Newman's Own, Ford Donate Trucks and Food to Feed Hungry

The Newman's Own Foundation and Ford Motor Company today donated seven refrigerated trucks to members of America's Second Harvest - The Nation's Food Bank Network.
The trucks were filled with an assortment of Newman's Own products.

The refrigerated trucks will help deliver fresh and nutritious food to hard-to-reach communities that are often underserved. Donated produce, meat and dairy products usually cannot be delivered to remote areas unless refrigerated trucks are available for long delivery routes.

This is the seventh consecutive year of the "Partnership for Hunger Relief." A total of 75 vehicles have been donated since the partnership's founding in 2001. The trucks have traveled a combined total of more than 3 million miles and have distributed more than 74 million pounds of food to rural areas in need.

The seven food banks receiving trucks this year are the Baton Rouge Food Bank, Louisiana; Food Bank of South Central Michigan, Battle Creek; FoodBank of the Virginia Peninsula, Newport News; Foodbank of Santa Barbara, California; Food Bank of the Rockies, Denver, Colorado; Island Harvest, Long Island, New York; Mississippi Food Network, Jackson.

According to the USDA report Food Security in the United States: 2005, 12 percent of all rural households are food insecure, an estimated 2.3 million households. The America's Second Harvest report, Hunger in America 2006, found that 42.6 percent of the adult clients they serve live in suburban or rural areas.

Actor and activist Paul Newman says, "Food is available in this country - it just needs to find its way to our neighbors living in remote areas. Ford, America's Second Harvest and the Newman's Own Foundation are helping to do just that."

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Consumer Reports Identifies Most, Least Problematic Used Vehicles

New-car reliabilityis one thing, but how well will your car hold up three, five, even 10 years from now? On average, Toyota and Honda vehicles age best while those made by Volkswagen fare worst, according to new survey information from Consumer Reports.

For the first time, Consumer Reports has reported on the reliability of vehicles built in the past 10 model years (1997-2006). In addition, Consumer Reports has also identified vehicles that are most prone to specific problems to give used-car buyers more information than ever when making a purchase decision, the magazine says.

Detailed reliability ratings of 248 makes and models can be found in the April issue of Consumer Reports magazine, available March 6, or by logging in at http://www.ConsumerReports.org.

Among 10-year-old vehicles, owners of Japanese cars report the fewestproblems overall, the magazine says.

Toyota, Honda, and Subaru lead the way with an average of 65, 89, and 90 problems per 100 vehicles reported, respectively. Theaverage of all 10-year-old vehicles is 132 problems per 100 vehicles.

Of the domestic 10-year-old vehicles, those from Ford (including Lincoln and Mercury) remain most reliable, at about 120 problems per 100 vehicles. Ten-year-old vehicles from GM and Chrysler are nearly neck-and-neck with about 160 problems per 100 vehicles. Volkswagen (including Audi) owners reported about 175 problems per 100 vehicles, by far worse than anyother brand, the magazine says.

The oldest Korean vehicles (eight years old) from Hyundai (including Kia) that Consumers Reports says it has sufficient reliability data for are problematic, faring worse than all domestics and half of some European brands. Newer models, however, show improvements, the magazine adds.

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