August 4, 2005, Philadelphia, PA— A local supermarket is exploding in color and activity with area youngsters designing the shapes of six African countries using flavors of a new soft drink. African Sunshine is an innovative, exceptionally refreshing, high-quality flavored soft drink with exotic African names. There is Moroccan Grape, Egyptian Orange, Nigerian Fruit Punch, Ivorian Pineapple, Liberian Cola and Sudanese Pineapple Orange. It’s delicious, but there’s more--the label on each bottle carries demographic information about the country, so youngsters are learning while they’re having fun in the African Sunshine Challenge. Young people will have to locate the country on a map of Africa. Their challenge is to build the shape of the each country using African Sunshine bottles. The youngsters will get prizes and of course cool refreshing bottles of African Sunshine.

Local community entrepreneur, Rafiq Al-Fareed and Jeff Brown, owner of the ShopRite of Cheltenham have teamed up to launch the sale of African Sunshine, one of the first Afrocentric beverages in the United States. Al-Fareed is a renowned community and economic development organizer. “I love my community work, but bringing African Sunshine to market is the fruition of a plan to enter the food manufacturing and distribution industry,” says Al-Fareed. Grocer, Jeff Brown adds, “It’s a great product and I love to be part of helping a new minority business get started. I wanted to give Al-Fareed all the support he needed to bring it to market. Initial sales of this product have been very good in our stores.”

When: August 4, 2005

Where: ShopRite of Cheltenham

Cheltenham & Ogontz Ave. (Cheltenham Square Mall)

Philadelphia, PA 19150

Time: 11:00 a.m.-12:30 p.m.

--more—

African Sunshine is produced in Pennsylvania and distributed/bottled under the authority of Unique Food Group, a Philadelphia company. Al-Fareed has worked for the last ten years to make his dream of African Sunshine a reality. The long struggle from conception to production is the manufacturing of a soft drink that celebrates and educates African Americans about the land of their ancestors.

About Brown’s Family ShopRite

Brown’s Family ShopRite was founded in 1988 by Jeffrey Brown. Today there are nine supermarkets owned and operated by Brown’s Super Stores. The locations are Roxborough, 24^th and Oregon, Island Avenue, and 67^th and Haverford in Philadelphia, PA, Cheltenham, PA Fairless Hills, PA, East Norriton, PA, Warminster, PA and Brooklawn, NJ. ShopRite is a chain noted for its commitment to community efforts, and has been awarded a number of awards for its community sponsorships.

Additional Information