LOS ANGELES (February 5, 2014) – Today, actress Jennie Garth and TV personality and actor Mario Lopez officially kicked off a partnership between Wonderful Halos mandarins and Feeding America. Wonderful Halos – the sweet, easy to peel and seedless mandarins – is taking their Pure Goodness message to schools across America by providing nutritious food to children through the Feeding America BackPack program.

Lopez, host of EXTRA and “THE X FACTOR”, and Garth, one of the stars of the new ABC Family comedy series “Mystery Girls”, author of her upcoming memoir, “Deep Thoughts From a Hollywood Blonde,” to be released on March 4 and best known for her role as Kelly Taylor on the iconic TV series “90210,” and family joined volunteers at the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank to pack Halos and other meals for students in the Los Angeles and Compton Unified School Districts. The event kicks off a larger partnership between Wonderful Halos and Feeding America that will provide more than 1.3 million meals to people in need.

Feeding America is the nation’s largest organization dedicated to fighting domestic hunger through a network of food banks. More than 18 million children qualify for free or reduced price meals through the National School Lunch Program. The Feeding America BackPack Program supplies children the healthy food they need to get them through the weekend. Bags of food are assembled at more than 150 local food banks and distributed to nearly 230,000 children every year.

“My family and I love that Wonderful Halos is spreading pure goodness to children across the country by providing them with the fresh produce they need,” said Jennie Garth. “Our family enjoys Halos together, so it makes sense for us to join Wonderful Halos to help eliminate the problem of hunger in our own backyards.”

“As a dad with young kids, I know how important it is for children to eat well,” said Mario Lopez. “That’s why I’m committed to working together with Halos mandarins to make sure families in need can get fresh, nutritious fruit to stay strong and healthy.”

Additionally, celebrities and personalities such as dancing pro Cheryl Burke with “Dancing with the Stars”; celebrity fitness instructor Tracy Anderson; television personality and actress Kristin Cavallari; and actor Austin Basis of the CW’s “Beauty and the Beast”, among others, are adding to the pure goodness by tapping into their creative side to design backpacks for Feeding America. The backpacks will be used to raise additional funds for the program.

“Food banks around the country are constantly in need of healthy fresh fruit,” said Leah Ray, VP of Corporate Partnerships, Feeding America. “Fruit, such as mandarin oranges, are an extremely important part of everyone’s daily lives and we’re thankful to partner with Wonderful Halos to provide nutritious food to children and their families.”

“Wonderful Halos is committed to delivering pure goodness to parents and children with a sweet, healthy snack option they can enjoy together,” said Marc Seguin, vice president of global marketing, Wonderful Halos. “Feeding America is the perfect partner for us, as they are an incredible ally for combatting hunger and getting fresh fruit to those most in need.”

Wonderful Halos mandarins are in the produce aisles of grocery, mass and club stores now through March (California mandarin season). They are available in 3- and 5-pound bags and 5-pound boxes. For more information on Wonderful Halos or to stay up-to-date on the Wonderful Halos and Feeding America partnership, visit HalosFun.com, Facebook.com/Halos or @halosfun on Twitter. For more information on Feeding America’s BackPack program and how to help, please visit FeedingAmerica.org.

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About Paramount Citrus

Paramount Citrus is America’s largest integrated grower, shipper and packer of fresh citrus—mandarins, navel oranges, Valencia oranges, lemons, limes, Texas red grapefruit and other citrus varieties.  More than a half million tons of fresh citrus shipped from around the world are processed at our facilities in California’s San Joaquin Valley, Texas’s Rio Grande Valley and Mexico. Paramount Citrus is the country’s largest grower of sweet, seedless, easy peel California mandarins, which are processed in the world’s largest citrus packinghouse at our company’s headquarters in Delano, California. Paramount Citrus is part of the Roll Global LLC family of companies that include the world’s largest grower of pistachios and almonds as well as consumer packaged goods such as POM Wonderful, FIJI Water and Wonderful Halos. Visit www.paramountcitrus.com for more information.

About Feeding America

Feeding America is a nationwide network of more than 200 food banks that leads the fight against hunger in the United States. Together, we provide food to more than 37 million people through 61,000 food pantries, soup kitchens, and shelters in communities across America. Feeding America also supports programs that improve food security among the people we serve; educates the public about the problem of hunger; and advocates for legislation that protects people from going hungry. Individuals, charities, businesses and government all have a role in ending hunger. Donate. Volunteer. Advocate. Educate.  Together we can solve hunger. Visit http://www.feedingamerica.org/. Find us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/FeedingAmerica or follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/FeedingAmerica.

About Los Angeles Regional Food Bank

For 41 years, the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank has worked to mobilize governmental, corporate, private and individual resources in the community to alleviate hunger. With a vision that no one goes hungry in Los Angeles County, the Food Bank has distributed 1 billion pounds of food since its inception. In 2013, it served 1 million people and distributed 60 million pounds of food. The Food Bank collects food from hundreds of resources, which – with the help of 33,000 volunteers annually – is sorted, then distributed through over 1,000 agency and distribution sites. For more information or to get involved, visit www.lafoodbank.org