2010 Q3 Newsletters

September WGC Member Newsletter (sent to members Sept. 23, 2010)

Dear Whole Grains Council members,

In its fourth official year, Whole Grains Month observations have really taken off - have you noticed? Among the many instances, we were delighted to see an official notice about Whole Grains Month on the American Dietetic Association's website ...  info in a FoxNews health blog... a YouTube video explaining why you should look for the Stamp... and even a mention of the Stamp by Joy Bauer on the Today show on September 14. Consumers are also observing Whole Grains Month in touching ways - as evidenced by some of the great entries we've received in our "Whole Grains: Chat 'Em Up" contest. Take a minute and google "whole grains month" and see what a great mix of blogs, websites, and news items have taken note of our Big Month.

"WHOLE GRAIN STAMP BOOSTS SALES" SPINS
We've gathered plenty of anecdotal evidence from consumers over the years showing they look for the Whole Grain Stamp and trust it as a way to find healthier whole grain products. And with over 4,400 products now using the Stamp, we know you, our WGC members, believe in it too. Now, just in time for Whole Grains Month, we're pleased to announce that we have solid data that proves products with the Stamp clearly outsell similar products without the Stamp.
 
We've been working for months with SPINS (the leading provider of natural sales data) on a partnership to track sales of whole grain products with the Stamp, and on September 17, the first hard data was released, in a joint SPINS / Mintel press release. Overall, in the 12 weeks ending 8/7/10, sales of natural foods and beverages with the Whole Grain Stamp increased 12.8% compared to a year earlier, while those without the Stamp increased 9.5% in the same channels.
 
Category after category, the SPINS data show that products with the Whole Grain Stamp enjoy sizzling sales (all figures for national chain sales, 52 weeks ending July 2010, compared to previous year):
 
· Bread and baked goods with the Stamp: up 91.4%
· Chips, Pretzels and Snacks with the Stamp: up 39.5%
· Entrées and mixes with the Stamp: up 31.2%
· Frozen kids' and baby foods with the Stamp: up 58.0%
· Grains and rice with the Stamp: up 13.4%
· Shelf-stable pasta with the Stamp: up 24.1%
· Hot cereals with the Stamp: up 22.4%
 
As WGC Members, you have the opportunity to use the Stamp on all your qualifying whole grain products.  If you're interested in registering additional products for the Whole Grain Stamp - and to take full advantage of this trusted and proven consumer tool - Email Kara or Chrisanne  to learn more.
 
We'll be sharing more SPINS data with you in the coming months, as this project continues.

ARE WHOLE GRAINS THE NORM AT YOUR COMPANY?
Whole grains are increasingly becoming the norm in more and more places. Your kids' school may now serve mostly whole grains, the cereal aisle in your local supermarket may have more whole grain cereals than not, and even your grandma may know how to pronounce "quinoa." The Dietary Guidelines for Americans say to "make at least half your grains whole" and this is much more likely to occur when the entire food environment reflects this half-or-more approach.

What about your company? Have you reached the point where half or more of your grain products qualify for the Whole Grain Stamp? Here at the WGC we applaud every whole grain product, even if those products make up a small proportion of a company's product line. And yet, as we focus on the theme of "Whole Grains: the New Norm" over the coming year, we're seeking examples of companies where whole grains are in fact the norm, to illustrate the growing momentum of whole grains in the marketplace.

Email Cynthia Harriman if your company considers whole grains the norm for its grain products - we may be able to connect you with some good promotional opportunities.

CONFERENCE REGISTRATION NOW OPEN   
We hope you'll be able to join us in Portland, OR, on Jan. 31 - Feb. 2, 2011 for our 5th whole grains conference, titled "Whole Grains: the New Norm." (Yes, there's an ongoing theme here...) We've now launched our official conference registration website, so you can register for the conference at any time. As always, the first registration from each member company is free, and additional member registrations are almost half off the public price ($345 instead of $635).

Even if you're not sure of your schedule yet, we invite you to visit the conference site or the WGC website and check out our exciting conference agenda. On both these sites you'll also see a list of our conference sponsors. A big thanks to our early sponsors: Bob's Red Mill, General Mills, King Arthur Flour (Event sponsors); ConAgra Mills, Riviana Foods, Sunnyland Mills (Benefactor sponsors); and Mestemacher Bread (supporter). Sponsors enjoy extra visibility at our conference, with more media schmoozing and product recognition - so contact Cynthia Harriman or Kara Berrini, or check the information on our website, if you'd like to learn more about being a sponsor.

