Malt-O-Meal announces the official launch of www.bagthebox.com. The new Web site provides a fun way to challenge and inspire consumer thought surrounding excess food packaging and what “75% Less Packaging*. 100% Smarter.” means for the environment.

Site visitors are encouraged to learn more and participate in activities at a number of interactive areas on the site. Visitors are also asked to share their thoughts on the topic of reducing the amount of consumer packaging waste. The goal of the site is to urge consumers to make more conscious choices when purchasing products that will help reduce packaging waste at home. There is a video contest that prompts entrants to address the “75% Less Packaging*. 100% Smarter.” contest theme. Entrants must be members of the Malt-O-Meal Facebook Community to enter the video contest.

A humorous, animated short makes its debut on the new www.bagthebox.com web site featuring an “odd couple” discussing the topic of excessive consumer packaging. Visitors are encouraged to comment and share their insights in the area provided on the new site.
 The Let’s Talk page of the new website addresses what is being said by consumers regarding the topic of consumer packaging waste, as well as feature a live feed of comments surrounding this, and other topics coming directly from members of the Malt-O-Meal Facebook Community. You can join the Malt-O-Meal Facebook Community by visiting: www.facebook.com/MaltOMealFanPage.

*75% less packaging based on the net weight of empty consumer packaging per pound of cereal delivered. Even when their box size is smaller, the net weight of their box and empty inner bag is still greater than the net weight of the larger Malt-O-Meal® bag when empty.

Gappa chronicles not only his experience, but also the critical work of American Refugee Committee and the undying hope that lives on in Haiti in an Op/Ed article in the Minneapolis Star Tribune. To read more, click here.

John Gappa surveys a landscape of temporary refugee housing in Haiti.

Chocolatey Frosted Mini-Spooners cereal is based on our best selling Frosted Mini Spooners(R) cereal. How to describe Chocolatey Frosted Mini-Spooners… Sensible? Check. Decadent? You bet. We combined whole grain and chocolate to give our beloved cereal a delectable makeover. It is no wonder the “Unwrapped” team was anxious to learn more about Chocolatey Frosted Mini-Spooners!

The episode airing Monday at 9PM Eastern will make a stop at our state of the art production facilities, giving you a behind the scenes tour you can’t find anywhere else. Make sure to check your local listings to find out when “Unwrapped” airs in your town, local listings may vary and we don’t want you to miss out!

Not to worry, if you do happen to miss Monday’s episode, you can check it out after the air date on the Food Network website.

For more information on our new chocolatey cereals, visit http://chocolatecereals.com/

Malt-O-Meal teamed up with famed gaming blog Joystiq.com to serve breakfast to gamers at the PAX East Conference. The Joystiq.com / Blue Berry Muffin Tops Breakfast was born after our friends at Joystiq.com contacted BBMT to express their love for this crunchy, blueberry Malt-O-Meal cereal variety.  BBMT cereal is quite popular “Nerd Chow” (i.e. readily available food with no prep required) among gamers and Joystiq.com enthusiasts. Our friends at Joystiq.com had the brilliant idea of joining forces offline to bring the joy of a Blueberry Muffin Tops breakfast to 600 lucky video gamers and enthusiast attending the conference from all over the world. Disney® also jumped on board to debut the latest release of  their virtual street racing game, Split/Second®. Franchise Design Director, Paul Glancy of Black Rock Studio, UK developed this game and was in attendance at the breakfast to run game demo kiosks and answer attendee questions about the game that will appear on retailer shelves by Fall 2010.

Malt-O-Meal distributed 600 bowls of their Blueberry Muffin Tops variety to eager fans who waited in line for chance to obtain an entrance wrist band, and again for entry into the event hall. While attending the breakfast event, guests were also invited to play Disney game Rock Band 2®, that also made its debut at a previous Joystiq.com event.

For additional information and event coverage please visit the Blueberry Muffin Tops blog at: http://blueberrymuffintops.malt o-meal.com/category/blog/

Malt-O-Meal Company donated over 20 million servings of cereal to people in need through organizations like Second Harvest Heartland ® in 2009.  In an effort to address the growing issue of hunger in America, Malt-O-Meal Co. has positioned its core values around providing quality cereal products at an affordable price, while giving back the communities where they do business.  To keep in line with these family and community-oriented values, Malt-O-Meal has been using both traditional and non-traditional communications to help stimulate an effort to close the growing gap between food donation and those in need of food programs Nationwide.

