McKee Foods

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McKee Foods Corporation is a privately held United States company headquartered in Collegedale, Tennessee. They are the makers of the popular Little Debbie and Sunbelt snacks.

1 Company history
2 Brands
- 2.1 Little Debbie
- 2.2 Sunbelt
3 Trivia
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Company history

The company was founded during the Depression by O.D. and Ruth McKee. O.D. started by selling cakes from his 1928 Whippet in the Chattanooga, Tennessee area. Wanting to expand, he bought Jack's Cookie Company, a small bakery. The bakery did well for a few years, but O.D. was still looking to expand. His father-in-law, however, didn't share his ideas. O.D. decided to sell his business, and start over.

The McKees moved to Charlotte, North Carolina, into a new bakery designed by O.D. After some time, they sold the Charlotte plant. They moved back to Chattanooga in the early 1950s when Cecil King, Ruth's brother, was in poor health and needed the help. They decided to buy back their old bakery.

McKee Baking Company moved to Collegedale in 1957. In 1991, McKee Baking Company became McKee Foods Corporation.

[edit] Brands

[edit] Little Debbie

Little Debbie products are primarily cookie and cake based dessert snacks. They come in dozens of varieties, of which the best-selling is the Swiss Cake Roll.^[1] Little Debbie products are available in most large discount stores, grocery stores, and convenience stores.

The brand Little Debbie is better known than its parent company. In the 1960s, company founders O.D. and Ruth McKee decided to name a product after one of their grandchildren - four year old Debbie. The original image of Debbie used on packaging and advertising was based on a black and white photo. Atlanta artist, Pearl Mann, did the original color artwork. She made young Debbie look older, around eight or nine. Minor changes were made to the logo in 1987.

The Little Debbie brand now sponsors Ken Schrader's #21 Ford Fusion in NASCAR.

[edit] Sunbelt

Sunbelt products include a variety of granola bars and cereals. The Sunbelt brand pioneered the chewy granola bar.

[edit] Trivia

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Content in this section should be integrated into other appropriate areas of the article or removed, and the trivia section removed.

McKee Foods is run by members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Because advertizing is considered a form of business, and they believe that they should not do business on their day of rest, the company chooses to have the NASCAR team it sponsors cover up all logos from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday.^[2]