WELCOME CHEF CARY NEFF
Please join us in welcoming Chef Cary Neff as the newest member of the WGC's Culinary Advisory Board. Chef Cary is well known for his "Conscious Cuisine" - an approach to making healthy food delicious - that he developed as a chef for leading spas in Arizona and California. You may have seen him on Oprah Winfrey's show, and assume he's now running some chi-chi restaurant in New York City. But no. Chef Cary has decided to change the world of healthcare foodservice, as VP of Culinary at Morrison Management Systems, the healthcare division of foodservice giant Compass NA.

"Working at spas, I could reach such a small number of people," Chef Cary told us when we talked recently. "But now I can reach so many people, and get them excited about healthy, fresh, food." We love the way Chef Cary puts whole grains first on his menus, with descriptions like "WILD MUSHROOM BARLEY RISOTTO with beef tenderloin."

Having Chef Cary as a member of the WGC team will help us in our efforts to bring more whole grains to foodservice. Thanks to WGC Vice-Chair Mike Holleman at Indian Harvest for connecting us with Cary Neff. Mike is also advising us on our WGC foodservice committee. This committee held its second conference call on September 8 to discuss ways the WGC can be supporting its members' foodservice efforts. You can read a summary of the call on the WGC website. Contact Cynthia Harriman (603-436-1608) if you'd like to be part of our foodservice committee.

One final foodservice note: it's not too late to pledge prizes to winners in this year's Whole Grains Challenge, our annual foodservice competition rewarding fantastic whole grain efforts taking place throughout October! This is a great way to get your whole grain products into the hands of dining directors, managers, and chefs - the decision makers responsible for purchasing and serving whole grains. The Challenge kicks off October 1st, so email Kara today to make sure you don't miss out.

OLDWAYS OFFERS MONTHLY HEALTH INFO   
Every month we end our newsletter with an update from our parent organization, Oldways.

This month we'd like to make you aware of a great new initiative from Oldways' Mediterranean Foods Alliance (MFA). The MFA promotes the benefits of the Mediterranean Diet, the gold standard for healthy eating. Since there's almost no area of human health that hasn't been proven to benefit from eating Med-style, the MFA is now offering a monthly feature called "Your Health the Med Way," tying the Med Diet to national health observances.

September, for instance, is National Cholesterol Month, so this month the MFA has created materials that explain how adopting the Med Diet can improve your cholesterol. Next month, the topics will be Celiac Disease and Breast Cancer. If you're looking for general health information to aid your marketing efforts, check out the MFA's resources, or contact MFA Program Manager Erika Ross (617-896-4850).

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

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

August WGC Member Newsletter (sent to members August 25, 2010)

Dear Whole Grains Council members,

Where did the summer go? Hard to believe it's late August. There's a certain wistfulness to seeing the lazy hazy days go by, but a certain excitement to having the pace of business pick up, and new plans get underway - including many at the WGC!

WHOLE GRAINS MONTH
We hope you're all ready for Whole Grains Month - that your company has planned something special to observe our annual salute to whole grains. Drop me or Kara an email if you're doing something cool. We'd love to hear about it - and our Social Media Manager (the one and only Alison Clancy) will help to spread the word.

A big thanks to Dr. Kracker, Uncle Ben's, HomeFree, Frontier Soups, Barilla, Smuckers, and Olde Hearth Bagels for supplying coupons for us to send out to consumers who take part in our "Whole Grains: Chat 'Em Up" project next month. We'll be sending coupons to every person who observes Whole Grains Month by trying a new recipe, buying new foods, nudging friends and family, or whatever - and writing to tell us about it. At the end of the month, we'll have a drawing, from all entrants, for a giant gift basket of whole grain products, shown here.

If you missed our earlier call for coupons and you'd still like to have your products included, tell Chrisanne Grise by August 27th what you'll be sending us, and get the coupons to her by September 15.

We just received a new shipment of 20,000 Just Ask for Whole Grains buttons. If you need some to give away during Whole Grains Month, or at tradeshows and events any month, contact Chrisanne to order some. They're free to members.

