08 April 2002

Northfield, IL, USA/Bonn, Germany: Kraft Foods recently kicked off the second year of its partnership with the United Nations Volunteers (UNV) as six pairs of Kraft Research & Development/Quality employees traveled to The Gambia, Guinea, Honduras, Mongolia, St. Lucia and Viet Nam for two-week volunteer assignments. Last year, Kraft became the first-ever corporate partner of UNV when it sent employee volunteers on three missions to Jamaica, Lesotho and Uzbekistan. In 2002, the missions include assisting with coffee processing, coffee bean quality and control, jam and jelly processing technology, peanut and cashew processing, sugar confectionery and dairy processing. Kraft employees are participating in missions with the Bonn-based UNV programme under its United Nations International Short Term Advisory Resources (UNISTAR) activities.

The UNV-Kraft volunteers will assist each country by leveraging their knowledge and experience to help address processing and quality/control issues.

"As a global leader in branded foods and beverages, we're pleased to have the opportunity to leverage our broad technology skills to assist developing countries and nations in transition," said John Ruff, Senior Vice President of Research & Development/Quality for Kraft Foods North America. "This program is mutually beneficial to our employees by providing a unique opportunity to enhance professional development and foster leadership skills through challenging situations in an unfamiliar culture.

"We are encouraged by a solid first year of partnership, and look forward to a new round of success stories," said Anne-Marie Bekaert, head of UNV's Volunteer Resources Unit. "We hope that other corporate leaders will join in and promote volunteer action -- yet another form of good business practice."

"At Kraft, we have a tradition of giving back to the communities where we live and work," Ruff said. "That tradition continues today as we extend our volunteer efforts to other places around the world that need help."

As part of its commitment to the development of employees, Kraft will cover the travel expenses and time abroad for the volunteer contribution as it would for any other business trip. The goal of UNV's UNISTAR initiative is to enhance the capacity of private and public enterprises in developing countries and emerging economies. UNV is the volunteer arm of the United Nations system (www.unvolunteers.org). Serving the causes of peace and development, its 5,000 volunteers bring hands-on assistance to communities in some 150 countries.

Kraft Foods (www.kraft.com), the largest branded food and beverage company headquartered in the United States, markets many of the world's leading brands including Kraft cheese, Maxwell House and Jacobs coffees, Nabisco cookies and crackers, Philadelphia cream cheese, Oscar Mayer meats, Post cereals and Milka chocolate in more than 145 countries.