Cherokee Foods Offers Healthier Menu Options As New Way of Using USDA-Sponsored School Food Programs Is Launched

Enhanced Nutrition, Taste and Lunch Value Is Focus of Offerings In Initial Rollout to School Food Service Directors Across South

LAWRENCEVILLE, GA., January 21, 2001, (PR Newswire) --- With a focus on the essential goals faced by school food service directors – how to deliver more nutritious and better tasting food to students ever more efficiently, Cherokee Foods has launched marketing efforts of its innovative food products to school districts across the south.

Cherokee Foods processes chicken products offered to schools through USDA-sponsored commodity programs in a wholly different manner than has previously been offered to this market, according to the firm’s president and founder, Ms. Lenna Gordon, a veteran food service industry executive. "We are providing school food service directors with a program that enhances the ‘real food’ aspect of what they are serving which is one of the USDA’s stated national nutritional goals for children. Most important, our products contain no skin, fillers or other additives. Cherokee Foods offers 100% solid muscle and breast meat products that are not offered in the current marketplace," Ms. Gordon said.

"In effect, Cherokee Foods is redefining what ‘state of the art’ means in the school food service, and for the kids’ sake, we know that these changes are long overdue," she added.

In essence, Cherokee Foods’ school food service menu choices in the chicken category are formulated with a much higher solid muscle percentage than is currently available to this market segment. This means that the firm’s products are more nutritious than current competitive fare and do not contain the percentage of filler and additives generally associated with processed foods. The firm plans to expand its menu options to other food products shortly, including beef.

"We believe America’s kids should eat more ‘real’ food—not mysterious, filler-laden selections so typical today. Our mission is to take the commodity food support programs available to schools (CN packaging) and allow them to access what is available-but in a much different, tastier, more nutritious and certainly healthier form," Ms. Gordon stated.

"We want to help school food service directors raise the level of their offerings and hence, participation or buy-in by both students, faculty and professional staff in schools across America. Our services include point of sale marketing and merchandising support to help sell these enhanced school lunch menu choices," she offered.

"There’s no reason why school food service directors can’t have access to a superior quality base of products to which they can add locally planned and formulated enhancements to their menus," Ms. Gordon observed. "We are also giving them the tools to effectively communicate with students and faculty members so that there is a greater awareness of the quality and taste upgrades that Cherokee products offer to lunchrooms across America. School lunches, she observed, must be properly marketed to the target audience and we have the program which will do just that."

The nutritional value aspect of the Cherokee Foods universe of food selections is a key part of the firm’s focus and, according to Ms. Gordon and her team of seasoned industry managers, will key efforts to establish the company as a major source of school food service products. "Kids across the nation deserve better than they’re getting right now," she added, "and the current situation is a reflection not on the dedicated school food professionals, but on the options available to these professionals for the delivery of commodity food items available to youngsters through USDA-sponsored programs."

Cherokee Foods competes for market share with these industry giants: Tyson Foods (NYSE:TSN), ConAgra (NYSE:CAG), Foster Farms, Goldkist Farms, and Zartic Foods. But the firm’s managers are confident that their plans to address school food service directors in a manner that answers their needs, from cost containment to nutritional goals to enhanced value and product selection, coupled with its status as a privately held, female-owned corporation, will likely resonate within this target market and associated decision-makers, including school boards and parents.

Cherokee Foods pledges to provide its products and location marketing tools under a pricing schedule that is designed to enhance the bottom line profitability of school food services, Ms. Gordon said. "And there’s no reason why kids shouldn’t get better tasting foods that are definitely more nutritious and certainly what their parents would want them to be eating."

Visit Cherokee Foods at http://www.CherokeeFoods.com

Lawrenceville, Georgia-based Cherokee Foods (www.cherokeefoods.com) provides USDA-certified and inspected enhanced processing of commodity foods for schools, healthcare facilities, military and prison market segments for distribution in the United States. The firm’s overall corporate theme mirrors the goals of the professionals it supports—food service directors nationwide: to provide exceptional tastes and superior values.