ORLANDO, FL – Produce for Kids® is gearing up for its annual Get Healthy, Give Hope campaign, working with 16 supermarket grocery store chains across the country to help raise money for local children’s hospitals. Celebrating a milestone 10th birthday in 2012, everyone is invited to the celebration full of healthy meal ideas, a great cause and a media partnership with 24-hour preschool television channel Sprout®.
The Get Healthy, Give Hope campaign will be the first to feature the characters from LazyTown®, the popular, health-focused, children’s series airing exclusively in the U.S. on 24-hour preschool television channel Sprout on in-store display units in more than 3,000 grocery stores and fresh markets in over 30 states and the District of Columbia. More than 50 fruit and vegetable growers sponsor the program, representing everymajor category in the fresh produce department. Together, Produce for Kids, retailer grocery stores and produce suppliers will help raise funds for local children’s hospitals.
From May through July, participating fresh fruit and vegetable supplierswill make a donation to local children’s hospitals based on consumption of their fresh produce items at participating grocery stores. The more items shoppers add to theirshopping lists, the more local children’s hospitals benefit. The participating grocery stores will also feature the Ideal Meals™ program from Produce for Kids.Produce for Kids’ Ideal Meals cards provide quick and easy healthy meal ideas free to shoppers in the produce departments at participating grocery stores. Ideal Meals offer chef-created/nutritionist-approved complete meal solutions for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks.
“Parents are very busy these days. We want to provide them with the tools they need to create healthier meals for their families,” said Kim Avola, vice president Produce for Kids. “In addition to our mission to help busy parents, we are very proud to have raised over $3.7 million for children’s charities with the help of our retail partners and produce sponsors through our campaigns.”
This year, Sprout and Produce for Kids will work to educate parents and children about how to live healthy lifestyles. TheGet Healthy, Give Hopecampaign will feature LazyTown, an award-wining series on Sprout and NBC, broadcast to over 100 countries worldwide. The characters on LazyTown,Sportacus, Stephanie and Robbie Rotton, help motivate and educate children to get active and make healthy choices. As part of the partnership, LazyTown characters will help engage kids at Produce for Kids’ in-store special events.
“We are excited to be partnering with Produce for Kids on this campaign that encourages healthy eating habits for children byproviding resources that families can incorporate into their daily meal routine, while also supporting a great cause”, said Jim Multari, vice president of marketing, Sprout.
“Being part of the Produce for Kids campaign is a real honor. The Lazytown team has dedicatedthe past fifteen years to motivating children to be active and eat healthy foods in a fun way. We look forward to turning thousands of children on to the benefits of eating fruits and vegetables,” says Magnus Scheving, CEO and star of LazyTown.
Grocery retailpartnersparticipating in theGet Healthy, Give Hope campaign include: Ahold’s GIANT and Martin’s Food Stores, Giant Landover, and Stop & Shop divisions;Associated Wholesale Grocers’ Major Savings, Advantage, Independent, Country Mart, Homeland and United divisions; Kroger’s Southwest, Central, Fred Meyer and King Soopers divisions; Meijer Stores; Price Chopper and Publix Super Markets.
Sponsored products for each supermarket can be found on display materials in the grocery stores’ fresh produce departments and online at www.produceforkids.com.
About Produce for Kids®
Produce for Kids® is a philanthropically based organization that brings the produce industry together to educate consumers about healthy eating with fresh produce and raise funds for local children’s non-profit organizations. Since its creation in 2002 by Shuman Produce Inc., Produce for Kids has raised more than $3.7 million to benefit kids. To learn more about Produce for Kids and healthy eating, visit www.produceforkids.com,Facebook,Twitter orPinterest.
About Sprout®
Available in over 50 million homes, Sprout is the first 24-hour preschool destination available on TV, on demand and online for children ages 2-5 andtheir parents and caregivers. The 24-hour digital channel, which launched in September 2005 along with the website (SproutOnline.com), is the only channel that follows the day of a preschooler from breakfast to bedtime with its distinctive, interactive programming and original hosted blocks. Sprout’s VOD offering is the #1 on demand service for younger children with over onebillion views.
Sprout is a partnership among NBCUniversal, PBS, Sesame Workshop and Apax Funds. Its program lineup of gold-standard, curriculum-based preschool shows includes: Sesame Street®,Bob the Builder™, Barney & Friends™, The Wiggles®, Caillou®, Pajanimals™, Thomas & Friends™, LazyTown™, and more.www.SproutOnline.com,www.facebook.com/Sprout,www.twitter.com/SproutTV
About Lazytown
LazyTown is a children's entertainment brand dedicated to promoting health and wellbeing in a fun way. This is its unique selling point, and by remaining committed to this, LazyTown Entertainment has been able to develop the brand with integrity and authenticity. Created andstarring Icelander Magnus Scheving the program has been seen by more than 500 million children and aired in over 100 countries throughout the world.
LazyTown has partnered with healthy food companies all over the world, including a partnership with Walter P. Rawl & Sons in the USA to distribute over 3 Million individual servings of fresh fruits and vegetables, branded SportsCandy, into hundreds of elementary schools. LazyTown is currently collaborating with various US government agencies on developing far-reaching and impactful health initiatives for American families, and has aligned with likeminded organizations such as US Soccer Foundation to promote physical activity with fun and engaging national grassroots campaigns.
Source: Produce for Kids