WGC FOODSERVICE GROUP
We had our first Foodservice Group call on August 2, with eight WGC members joining me and Kara to brainstorm ideas for bringing more whole grain products to foodservice, especially schools. If you're interested in foodservice but weren't able to join the first call, you can see a full report from our meeting on our website.

Our next call will be held on Wednesday September 8 at 2:00 pm ET, and will center on two topics:
1) foodservice outside of schools (workplace, healthcare, restaurants, etc.)
2) ideas for Foodservice Workshop at our January 2011 WGC conference.

We'll send a reminder and call-in information in the week before the call. If you'd like to be included, send an email to Cynthia Harriman and we'll put you on our list.

Speaking of foodservice opportunities, it's not too late to get your foods included in the prizes being sent to foodservice winners in our 2010 Whole Grains Challenge. It's a great way to get samples of your products in front of key new accounts, in just the segments that are important to you. Email Kara Berrini (617-896-4880) for more details.

SPONSORSHIPS FOR JANUARY 2011 CONFERENCE   
A big thanks to Mike and Steve Orlando at Sunnyland Mills;  to Don Trouba, Beth Arndt, and Stefanie Hall at ConAgra Foods;  and to Michael Bittel and Tom Payne at King Arthur Flour, for signing on as our first three sponsors for Whole Grains: The New Norm, our upcoming conference.

We use your membership dues to pay for everything else the WGC does, but we count on sponsors to make sure our conferences can include top media, inspiring speakers, and great food. There are sponsor and supporter levels to fit every budget (thanks also to Mestemacher Bread, as our first supporter). You can learn more about sponsorship costs and benefits on our website.

We've also posted our preliminary schedule for the conference. As always, the program will be chock-full of useful and thought-provoking information that you can take back to the office and put to work right away. Mark the date now - January 31 to February 2, 2011 - and make sure to join us in Portland, Oregon, a great foodie town for saluting whole grains.

WGC MENU SYMBOL
We're seeing an uptick in interest in the WGC's Menu Symbol for foodservice. In the past few weeks, three new food outlets have taken up the Menu Symbol: Beaverview City Schools in Ohio; Virginia Beach City Public Schools in Virginia; and Tropical Smoothie Café, a restaurant chain operating in 34 U.S. states.

The WGC Menu Symbol, shown here, has the same minimum requirement as the Whole Grain Stamp: It signifies foods that offer at least half a serving (8g) of whole grain per portion. The Menu Symbol fills an important niche, drawing attention to whole grain choices in foodservice with the familiar Grain Sheaf Symbol, in more changeable situations where the Whole Grain Stamp is not appropriate.

If you have foodservice customers who might like to use the Menu Symbol to highlight foods they buy from you or make from your ingredients, check out the details on our website, or contact Kara Berrini (617-896-4880 or kberrini@oldwayspt.org).

OLDWAYS NEWS: LATINO NUTRITION COLLECTION   
As we mentioned last month, we want to make sure our WGC members are aware of all the other great food-related activities happening at Oldways, our parent organization. So every month, we'll end with a small item of Oldways news.

The big news this month is that we've added a new section to the Oldways website to feature our collection of resources for Latino health and nutrition. Latinos in the U.S. are at added risk for health problems including obesity and diabetes - and their risk rises, the more they turn away from the traditional Latino foods of their ancestors. Oldways created the Latin-American Diet Pyramid in 1996 and has, since then, assembled a great collection of resources for health professionals and consumers alike.

Take a look, and download some of our consumer-friendly bilingual materials. You'll notice that the Latino Nutrition Collection also includes some of the bilingual materials created by the Whole Grains Council.
Best regards from all of us at Oldways and the Whole Grains Council,

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

July WGC member Newsletter (sent to members July 22, 2010)

Dear Whole Grains Council members,

While most of us are basking (or melting!) in mid-summer heat, September is right around the corner - and September is Whole Grains Month. What is your company doing to celebrate? Whole Grains Month is the perfect time to talk about whole grains on your website, to run special promotions on your whole grain products - or even to schedule the launch of a new product.  

And remember, you can order "Just Ask for Whole Grains" buttons or stickers, or our special Whole Grains Month posters. Just contact Chrisanne Grise (617-896-4832 or cgrise@oldwayspt.org) - it's all FREE for WGC members.

4000 PRODUCTS NOW USING THE WG STAMP
The Whole Grain Stamp has passed yet another big milestone: more than 4,000 products have now been registered and certified with the Whole Grains Council.

