ago, a Mom-and-Pop pizza restaurant in Washington state contacted us asking for help in reformulating their pizza crust to make it whole grain. They had tried on their own, and the result didn't meet their taste standards.

Whole Grains Council Culinary Advisors to the rescue! We put out the word, and within hours three WGC advisors - Kathryn Conrad, a Test Kitchen expert at Cooking Light magazine; Peter Reinhart, author of Whole Grain Breads: New Techniques, Extraordinary Flavor and perhaps America's leading bread expert; and Steve Petusevsky, chef and Tribune News columnist - all weighed in with expert help.

Seven other professionals - Lorna Sass, Paul Lynch, Robin Asbell, Paula Wolfert, Jesse Cool, Ana Sortun and Joel Schafer - all fiercely dedicated to and knowledgeable about whole grains, also pitch in to help the WGC with questions from consumers, restaurants and manufacturers. You can meet them all on our website. They work with the WGC on a volunteer basis, but most are also available on a professional basis to work with member companies who need help with recipe development, trade show cooking demos, or any other opportunity to promote whole grains.

Email Kara Berrini if you'd like contact information for any of our Culinary Advisors who might be able to help your company.

Hope we'll see some of you soon. Kara will be visiting members April 26-28 at the All Things Organic / Fancy Food Show in Chicago, while I'll be speaking at the National Restaurant Association, also in Chicago, on May 20.

Best regards from all of us at Oldways and the Whole Grains Council,

Cindy
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Cynthia Harriman
Director of Food and Nutrition Strategies
Oldways / The Whole Grains Council
603-436-1608 direct
617-896-4820 main office