ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Tuesday, August 27, 1996               TAG: 9608270112
SECTION: BUSINESS                 PAGE: B-6  EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: JEFF STURGEON 

KRAFT GIVES CONVENTION DONKEYS TO MUNCH ON

Kraft Foods Inc. has reinvented its Macaroni & Cheese Dinner for the Democratic National Convention, with pasta pieces resembling the party's donkey symbol. Star-shaped macaroni are mixed in, and it all comes in a red, white and blue box.

The Northfield, Ill., company made 30,000 boxes of the commemorative product - called Democrats in '96! - as a keepsake for delegates. A version for the Republicans, who held their convention earlier this month in San Diego, contained elephant-shaped pasta.

"Kraft is headquartered in the Chicago area, so the Democratic Convention is right in our backyard," said Robert Morrison, chairman and chief executive.

The donkeys were the work of company artist Ricardo Villota. Kraft, the food unit of Philip Morris Companies Inc., said character-shaped pasta varieties have been a source of new business since 1990. The company said it sells 1 million boxes daily of the regular product, invented in 1937.

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