Hershey Foods (HSY)

Company Gift Matching Program

The Company sponsors a Gift Matching Program for employees of the Company. Under the Gift Matching Program, an employee’s contribution to one or more charitable institutions of higher education is matched, at the employee’s request, on a dollar-for-dollar basis up to a maximum aggregate annual contribution per employee of $5,000.

A proxy may be revoked at any time before it is voted at the Annual Meeting by submitting to the Secretary of the Company a written notice revoking it, by a duly-executed proxy bearing a later date, by a telephone or Internet vote cast at a later date, or by voting by ballot at the meeting. Shares held for each participant in the Company’s Automatic Dividend Reinvestment Service Plan, the ESSIOP or the Company’s Puerto Rico Employee Savings Stock Investment and Ownership Plan (“PR ESSIOP”) will be voted by the plan trustees as directed by the participant’s proxy. If an Automatic Dividend Reinvestment Service Plan participant does not return a proxy, the participant’s shares in the plan will not be voted. If an ESSIOP or PR ESSIOP participant does not return a proxy, that participant’s shares will be voted by the plan trustee in the same proportion as the final aggregate votes of plan participants actually voting on the matter.

Solicitation of proxies will be made by use of the mail or, if consented to by a stockholder, by electronic transmission over the Internet. The cost of preparing, assembling and distributing this proxy solicitation material and Notice of Annual Meeting of Stockholders will be paid by the Company. Solicitation by mail, telephone, telefax, electronic transmission over the Internet or personal contact may be done by directors, officers and other employees of the Company, for which they will receive no additional compensation. Brokerage houses and other nominees, fiduciaries and custodians nominally holding shares of the Company’s stock as of the record date will be requested to forward proxy solicitation material to the beneficial owners of such shares and will be reimbursed by the Company for their reasonable expenses.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has adopted rules that allow the Company to send a single copy of its Proxy Statement and Annual Report to Stockholders to two or more stockholders sharing the same address if those stockholders also share the same name or if the Company reasonably believes that those stockholders are members of the same family. The rules require that each stockholder at the shared address continue to receive a separate proxy card or voting instruction card. Hershey Foods believes this rule is beneficial to both stockholders and the Company because it allows for the elimination of cumbersome duplicate mailings to the same household and results in lower printing and postage costs.

Any stockholder who would prefer to have a separate copy of the Proxy Statement and Annual Report to Stockholders delivered to him or her at the shared address for this and future years may elect to do so by calling, toll free, (800) 542-1061, or by writing to ADP, Householding Department, 51 Mercedes Way, Edgewood, New York 11717. A copy of the materials will be sent promptly to the stockholder following receipt of such notice.

Stockholders whose shares of Common Stock are held partially in registered name and partially by a broker or other nominee may receive duplicate deliveries of the Proxy Statement and Annual Report to Stockholders. Certain brokers and nominees have procedures in place to discontinue duplicate

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