Corporate food donation programs are widely relied upon by local food shelves and National food distribution centers to meet the needs of the growing numbers of Americans who require supplemental food services. According to a recent study, as the need for food donations continues to rise in the US, the number food donations has decreased in past years. This recent phenomena can be attributed to economic downturn, increased price of food, high unemployment rates and other socioeconomic factors. While many companies make a concentrated internal effort to meet their food donation goals, Malt-O-Meal has also taken their efforts outside company walls and into Social Media channels to make a bigger impact.

Social Media tools like Twitter® and Facebook® are online communication tools used by consumers to share information via a network of online communities comprised of their respective Friends and Followers. These clever tools also enable consumers to engage directly with participating products and brands they use or admire online.  Malt-O-Meal has a growing Social Media community that has helped the Company spread donation messages resulting in 100’s of thousands of cereal donations in 2009 through programs like Million Bowls.

On March 15th, 2010 Malt-O-Meal enlisted the help of well-known bloggers and their respective online communities to chat online about ways to fight hunger in America. Using popular social media platform, Twitter the hosts asked questions meant to discover new ways to help share news about food donation programs, and to gain access to people using Twittter who are interested in making food donations across America. The conversation was lively and the discussion topics revealing. Over 3,000 Twitter messages were generated by participants during this short, hour-long discussion. To put that number in perspective, this Malt-O-Meal discussion was a trending topic on Twitter on point with topics like Haiti and the Winter Olympics during that hour. Malt-O-Meal plans to use the information discovered during this online chat event to help structure future Company food donation programs. You can follow their progress or join in the discussion with Malt-O-Meal online using Social Media.

On Twitter: @MaltOMealCereal

On Facebook: www.facebook.com/MaltOMealFanPage

great quality and great value.

MINNEAPOLIS — March 2, 2010 — Minneapolis based Malt-O-Meal Company, the nation’s largest family owned cereal company, has been invited by Southwest Airlines, the well known low-fare carrier, to help celebrate its first year of service to the Twin Cities.

Malt-O-Meal will hand out samples of its most popular ready-to-eat cereal brands to Southwest Airlines customers at the celebration, to be held Thursday, March 4, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Humphrey Terminal.

Southwest began flying into Minneapolis/St. Paul’s Humphrey Terminal on March 8, 2009, and currently offers 13 non-stop flights to Chicago (Midway), Denver and St. Louis with direct or connecting service to 59 cities.

“Southwest Airlines is thrilled to partner with Malt-O-Meal to help celebrate our one-year anniversary serving Minneapolis/St. Paul,” said Southwest Spokesperson Chris Mainz.  “We LUV to do fun things for our Customers, and we’re grateful that Malt-O-Meal is joining in the festivities by giving away free samples to our Customers.”

“As a Minnesota born and bred company, we’re very happy to congratulate Southwest Airlines and to celebrate their one-year anniversary serving the Twin Cities,” said Linda Fisher, Malt-O-Meal’s Manager of Consumer Promotion. “Southwest has earned a reputation for providing travelers with a terrific experience at a great price. They’ve proven that the more expensive alternatives are not necessarily better, and that’s what Malt-O-Meal proves every day in cereal aisles across the country”.

After 38 years of service, Southwest Airlines (NYSE: LUV) continues to differentiate itself from other national carriers— setting high standards for reliability and customer service at a better value. Southwest Airlines is the most productive airline in the sky and offers customers a comfortable traveling experience. Southwest Airlines is the nation’s largest carrier in terms of originating domestic passengers boarded, currently serving 68 cities in 35 states. Based in Dallas, Southwest currently operates more than 3,100 flights a day and has nearly 35,000 employees system wide.

Founded in 1919, Minneapolis-based Malt-O-Meal Company produces 25 branded ready-to-eat cereals, three varieties of Malt-O-Meal Hot Wheat cereal, and a full line of oatmeal products. In addition to the company’s production facilities in Minnesota, Utah, Iowa and North Carolina, Malt-O-Meal operates distribution centers in Minnesota, Missouri, Utah, Tennessee and Pennsylvania. For more information on the company, including where to buy Malt-O-Meal cereals and how to join Cereal Central (an online community featuring tips on how to save money), visit www.maltomeal.com, become a fan at www.facebook.com/MaltOMealCereal or follow us on Twitter @MaltOMealCereal.

MEDIA INQUIRIES PLEASE CONTACT:

Katie Welch-Peterson

612/720-9374

katiep@newsworthycommunications.com

But that’s not all.  Malt-O-Meal’s resealable bag results in 75% less consumer waste.***  Packaging cereal in bags leaves less to throw away than boxed cereal brands that package their products in bags inside boxes.

