Meet this year’s Festival Presenting Sponsor.

St. Louis Earth Day is pleased to announce our 2012 St. Louis Earth Day Festival Presenting Sponsor – Nature’s Own.

Nature’s Own is America’s best-selling soft variety bread brand* – and for good reason. Introduced in 1977, Nature’s Own offers a delicious selection of fresh breads and buns made from quality ingredients.

Known for its quality and innovation, Nature’s Own’s breads have no artificial preservatives, colors or flavors; no trans fats or cholesterol; are low in fat; and have varieties with whole grain, reduced carbohydrates, higher fiber, lower calories and omega-3. Nature’s Own does not use artificial preservatives, but utilizes natural preservatives such as vinegar and cultured wheat flour.

As the bakers of Nature’s Own put it, “[We are] proud to be available in St. Louis, and proud to be a sponsor of the 2012 St. Louis Earth Day Festival. Our commitment to nutritious, delicious and high quality baked goods makes us a perfect partner as we celebrate nature with the city of St. Louis on this exciting and important day. In fact, we have nature in our name!”

Flowers Foods Bakeries Group first introduced Nature’s Own, with no artificial preservatives, colors, or flavors, in 1977.  Since then, Nature’s Own has grown into a full line of more than 10 soft variety breads and buns with annual sales of $450 million. In the 1980s, Flowers introduced one of the first low-calorie breads on the market under the Nature’s Own brand. In 1999, Nature’s Own Sugar Free hit the market, one of the first commercially produced sugar-free breads available. In 2004, Flowers successfully introduced Nature’s Own Wheat ‘n Fiber, the first commercially produced bread with lower carbohydrates. For more information on Nature’s Own, visit www.naturesownbread.com.

Flowers Foods Bakeries Group, a super-regional baker of fresh breads, rolls, and snack cakes, is an operating unit of Flowers Foods (NYSE: FLO). Headquartered in Thomasville, Ga., Flowers Foods is one of the nation’s leading producers and marketers of packaged bakery foods for retail and food service industry customers with annual sales of more than $1.7 billion. Flowers operates 37 bakeries that produce a wide range of bakery products marketed throughout the Southeast, Southwest, and mid-Atlantic regions via an extensive direct-store-delivery network and nationwide through other delivery systems. Among the company’s top brands are Nature’s Own, Cobblestone Mill, Sunbeam, BlueBird, and Mrs. Freshley’s. For more information, visit www.flowersfoods.com.

*Based on unit sales numbers reported by syndicated IRI data for total U.S.