Lay's® Unveils First Lay's RePlay Soccer Field in the U.S. Made from Reused Chip Bag Packaging

As Global program expands, soccer stars Mia Hamm and Javier "Chicharito" Hernández join Lay's in announcing newest field in Santa Ana, Calif.  

PLANO, Texas, April 19, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Lay's® continues to spark joy and help deserving communities "Stay Golden" through its global program Lay's RePlay, which creates sustainable soccer fields from disposed Lay's Potato Chip bags to drive positive outcomes for people and the planet. Today, Lay's opened the Lay's RePlay field in Santa Ana, Calif. The U.S. Lay's RePlay field is made with recycled Lay's chip bags and packaging materials that are washed, shredded and converted into an underlying layer that is designed to be recycled at the end of its 10-year lifespan.

According to a study by the UCLA Center for Neighborhood Knowledge, the Hispanic community was one of the hardest impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, both on a health and economic level. The field, located at Cesar Chavez Campesino Park in Santa Ana was selected by Lay's® and Lay's RePlay global partners UEFA Foundation for Children and Common Goal for its rich Hispanic heritage with the goal of providing affordable access to soccer programming and education.

"As a UEFA ambassador, I am proud to be a voice for Lay's RePlay," said Hamm, FIFA World Cup champion and two-time Olympic gold medalist. "Having access to community gathering spaces and safe playing fields must be a top priority for young people across the world. Soccer continues to see incredible growth, and with the Hispanic community being the fastest growing segment of our population – and arguably the most passionate about the game – beginning the Lay's RePlay U.S. expansion in a key area like Santa Ana is a powerful moment."

"The pipeline for healthy lives in the Hispanic community expands greatly when you have access to quality fields and equipment, and the Lay's RePlay program is a game-changer," said Major League Soccer player and LA Galaxy striker Chicharito. "As someone who lives and plays in Southern California, I'm looking forward to seeing the joy this field brings to families across the area."

The Santa Ana field opens in partnership with the City of Santa Ana and Pure Game, a local non-profit that teaches children life skills through mentorship and sports-based character education.

"Since 2021, Lay's RePlay has had the privilege of creating beautiful soccer fields and programming to share with deserving communities across the globe. From South Africa, Brazil, and Mexico to the United Kingdom, we've been able to see the tremendous impact this program brings to aspiring athletes and families around the world – uniting people through a common love of soccer, providing a safe space to foster togetherness and minimizing our impact on the earth," said Ciara Dilley, PepsiCo's vice president of marketing for global food brands. "We are so honored to be able to play such a significant role in furthering the soccer journeys of young people here in the community of Santa Ana with the launch of our first Lay's RePlay soccer field in the U.S.!"

The new Lay's RePlay field marks the sixth to open around the world, with others in South Africa, Brazil, the United Kingdom, Italy, and Mexico, which have been utilized over 25,000 times to provide underserved communities with access to the beloved sport and state-of-the-art soccer fields since the program's launch. Lay's RePlay builds on work done by Lay's and the UEFA Foundation for Children that delivered three artificial soccer fields in the Za'atari and Azraq Refugee Camps in 2017 and 2018 and have since provided 35,000 people access to the sport.

"Lay's has been such an incredible partner to work with over the years and we are thrilled to support bringing the Lay's RePlay program into the U.S.," said Urs Kluser, general secretary for UEFA Foundation for Children. "Through our partnership, we are able to put our best resources forward and work together to gather communities around the world through the joy of the sport."

About PepsiCo
PepsiCo products are enjoyed by consumers more than one billion times a day in more than 200 countries and territories around the world. PepsiCo generated more than $86 billion in net revenue in 2022, driven by a complementary beverage and convenient foods portfolio that includes Lay's, Doritos, Cheetos, Gatorade, Pepsi-Cola, Mountain Dew, Quaker, and SodaStream. PepsiCo's product portfolio includes a wide range of enjoyable foods and beverages, including many iconic brands that generate more than $1 billion each in estimated annual retail sales.

