Green Giant is a food company owned by General Mills. It is symbolized by two mascots — the Jolly Green Giant and his friend little Sprout. The company is the largest purveyor of frozen vegetables, and also sells canned vegetables both under the Green Giant and Le Sueur brands.The company was founded in 1903 in Le Sueur, Minnesota, as the Minnesota Valley Canning Company selling sweet creamed corn. The name Green Giant was introduced in 1925 to help market the company's peas, and in 1950 the company adopted the Green Giant name.By 1930, Minnesota was the corn center of the world and Minnesota Valley had emerged as one of the country's largest producers of sweet corn. The Green Giant soon had five canneries in Minnesota in addition to the original facility in Le Sueur.In 1979, the company merged with another Minnesota company, Pillsbury, which was ultimately acquired by General Mills.At the end of 1994, Pillsbury/Green Giant sold six canneries to Seneca Foods including the original cannery in Le Sueur, which is now shut down and even the front offices were torn down in 2006.