These products can be found in 21 countries (including China, as shown here!), spanning categories from breads to beverages, crackers to cookies, and pancakes to pasta. Click here for more details.

We'll be issuing a press release next week to celebrate this achievement, but we wanted you to hear about it first! A big thanks to all of our members who have increased the availability of whole grain choices in the marketplace - and helped consumers recognize these products by using the Whole Grain Stamp.

COMMENTS TO DIETARY GUIDELINES COMMITTEE
In our last newsletter, we reported on the June 15 release of the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee (DGAC) Report, an important prelude - and bellweather - for the upcoming 2010 Dietary Guidelines.

Since the Dietary Guidelines steer the course of federal food policy, we're keeping our eyes closely riveted to this process, and how it might affect whole grains. On July 12 the Whole Grains Council submitted comments to the DGAC, urging a level playing field for all whole grains and recommending that the 2010 Dietary Guidelines adopt the IOM School Meals report's definition of whole grain-rich foods, to clarify and standardize what constitutes a whole grain food.

To help WGC members keep on top of the Dietary Guidelines process, we've posted our summary of whole grain issues from the report on our website, along with a copy of all comments the Whole Grains Council has submitted to the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee.

WHAT DOES DEFINE A "WHOLE GRAIN FOOD?"
As part of our efforts to make sure that the work of the Whole Grains Council is solidly grounded in science, we are active members of the Whole Grains Working Group (WGWG) of AACC International. The WGWG is now debating the definition of "a whole grain food" and, to aid the process, the Whole Grains Council is assembling a reference of existing definitions used around the world.

We all know that a dish of brown rice is a whole grain food, and that 100% whole wheat bread qualifies. And it's clear that products made only with refined or enriched flour are not whole grain foods. But where does the line fall between these two groups? How much of the grain in a product must be whole grain for us to call that product "whole grain bread" or "whole grain pasta" or "whole grain cereal?" 

Check out our WGC reference chart, if you're curious to see how a whole grain food is defined by different U.S. organizations and government agencies, and by their cohorts in other countries.  We may never all agree, but the WGC will make sure to be in the thick of the discussion!

CURRENT WGC OPPORTUNITIES - GET INVOLVED!
We know you're busy. To make it easier for you to get involved with Whole Grains Council opportunities, we've created a new page of the WGC website to put all current opportunities in one place. Check it out, for more details on the projects below, then take advantage of your membership, and participate!

Send us Coupons for Chat 'Em Up. We're encouraging consumers to chat up whole grains with their friends and families during Whole Grains Month in September, and to tell us how they're celebrating Whole Grains Month. Anyone who writes us with their story gets a discount coupon for a whole grain food - or maybe several, if more WGC members come forward. You send us the coupons, we send them to consumers - and you reach new potential customers. Contact Chrisanne Grise (617-896-4832 or cgrise@oldwayspt.org).

Pledge your Products for The Whole Grains Challenge. We're running our 4th Annual Whole Grains Challenge in October - and giving away cases of whole grain foods to foodservice outlets in ten categories. This is a great way for WGC members to reach new potential customers in exactly the markets you're trying to penetrate. Contact Kara Berrini (617-896-4880 or kberrini@oldwayspt.org).

Be a Conference Sponsor.  Every 18 months or so we hold a whole grains conference - a wonderful mix of useful updates, delicious food, serious networking, and good times.  All members benefit from attending a WGC conference, but those who sign on as sponsors get extra visibility, especially with the top-level media who'll be attending. Contact Cynthia Harriman (603-436-1608 or cynthia@oldwayspt.org) if you'd like to be a sponsor of our next conference. It's called Whole Grains: the New Norm and it will be held January 31 - February 2 in Portland, OR.

OLDWAYS NEWS: TAKE THE 3-POINT PLEDGE
Several WGC members have told us they'd like to know more about the WGC's parent organization, Oldways. With that in mind, we've decided to include a small item of Oldways news at the end of each WGC member newsletter.

Oldways is delighted that the new 2010 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Report expresses support for three approaches to healthy eating that we've always incorporated into our work:
1) Healthy eating can be delicious.
2) Working with industry is essential.
3) Total diet is important - not individual nutrients.

We've asked companies, individuals, and health professionals who agree with the three points above to "Take the Three Point Pledge" - and we invite you to do so, too. Learn more here.

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

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