General Mills Response

I wrote a letter to the CEO of General Mills, Kendall J. Powell, asking him to remove Trix, Monsters and Lucky Charms cereals from their product line.

You can find the original letter posted at this blog entitled DEAR GENERAL MILLS. Below is the response from the company to me. I welcome and appreciate your comments on their response.

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Dear ADA Member,

As a long-time sponsor of the American Dietetic Association, we thought you may be interested to see the summary of our 2010 General Mills Corporate Social Responsibility report. It provides a quick snapshot of the progress we’ve made over the past year to live our mission of Nourishing Lives – to make our food more nutritious, our communities more vibrant and our environment more sustainable.  In the report summary, you will see how we’re trimming the sodium and sugar from many of our products, how programs like Box Tops for Education are providing needed money for cash-strapped schools, and how we’re using the wind, sun and leftover oat hulls to power more of our facilities.  This summary is just 12 pages long. But if you would like to learn more about how we’re working to make General Mills a more sustainable company please see the full report.  Our goal is to stand among the most socially responsible food companies in the world. Thank you for your time, and we look forward to hearing from you in the future for ways we can work together to make the world a better place.

Sincerely,

Susan J. Crockett, PhD, RD, FADA
Vice President and Senior Technology
Officer for Health and Nutrition
Bell Institute of Health & Nutrition

About Melanie Silverman

Melanie is a pediatric registered dietitian nutritionist (RD) and a board certified lactation consultant (IBCLC) working primarily in pediatric nutrition for well over 15 years. She spent seven years as a clinical dietitian at The University of Chicago Medical Center in the neonatal intensive care unit, pediatric intensive care unit, adult and pediatric burn units, and high risk pediatric follow-up clinic. She also served as an adjunct faculty member at Loyola University Chicago. Melanie has presented at state and national meetings for the American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition (ASPEN), March of Dimes, Prader-Willi California Foundation, Texas Prader-Willi Association, Oklahoma Prader Willi Syndrome Association, Foundation for Prader-Willi Research (FPWR) in the United States and Canada and the Prader-Willi Syndrome USA (PWSA). She worked hard for her Bachelor of Arts in Chemistry and Spanish from Indiana University and a Master’s degree in Clinical Nutrition from Rush-Presbyterian St. Luke’s Medical Center. A member of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, California Dietetic Association, Pediatric Nutrition Practice Group, Women’s Health Group, Nutrition Entrepreneurs and an active member of the International Lactation Consultant Association.