As we look back on 2010, we're proud of the significant accomplishments of our industry.

With Clear on Calories, our member companies have come together through a voluntary commitment to make the calories in their products even more clear and consumer-friendly by putting calorie information at consumers’ fingertips at every point of purchase, including containers, company-controlled vending machines and fountain machines.

We delivered on our promise to change the beverage landscape in America's schools with our national School Beverage Guidelines.  Former President Bill Clinton joined us in announcing our final results:  we removed full-calorie beverages from schools and replaced them with more lower-calorie, smaller-portion beverage options. In fact, we slashed beverage calories shipped to schools by a dramatic 88 percent since 2004.

We were thrilled to see the year end with two pieces of legislation important to the health of our nation’s children become law.  The National Foundation on Physical Fitness and Sport Establishment Act will allow private funds to supplement government appropriations for the President’s Council on Physical Fitness, Sports and Nutrition. And in December, Congress took final action on the "Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act" and sent the bill to President Obama, who signed it into law.  This piece of legislation provides necessary funding to federal child nutrition programs and it is something for which our industry has been a champion.  In fact, throughout the year we worked with members of Congress and a broad coalition of public health and education groups and others in the food and beverage industry to re-authorize the Child Nutrition Act.  The final legislation also points to our national School Beverage Guidelines as a set of guidelines to be considered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture as it drafts new rules.   After all, the School Beverage Guidelines are a national standard already in place and working, and they provide a strong cornerstone for developing a new federal nutrition standard for all foods and beverages in schools.

Our industry is taking bold actions which have contributed— and will continue to contribute—to the well being of today’s generation and generations to come.   We are proud to have played a leadership role in helping solve serious challenges and we look forward to continuing that work in 2011.