Learn more and share what you’re doing to reduce your carbon footprint at www.bagthebox.com.

*Based on net weight comparison of comparable sized packages, average retail price without promotional discounts.
**AC Nielsen, Total U.S. Food + Mass + Wal-Mart SC, Current 52 Weeks Ending 4/11/09
***Based on the net weight of empty consumer packaging per pound of cereal delivered. Even when their box size is smaller, the net weight of their box and empty inner bag is still greater than the net weight of the larger Malt-O-Meal bag when empty.

MALT-O-MEAL SERVES UP MILLION BOWLS PROGRAM

TO BENEFIT N.C. FOOD ASSISTANCE PROGRAMS

Company announces immediate donation of one million bowls of cereal,

calls for N.C. consumers to match gift through purchase

ASHEBORO, N.C.-September 29, 2009-To celebrate the grand opening of its state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Asheboro, N.C., the Malt-O-Meal Company, the nation’s largest family owned cereal company, is sending out a call to North Carolinians to help combat hunger by participating in a new cereal donation program, Million Bowls®.

The company announced today at a grand opening ceremony that Malt-O-Meal is moving quickly to help urgent demand at North Carolina food banks by donating the first one million bowls. North Carolinians are now being challenged to step up to the bowl and match Malt-O-Meal’s donation by purchasing any variety of Malt-O-Meal cereal and registering their purchases online at www.MillionBowls.com to reach a donation goal of a second million servings of Malt-O-Meal cereals.
For every registered consumer purchase through the end of 2009, Malt-O-Meal will donate ten servings of cereal to North Carolina food banks. Hunger in North Carolina is a serious subject. Recent studies in North Carolina estimate 1.6 million people live in poverty, including more than 437,000 children and 117,300 seniors. Nearly one in every five children in North Carolina is categorized as either food insecure or hungry. Statewide demand for food assistance has increased 40 to 76 percent just in the last year. “Malt-O-Meal has a long-standing commitment to food banks,” says Chris Neugent, Malt-O-Meal President and CEO. “And to celebrate our newest plant opening in North Carolina, we’re honored to sponsor this program. Malt-O-Meal is in the business of feeding families, including those families that can’t afford to buy our cereals. And we look forward to sponsoring the Million Bowls program here annually to help our new neighbors here in North Carolina.” The new Asheboro facility created 133 jobs in the area, and is producing two brands of Malt-O-Meal ready-to-eat cereals, Malt-O-Meal® Frosted Mini Spooners® cereal and Malt-O-Meal® Frosted Flakes cereal. “Having a complete breakfast is the best way to begin each day. But obtaining enough high-quality cereal is always difficult for food shelves, and when we do have the inventory, our partner agencies go through it quickly,” says Clyde Fitzgerald, executive director, Second Harvest Food Bank of Northwest North Carolina. “Malt-O-Meal’s commitment to share its cereal production with the state’s food banks is a very significant benefit to those who need food assistance. The Million Bowls partnership between North Carolina consumers and Malt-O-Meal will go a long way to helping us eradicate our serious problem of hunger.” Consumers can visit the more than 1200 North Carolina retail locations providing in-store merchandising support for Million Bowls, including Bi-Lo, Bargain Town, Dollar General, Family Dollar, Galaxy, IGA, Ingles, Lowes Foods, MDI-supplied independent grocery stores, Nash Finch-supplied independent grocery stores, Piggly Wiggly, Rite Aid, Super Target,Wal-Mart, Maxway, Pope’s, Roses, Super Dollar, Super 10, and Treasure Mart. Consumers can also track daily progress toward the program’s donation goal of 2,000,000 servings at www.MillionBowls.com, by becoming a fan at www.facebook.com/MaltOMeal and by following the program on Twitter at www.twitter.com/MaltOMealCereal. North Carolina food banks partnering in the Million Bowls program are all affiliates of Feeding America, the largest charitable domestic hunger-relief organization in the United States. They include MANNA FoodBank, Asheville; Second Harvest Food Bank of Metrolina, Charlotte; Second Harvest Food Bank of Northwest North Carolina, Winston-Salem; Second Harvest Food Bank of Southeast North Carolina, Fayetteville; Inter-Faith Food Shuttle, Raleigh; Food Bank of Central & Eastern North Carolina, Raleigh; and Food Bank of the Albemarle, Elizabeth City. These food banks support feeding programs at local charitable agencies, and serve all 100 counties in North Carolina, providing food for an estimated 1,098,200 people annually. Founded in 1919, Minneapolis-based Malt-O-Meal Company produces over 25 different ready-to-eat cereals, three varieties of Malt-O-Meal Hot Wheat cereal, and a full line of oatmeal products. In addition to the company’s production facilities in Minnesota, Utah, Iowa, and now, North Carolina, Malt-O-Meal operates distribution centers in Minnesota, Missouri, Utah, Tennessee and Pennsylvania. For more information on the company, including where to buy Malt-O-Meal cereals and how to join Cereal Central (an online community featuring tips on how to save money), visit www.maltomeal.com, become a fan at www.facebook.com/MaltOMealFanPage or you can follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/MaltOMealCereal

