Nestlé Offers Tips and Ideas to Help You Stay Connected and Feed Your Family Well

The transition from summer to school signals the start of busier schedules, which can make it challenging for families to stay connected and maintain healthy eating habits. To help everyone stay on track, Nestlé once again celebrates the new school year with an exciting back-to-school program featuring helpful tips, nutritious meal ideas and family-fun activities.

“The new school year [has] started and our schedules [have] gone from busy to crazy,” said Christina H. from Wisconsin, a member of Nestlé’s online Mom Community. “I am having a hard time finding a common meal time and time to prepare a good meal in the evening.”

Nestlé understands the joys and challenges of the school year transition. With its unique back-to-school resource at NestleFamily.com/backtoschool, Nestlé provides simple and easy ideas to help families stay connected and well-nourished throughout the school year including the following:

• Staying connected made easy: Sharing fresh-baked cookies as an after-school snack is a terrific way to catch up on their busy day. And, packing homemade cookies in a lunchbox, along with a small note, can show your love even while the kids are away. Find a fun selection of kid-friendly recipes using NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE® at VeryBestBaking.com/kids. Dinner can be a great family affair too. From “Conversation Starter Placemats” to a weekly “Mac and Cheese Bar,” a variety of great family mealtime ideas and activities await at LetsFixDinner.com from STOUFFER’S®. For even more dinner inspiration, check out Meals.com for a delicious selection of easy-to-make recipes.
• Making healthy fun: Healthy eating doesn’t have to be boring. Believe it or not, it can be delicious, nutritious and fun! Pack juice boxes (without added sugars) in kids’ lunchboxes, make juice smoothies or prepare juice snacks made from 100% fruit juice like JUICY JUICE®. JuicyJuice.com offers a tasty selection of recipe ideas with 100% juice. Also jazz up a batch of trail mix or granola with fun better-for-you treat ingredients like NESTLÉ® RAISINETS®.

In addition to staying connected and eating well, Nestlé is excited to help make the back-to-school transition easier on the family wallet with this year’s “Happy New School Year” Sweepstakes, which provides families the chance to win the grand prize of $5,000 to help with back-to-school essentials, plus a $2,000 Nestlé literacy grant to support their school. By entering every day, parents can increase their chances to win the grand prize, and enter for a chance to win a daily prize of a Crayola® Dry-Erase Family Creativity Pack. For official sweepstakes rules, prize details and to enter, visit NestleFamily.com/backtoschool*.

“We know family health and happiness is a parent’s top priority and the busy back-to-school season can be a difficult time to manage it all,” said Becky Chao, Mom Insights Director, Nestlé. “Whether it’s ideas for a nutritious family-style meal or other family-fun activities, we’re pleased to offer our support through a variety of helpful back-to-school resources parents can use to meet their goals throughout the school year.”

For more new school year inspirations and ideas, and information on how you can enter for a chance to win the “Happy New School Year” Sweepstakes, visit NestleFamily.com/backtoschool.

*SWEEPSTAKES: No purchase necessary. Sweepstakes ends 10/15/2010. Open to legal residents of the 50 U.S. & DC, 18 or older. Void where prohibited. Subject to full rules and prize details at NestleFamily.com/backtoschool.

About Nestlé Family

Big or small, each day’s events write your family’s unique story. That’s why Nestlé created Nestlé Family — to offer inspiration and ideas that help foster the moments that nurture your family’s health and happiness. Designed for families with kids age 3-12, Nestlé Family provides inspiration including everyday and seasonal family fun activities and healthy meal ideas.

About Nestlé USA

Named one of “The World’s Most Admired Food Companies” in Fortune magazine for fourteen consecutive years, Nestlé provides quality brands and products that bring flavor to life every day. From nutritious meals with Lean Cuisine® to baking traditions with Nestlé® Toll House®, Nestlé USA makes delicious, convenient, and nutritious food and beverage products that make good living possible. That’s what “Nestlé. Good Food, Good Life” is all about. Well-known Nestlé USA brands include: Nestlé® Toll House®, Nestlé® Nesquik®, Nestlé® Coffee-mate®, Stouffer’s®, Lean Cuisine®, HOT POCKETS® and LEAN POCKETS® brand sandwiches, Nescafé®, NESTLÉ® Juicy Juice®, Buitoni®, DREYER’S/EDY’S®, Nestlé® Crunch®, Nestlé® Butterfinger®, Wonka®, DIGIORNO®, TOMBSTONE® and CALIFORNIA PIZZA KITCHEN® frozen pizza. Nestlé USA, with 2010 sales of $10.4 billion, is part of Nestlé S.A. in Vevey, Switzerland — the world’s largest food company with a commitment to Nutrition, Health & Wellness — with 2010 sales of $105 billion.

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• Brandi Monson, Publicis Consultants | PR, (206) 270-4568, [email protected]