Ziggy Serves Up Support for World Food Day (Oct 16th)

Cleveland, OH – For the past 26 years, artist Tom Wilson has lent his classic character, Ziggy, in an exclusive public service announcement illustration to bring awareness to World Food Day. This year, Ziggy, who greets America everyday at the local level in hometown newspapers all over the country, encourages community teamwork on October 16th to impact the cause.

The caption of the new Ziggy PSA which reads, “Working Together, Works,.” demonstrates the message from the U.S. National Committee for World Food Day that a little bit of effort from many people can accomplish a tremendous amount to help alleviate world hunger.

“Since we linked Ziggy to the cause, the special edition comic panels have been based on the annual focus message for the cause,” Wilson explained. “This year, Ziggy wants all of his fans to join him by helping out in local community planning and events.”

Since 1984, Ziggy artist, Tom Wilson, has been working together with the committee to create special World Food Day PSAs to raise awareness for the cause. The 2006 Ziggy PSA (http://www.worldfooddayusa.org/CMS/10534/10796/16799.aspx) is helping 450 United States national and private voluntary organizations that work together with thousands of local organizers to increase awareness and facilitate year-round action All of the past Ziggy announcements are available at http://www.worldfooddayusa.org/CMS/10534/10796.aspx as part of the new World Food Day website, which was donated by Diamax Information Systems.

World Food Day is a worldwide event designed to increase awareness and understanding to alleviate hunger everywhere. October 16th was chosen as World Food Day in recognition of the founding of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in 1945. In the United States the endeavor is sponsored by 450 national, private voluntary organizations.
With Ziggy’s assistance in spreading the word about World Food Day, the FAO suggests several types of activities to organize at local and national levels, including:

• Agricultural fairs, exhibitions, and visits to farms and farmers' markets
• Educational materials on development distributed at schools
• Round-table discussions, workshops, and symposia
• Official recognition, prizes and trophies for food producers
• Distribution of food, money or agricultural inputs to needy persons and groups
• Initiation of new field projects related to food self-sufficiency
• Training and support to individuals and groups in the preparation of family or school-kitchen gardens
• Special, Government-issue, commemorative coins or stamps
• Tree-planting ceremonies
• Drawing and/or poster competitions and writing contests

For more information about World Food Day, the FAO, and the U.S. National Committee for World Food Day, please visit http://www.worldfooddayusa.org/

About Ziggy:
Ziggy, the lovable "everyman" comic panel, celebrates its 35th year in syndication in 2006, having first appeared in newspapers in June, 1971. Tom Wilson of Cincinnati, Ohio, has drawn and written Ziggy since 1987, after the retirement of his father, the senior Tom Wilson, who first created Ziggy as a greeting card character. Distributed through Universal Press Syndicate, a division of Andrews McMeel Universal, Ziggy is published in more than 600 newspapers, reaching 75 million readers daily, and maintains an online presence through Ziggy.com and uclick.com. More than 20 Ziggy cartoon collection books and calendars have been published by Andrews McMeel Publishing, LLC.

Ziggy has been selected as the 2006 spokescharacter for the National Foster Parent Association (NFPA) and National Foster Care Awareness Month (May). Ziggy's inspiring message also extends to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, where he serves as the full-time official spokescharacter. In 2003, Wilson launched Character Matters as a business dedicated to developing world-class characters for companies and brands.

Licensees for Ziggy include Planet Sox, Top Heavy, Casa D' Oro, Russ Berrie & Co., Sara Max, Mighty Fine, Arrow International and BFS Entertainment & Multimedia Limited, which is launching the DVD of “Ziggy's Gift.” The animated holiday special earned an Emmy Award in its only TV broadcast and recently won the Family Magazine Group’s Family Choice Award and the National Parenting Center Seal of Approval.

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