Dole partnership focuses on healthy eating at schools, homes
Dole Food Co. and the non-profit Action for Healthy Kids have formed a partnership to promote an online program that gives school foodservice programs and parents recipes and resources for healthy meals.
The Healthy Eating Toolkit rollout kicked off Feb. 11 at Stoney Creek Elementary in Dole Food’s headquarter city, Charlotte, N.C. Dole mascot Bobby Banana was on hand as children were served five recipes from the initiative.
“When it comes to getting kids to eat healthy, it doesn’t have to be a battle between nutrition and taste,” Bil Goldfield, director of communications for Dole, said in a news release. “Dole has long been a strong advocate for helping kids make better educated eating choices and in partnership with Action for Healthy Kids, we are out to help teachers, schools and parents achieve both.”
Dole and Action for Healthy Kids acknowledge that school foodservice providers and parents face challenges in serving healthy and appetizing foods, according to the release.
“One of our goals is to support the administrators, teachers and school foodservice professionals working to build healthier schools and students every day,” Melanie Marcus, Dole’s manager of nutrition and health communications, said in the release.
Rob Bisceglie, CEO of Action for Healthy Kids, said providing nutrition education and opportunities for children to eat healthy at school and home are critical, and that for many children, schools provide the only access to fresh fruits and vegetables and other healthy foods.
The partnership and Toolkit are not related to a new U.S. Department of Agriculture proposal that, among other things, would make permanent a policy that allows fresh fruit at breakfasts to be replaced by vegetables, including processed potatoes.
The Toolkit was developed an in use before the USDA proposal was announced.
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