“Upstate New Yorkers can now have their Drake’s cake and keep their jobs, too,” Mr. Schumer said in a statement this week.

Image Workers at Interstate Bakeries in Schiller Park, Ill., a Chicago suburb, preparing Twinkies for packaging. Credit... Tim Boyle/Getty Images

Created in 1930, with a banana cream filling, rather than the vanilla of today, Twinkies  love ’em or hate ’em  are about as emblematic as junk food gets. With 39 ingredients, 150 shamelessly empty calories and, officially, a shelf life of about three weeks, the Twinkie is a cream-filled symbol of American culture. Their mysterious longevity even earned them a joke in “Wall-E,” Pixar’s postapocalyptic robot love story.

Hostess Brands was acquired in 1995 by Interstate and today employs 22,000 people in 41 bakeries. But Interstate succumbed in September 2004 to various ailments, including the low-carb Atkins and South Beach Diets.

Burt P. Flickinger III of the Strategic Resource Group, a retail consulting firm, said Interstate faces stiff competition from rivals like Sara Lee. In light of the recession, even Hostess, the cream in Interstate’s Twinkie, might have to lower prices, he said.

Craig D. Jung, Interstate’s chief executive, said the company was working to adapt to tougher times and healthier snacking. It will expand its line of calorie-conscious snacks like Twinkie Bites, which have 100 calories a pack.