Lipton Tea announces partnership with Full Cart, to make heart-friendly nutrition more accessible

Lipton Tea has announced a new partnership with Full Cart, a program within nonprofit U.S. Hunger, and a virtual food pantry to make heart-friendly nutrition and grocery assistance more accessible. Lipton is contributing 275,000 dollars to Full Cart to help fund 5,000 shelf-stable food delivery boxes. These boxes delivered to 2,500 families in need will provide approximately 350,000 servings of heart-friendly food.

" 2,500 Food insecure families in Atlanta, Austin, Boston, Miami, Montgomery, Nashville, and New York City will each receive two of Full Cart's shelf-stable food boxes. Each of Lipton and Full Cart's collaborative boxes includes a variety of heart-friendly, shelf-stable pantry items such as dried vegetable pasta, whole grain brown rice, beans, and vegetable risotto, alongside one box of Lipton Unsweetened Green Tea and one box of Lipton Unsweetened Black Tea. The boxes will also include nutritious recipes to help educate recipients on how to make easy, affordable family meals at home. One of the biggest roadblocks inhibiting people from eating nutritious meals is the lack of accessibility to healthy options," said Joy Dubost RD, head - Scientific Affairs and Nutrition, Lipton. "At Lipton, it is our goal to help those in need access heart-friendly options. By joining forces with Full Cart, we can reach a community whose members may face such challenges. This is one piece of a long-term commitment to helping to make health and wellness more inclusive, and we are eager to continue to support, educate, and ensure heart-friendly products are more accessible."

As a brand working to create a world where well-being is always within reach, Lipton understands that hunger can be a contributor to heart health issues and is on a mission to make heart-friendly nutrition more accessible. Unsweetened tea—like Lipton Unsweetened Green and Black Tea—is a budget-friendly beverage that can also help support a healthy heart due to the fact it is hydrating, contains zero calories, zero added sugars, and provides flavonoids. Tea is one of the best sources of flavonoids in the diet, which are natural, dietary compounds associated with heart health benefits.

Heart disease remains the leading cause of death in the United States, and the prevalence of heart disease/cardiovascular disease (CVD) is six times higher in households with low food security. While food pantries provide much-needed support, many people can't get to them because of a lack of transportation and time constraints. According to recent data from U.S. Hunger, of families requesting food assistance, 42.6% report a lack of access to transportation to go to grocery stores that provide fresh and healthy food options.

"Lipton is connecting the dots to what data has been telling us for the last three years. 70% of people who request food assistance through Full Cart report managing a chronic illness4. This innovative partnership proves just how committed Lipton is to bolstering nutritional impact," said Rick Whitted, chief executive officer, U.S. Hunger.

Full Cart is a virtual food bank that partners with generous donors to cover the cost of food and ship it directly to the front door of those in need. Unlike a traditional food bank model, Full Cart does not rely on food donations to assist. Instead, they have an innovative food security solution that combines their wholly-owned core meals like Red Lentil Jambalaya with a variety of partner-sponsored Consumer Packaged Goods and other options.

The partnership between Full Cart and Lipton is part of Lipton's broader long-term commitment to ensure that wellbeing is inclusive and accessible by supporting heart health programming and initiatives, including sponsorship of the American Heart Association's Life is Why program from 2021 through Q1 of 2025.