Newman's Own

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Newman's Own
Private
Founded 1982
Headquarters Westport, Connecticut, U.S.
Key people
 Paul Newman (founder)
A.E. Hotchner (co-founder)
Products Popcorn, drinks, pasta sauce, salad dressing, salsa, frozen pizza, frozen skillet meals
Website Newman's Own

Newman's Own is a food company founded by actor Paul Newman and author A.E. Hotchner in 1982. The company gives 100% of the after-tax profits from the sale of its products to Newman's Own Foundation (a private non-profit foundation) which in turn, gives the money to various educational and charitable organizations.[1] In 1982 Newman summarized his initial intentions regarding distribution of his company's profits:

"My profits will be divided between a number of tax-deductible charities and causes, some church-related, others for conservation and ecology and things like that."[2]

History

The brand started with a homemade salad dressing that Newman and Hotchner prepared themselves and gave to friends as gifts.[3] The successful reception of the salad dressing led Newman and Hotchner to commercialize it for sale.[4] After that initial item, financed by Newman and Hotchner ($20,000 each as seed money),[5] pasta sauce, frozen pizza, lemonade, fruit cocktail juices, popcorn, salsa, grape juice, and other products were produced. Newman's Own Lemonade was introduced in 2004 and Newman's Own premium wines in 2008.[6] Each label features a picture of Newman, dressed in a different costume to represent the product. The company incorporated humor into its label packaging, as in the label for its first salad dressing in 1982, "Fine Foods Since February".[5]

In 1993, Newman's daughter Nell Newman founded Newman's Own Organics[7] as a division of the company, later to become a separate company in late 2001. It produces only organic foods including chocolate, cookies, pretzels and pet food. Her father posed with her for the photographs on the labels.[8]

Newman and Hotchner co-wrote a memoir about their company and the Hole in the Wall Gang Camps, Shameless Exploitation in Pursuit of the Common Good (ISBN 0-385-50802-6), published in 2003. Newman and Robert Forrester had arranged for the continuation of the distribution of Newman's Own profits to charity after Newman's death through the establishment of the Newman's Own Foundation.[9]

Charity

According to the Newman's Own Foundation website, over $430 million (USD) has been generated for charity since 1982.[10] The company co-sponsored the PEN/Newman's Own First Amendment Award, which was presented annually to a United States resident who had fought courageously, despite adversity, to safeguard the First Amendment right to freedom of expression as it applied to the written word.

A sampling of grantees is available at the Newman's Own Foundation website[11] along with a description of funding areas.[12] One beneficiary of this charity is the SeriousFun Children's Network (previously the Association of Hole in the Wall Camps), residential summer camps for seriously ill children, which Paul co-founded in 1988. Today, there are camps, programs, and initiatives operating in 50 countries across 5 continents. Over 384,700 children have attended a SeriousFun program free of charge.[13] While proceeds from Newman's Own financed the startup of the camp, it now receives funding from many other sources. Additionally, the Newman's Own Foundation also provided a grant to The MINDS Foundation to fund US operations of the non-profit that works in rural India.[14] Other beneficiaries of the profits from Newman's Own have included The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund (from 1983 onwards),[15] Shining Hope for Communities,[16] Safe Water Network,[9] Edible Schoolyard NYC,[17] Fisher House Foundation,[18] the WILD Young Women Programme (New Zealand),[19] and Pilgrims Hospices (UK).[20]

Newman's Own Organics pays a name licensing fee, directed to the Newman's Own Foundation, to Newman's Own.

Notes

  1. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ Businesswire.com
  7. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. Newman's Own Foundation
  11. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. Newman's Own Foundation
  12. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. Newman's Own Foundation
  13. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. seriousfunnetwork.org
  14. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  15. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  16. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  17. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  18. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  19. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  20. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

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