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MALT-O-MEAL COMPANY FUELS ECONOMIC GROWTH;
OPENS FIRST EASTERN PRODUCTION FACILITY
State-of-the-Art Plant Brings 133 New Jobs to North Carolina

ASHEBORO, N.C.—September 29, 2009—Minneapolis-based Malt-O-Meal Company, the nation’s largest family owned cereal manufacturer, announces the grand opening of its newest production facility in Asheboro, N.C., on Tuesday, Sept. 29. North Carolina Secretary of Commerce Keith Crisco will officially open the doors to the 350,000 square foot facility, which adds 133 new jobs to the community.

“We are pleased to have Malt-O-Meal as our new neighbor and major contributor to the local economy, bringing well-paying, clean manufacturing jobs to Randolph County and the city of Asheboro,” says Bonnie Renfro, President, Randolph County Economic Development Corporation. “We look forward to supporting Malt-O-Meal’s continued success and enjoying the many benefits its growth will bring to our community.”

The 33-acre facility represents an investment of $140 million, supporting a long-term growth strategy to strengthen Malt-O-Meal’s position as the national leader in high quality value-priced cereal. Today, the company is the one of the largest ready-to-eat cereal manufacturers, and is growing rapidly. Ten Malt-O-Meal ready-to-eat cereals rank among the top 50 best selling cereals in the U.S.

The Asheboro Malt-O-Meal facility houses state-of-the art cereal production equipment, and is producing two of the brand’s most popular ready-to-eat cereals, Malt-O-Meal ® Frosted Mini Spooners® and Malt-O-Meal® Frosted Flakes. The site offers room for additional lines as the company continues to grow. The Asheboro plant is Malt-O-Meal’s first production operation in the East.

“Our Asheboro plant is key to Malt-O-Meal’s plans for expansion in the Southeast and across the U.S.,” says Chris Neugent, President and CEO, Malt-O-Meal. “We are grateful to the residents and officials of the city of Asheboro and Randolph County, and to the state of North Carolina, for their support and warm welcome.” Malt-O-Meal received nearly $4 million in financial incentives from Randolph County and an additional $1.09 million from the state of North Carolina to build its new facility in the state. It also received a grant from the North Carolina Department of Transportation to help build a railroad spur to its production facility. Malt-O-Meal is expected to become a significant contributor to Randolph County’s tax base. At the grand opening, Malt-O-Meal will also announce its Million Bowls donation drive to benefit North Carolina food banks. For more information about this program, visit www.MillionBowls.com.

Malt-O-Meal brand cereals are enjoyed in more than 27 million households and are distributed through multiple channels including grocery, mass merchants, and convenience
stores, military commissaries, and commercial food service. At $6.5 billion in annual sales, cereal is the fourth largest grocery category. In the past twelve months, the company has experienced strong retail sales and has outpaced cereal industry growth trends. In North Carolina, Malt-O-Meal brand cereals are available at retail locations including Bi-Lo, Dollar General, Family Dollar, Galaxy, IGA, Ingles, Lowes Foods, MDI-supplied independent grocery stores, Nash Finch-supplied independent grocery stores, Piggly Wiggly,
Rite Aid, Super Target, and Wal-Mart.

Founded in 1919, Minneapolis-based Malt-O-Meal Company produces over 25 different ready-to-eat cereals, three varieties of Malt-O-Meal Hot Wheat cereal, and a full line of oatmeal products. In addition to the company’s production facilities in Minnesota, Utah, Iowa and now, North Carolina, Malt-O-Meal operates distribution centers in Minnesota, Missouri, Utah, Tennessee and Pennsylvania. For more information on the company, including where to buy Malt-O-Meal cereals and how to join Cereal Central (an online community featuring tips on how to save money), www.malt-o-meal.com, become a fan at: www.facebook.com/MaltOMealFanPage or follow us on Twitter at: www.twitter/MaltOMealCereal.

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