Rustic Crust Rises to the Occasion for NH Food Bank Backpack Program

MANCHESTER, NH FEBRUARY 22, 2010 – The New Hampshire Food Bank announced today a new partnership with Rustic Crust, the nation’s leading retail brand for natural and organic pizza crust, to provide all-natural pizza kits for the Food Bank’s Backpack Program. Rustic Crust has generously committed to produce their delicious all-natural Italian Herb crust specifically for 1000 backpacks two times during the school year.

“This is a huge donation, as Rustic Crust only typically produces the pizza crust. They purchased the pizza sauce and cheese and packaged the items themselves to make a complete meal for children” said Melanie Gosselin, Executive Director at the New Hampshire Food Bank. “It is not only delicious; it’s nutritious and self stable. We are extremely grateful to Rustic Crust for partnering with us to fight childhood hunger.”

The New Hampshire Food Bank’s Backpack Program was created in November, 2006 when the Food Bank noticed that many children were going hungry when their school’s free or reduced-cost lunch programs were unavailable to them on weekends and during school vacations. Once a month during the school year at-risk children are sent home with a backpack that contains items that not only help the family through one or two meals over the weekend, but also provides them with staple items for their shelves and gives them the hope in creating a second meal with the remaining ingredients.

“New Hampshire has been very good to Rustic Crust” said Founder Brad Sterl. “It’s a privilege to be able to give back when we can. Part of our mission as a company is to Bring Families Together -- what better way than around the dinner table sharing a meal. We’re delighted to participate in this NH Food Bank program.”

Founded in 1996 Rustic Crust offers a variety of all natural and organic ready-made crusts and frozen topped pizzas, each crafted with dough formed by hand and allowed to slowly ferment, double proofed, then baked in custom ovens for rich flavor. Rustic Crust has pioneered the proprietary technology to preserve freshness without the need for artificial preservatives commonly found in other shelf-stable products.