Guiding PepsiCo is our vision to Be the Global Leader in Beverages and Convenient Foods by Winning with pep+ (PepsiCo Positive). pep+ is our strategic end-to-end transformation that puts sustainability and human capital at the center of how we will create value and growth by operating within planetary boundaries and inspiring positive change for planet and people. For more information, visit www.pepsico.com, and follow on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn @PepsiCo. 

About Lay's
Lay's is one of the brands that makes up Frito-Lay North America, the $23 billion convenient foods division of PepsiCo, Inc. (Nasdaq: PEP), which is headquartered in Purchase, NY. Learn more about Frito-Lay at the corporate website, http://www.fritolay.com/ and on Twitter http://www.twitter.com/fritolay. Learn more about Lay's by visiting www.facebook.com/lays or on Twitter at www.twitter.com/lays. You can also follow Lay's on Instagram by visiting http://instagram.com/lays.

About Frito-Lay North America
Frito-Lay North America is the $23 billion convenient foods division of PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ: PEP), which is headquartered in Purchase, NY. Frito-Lay snacks include Lay's and Ruffles potato chips, Doritos and Tostitos tortilla chips and branded dips, Cheetos snacks, Stacy's pita chips, PopCorners popped-corn snack, SunChips multigrain snacks and Fritos corn chips. The company operates 30+ manufacturing facilities across the U.S. and Canada, more than 200 distribution centers and services 315,000 retail customers per week through its direct-store-delivery model. Learn more about Frito-Lay at the corporate website, www.fritolay.com, on Twitter (@fritolay), on Instagram (@fritolay) and on Facebook (Frito-Lay).

About UEFA Foundation for Children
Established in 2015, the UEFA Foundation for Children is a charitable organization governed by Swiss law. It defends the rights of underprivileged children by using the power of football to improve their lives and to help them develop their potential and find their place in the community. The foundation currently invests in 168 projects and so far to 412 projects in 135 countries worldwide. More than 2,200,000 children have already benefited from the foundation's work since its creation. For more information, visit www.uefafoundation.org.

About PureGame
PureGame is a nonprofit organization created in 2009 with the mission to teach character values to youth through a form of soccer that is open and appealing to all. The organization serves more than 1,500 participants a year. PureGame offers in-school and after-school programming at more than twenty five elementary and middle schools in Orange County the surrounding communities including Anaheim, Santa Ana and Garden Grove. There is no fee charged to the participants to compete in the PureGame soccer program. PureGame provides coaches that they call "Field Champions" who serve as mentors to help children develop character and social emotional learning through their unique experiential learning. PureGame's character education curriculum is facilitated through the game of soccer.

About Common Goal
Common Goal is a global impact movement that exists to unite the football community in tackling the biggest challenges of our times. The movement creates opportunities for every stakeholder of the football economy to play a meaningful role in serving the wellbeing of our people and planet. To do so, Common Goal provides a simple and impactful mechanism for professional football players, managers, officials, clubs, and other stakeholders, to pledge a minimum of 1% of their earnings towards the wellbeing of our people and planet. The movement's long-term ambition is to unlock 1% of the entire football industry's revenues—estimated at €50 billion per year —to establish an intrinsic link between football as a business and football as a tool for social change. Since its inception, more than 250 professional football players and managers have joined –including Paulo Dybala, Pernille Harder, Timo Werner, Serge Gnabry, Casey Stoney and Jürgen Klopp among others. Also influential football figures have joined the movement, such as UEFA President Aleksander Čeferin, and the iconic Eric Cantona, plus professional clubs such as FC Nordsjælland, from the elite league in Denmark, and Oakland Roots, from the USL in North America. For more information, visit www.common-goal.org, and follow on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Youtube and LinkedIn.

SOURCE Frito-Lay North America