MET-Rx® Athletes and their moms lend some muscle to a good cause!

MET-Rx®, a world leading provider of high-protein sports nutrition products, today officially launched its nationwide charitable giving program, MET-Rx® Cares. The program aims to support healthy growth and nutrition for U.S. families by providing donations of surplus MET-Rx® bars to families across the country. 

In celebration of Mother’s Day, and working in partnership with Feed the Children and The River Fund New York, MET-Rx® athletes teamed up with moms to demonstrate the value of good nutrition and kick off the program’s first distribution event to benefit families in the depressed Central Jamaica area of Queens, NY. The River Fund New York is a local organization whose mission is ‘to feed and empower families to move beyond the lines of poverty’—providing them with food and other vital necessities.

The Queens event is the first in what will be a sustained nationwide effort to provide food donations to families in need as part of the MET-Rx® Cares program. It is also part of Feed The Children’s Americans Feeding Americans Caravan, which has provided food and essentials to more than 450,000 families across the country. Worldwide, Feed The Children addresses four basic needs: food and nutrition, water and sanitation, education and health and livelihood community development.

“We know that every mother wants her children to grow up healthy and strong, and to never experience hunger,” said Patrick Cornacchiulo, Vice President of Sports Nutrition and MET-Rx®. “At MET-Rx we believe in helping people get the nutrition they need with innovative sports nutrition products; MET-Rx® Cares is our way of making that possible by packaging bite-size bar pieces of our nutritious MET-Rx® Big 100 Bars in 1,000 gram bags for local food pantries. Since January, we have donated more than 25,000 pounds of bar pieces.”

“Families who live below the poverty line struggle to provide a basic, healthy diet,” said Erin Engelke, spokesperson for Feed The Children. “We are very thankful to MET-Rx® and the MET-Rx® Cares program for helping to fill that void by generously donating their nutrition products.”

“From our perspective, as fighters on the front lines of hunger in dozens of New York City communities, food is the first form of defense in the battle against crippling poverty,” said Swami Durga Das, Executive Director of The River Fund New York. “We are very proud to partner with MET-Rx® Cares—a program that will help us deliver better nutrition and a sense of dignity to the families and seniors we serve.”

MET-Rx®
MET-Rx<®, www.metrx.com, products offer engineered nutrition—products that have been specifically formulated with a precise nutrient profile to produce specific metabolic effects. We've formulated our products to provide superior nutrition that promotes health and fitness, and an easy and convenient way for people to benefit from a wide spectrum of nutritional benefits.

Feed the Children
Founded in 1979 and headquartered in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Feed The Children is one of the largest international charities based in the U.S. With the mission of providing hope and resources for those without life’s essentials, Feed The Children is a BBB Wise Giving Alliance accredited charity and uses a comprehensive and integrated program to combat hunger and poverty. Feed The Children addresses four basic needs: food and nutrition, water and sanitation, education and health, and livelihood community development. In addition to helping families and communities around the world achieve lasting self-sufficiency, Feed The Children also responds quickly in times of disaster to provide emergency supplies for those in need.

The River Fund New York
Selected from among 1,300 community-based organizations as the “2012 Food Bank for New York City—Agency of the Year,” The River Fund New York is a not-for-profit, poverty amelioration organization dedicated to providing support to the hungry, the homeless, low-income seniors, working poor families and children and adults living with HIV/AIDS. Operating for the past 21 years, this largely volunteer-based group served over 160,000 beneficiaries in 2012—some 40% of whom are children. Having pioneered the Mobile Pantry system 20 years ago, in February 2012, The River Fund became the very first organization in the country to receive specific recognition of the mobile pantry model under the Federal Hunger Prevention and Nutritional Assistance Program (HPNAP)—an achievement that is already benefitting many communities nationwide. With this depth of experience, in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy, The River Fund’s Mobile Operations were the very first emergency food programs to arrive in many devastated communities, where they still continue to support more than 14,000 families. Apart from hunger relief, the organization operates a Benefits Access Center at their Richmond Hill base, which connects needy households to some 44 potential benefits and services. This important community function saves working poor families the expense and frustration of sacrificing valuable workdays to visit the dozens of offices where they would normally have to apply for help.

NBTY
NBTY is the leading vertically integrated manufacturer, marketer, distributor and retailer of high-quality vitamins, nutritional supplements and related products in the United States, with operations worldwide. NBTY currently markets over 25,000 SKUs under many brands, including Nature’s Bounty®, Sundown®, American Health®, Ester-C®, Solgar®, MET-Rx®, Pure Protein®, Balance Bar®, Osteo Bi-Flex®, SISU®, Rexall®, Body Fortress®,  Puritan’s Pride®, Vitamin World®, Holland & Barrett®, GNC (UK)®, Physiologics®, and  De Tuinen®. For more information please visit www.nbty.com.

NBTY, Inc.

NBTY, Inc.

NBTY is the leading vertically integrated manufacturer, marketer, distributor and retailer of high-quality vitamins, nutritional supplements and related products in the United States, with operations worldwide. NBTY currently markets over 25,000 SKUs under many brands, including Nature's Bounty®, Sundown®, American Health®, Ester-C®, Solgar®, MET-Rx®, Pure Protein®, Balance Bar®, Osteo Bi-Flex®, SISU®, Rexall®, Body Fortress®, Puritan's Pride®, Vitamin World®, Holland & Barrett®, GNC (UK)®, Physiologics®, and De Tuinen®. For more information please visit www.NBTY.com.

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