New Orleans Saints Football Player’s Charity Wins Kiwifruit For Kids 2012

New York, NY – ZESPRI Kiwifruit, the world's largest kiwifruit marketer, today announced the winner of its second annual Kiwifruit for Kids campaign: iCAN Foundation, Pierre Thomas’ new charity whose mission is to encourage children to live more healthy lifestyles in Louisiana, Mississippi and Illinois. iCAN Foundation will receive $10K from Zespri Kiwifruit for earning the most points in the Kiwifruit for Kids competition, Treeswing from the Northwest will receive $5K in second place, and the remaining charities will receive $1500 just for participating.

Zespri’s campaign aimed to educate America’s youth on how to eat healthy and live active lifestyles by answering health trivia questions, exercising kiwifruit characters daily, checking in to participating supermarkets via Facebook, exercising for an hour per day, and more. "We’d like to congratulate all of the charities for playing, as they all did such wonderful jobs promoting Zespri’s message to help children be active and eat their fruits and vegetables," says Margaux Rathbun, Kiwifruit for Kids spokesperson and certified Nutritional Therapy Practitioner. "Zespri really enjoyed working with each children’s health charity and visiting them in their respective regions to support them and this message at their local events.” 

Zespri saw a boost in kiwifruit sales this season as supermarkets across the United States also helped support Zespri’s message. With POS signage and well-trained staff on the messaging of the campaign, supermarkets did their part to encourage children in their own communities to incorporate Zespri Kiwifruit into a healthy diet and active lifestyle on an engaging grassroots level.

“We had a very successful campaign this year, from charity participation to great retail partners. We enjoyed supporting and participating in the charity and retail activities directed at helping reduce childhood obesity across the United States,” commented Michele Hoard, Zespri’s Senior Marketing Manager of North America. “We’re looking forward to kicking off our third annual Kiwifruit for Kids next year!”

ZESPRI Kiwifruit

ZESPRI is the world's largest kiwifruit marketer, with over 2,500 growers producing and exporting more than 100 million trays of kiwifruit a year to over 60 countries. ZESPRI is a grower owned cooperative of New Zealand kiwifruit growers, with the aim of ensuring top quality ZESPRI kiwifruit are provided to consumers around the world. For more health information and easy summertime recipes, please visit www.zesprikiwi.com or check us out on Facebook.

I Can Foundation (South)

ICAN Foundation Powered by Pierre Thomas is dedicated to creating a more active lifestyle within the youth of today in Louisiana, Mississippi and Illinois through various programs; It's Geaux Time!, I Can Grow – Community Garden Project and Football Skills Day. Our aim is to empower the youngsters and their parents to make better choices and develop healthier habits, so they can avoid largely preventable chronic diseases, such as, diabetes and heart disease. I Can Foundation is taking an active approach to make a difference in the lives of our youth. "As a kid, I spent a majority of my time outside playing different sports and games. These days, the youngsters have so many different distractions with T.V., movies, computers, video games, and cell phones that we're here to show them that being active can be both fun and rewarding. I look forward to helping young people in Louisiana, Illinois and Mississippi live a healthier lifestyle," says Pierre Thomas.

Source: ZESPRI Kiwifruit