ALDI has pledged to become the first United States supermarket chain to remove junk food from all checkout areas. On January 12, 2016, the discount retail grocer announced that all checkout lanes will offer healthier items reduced in calories, fat, sugars and sodium. The checkout lanes across ALDI's 1,500 locations are to be stocked by the end of 2016 with items like single serve nuts, trail mixes, dried fruits and various low sugar granola bars. The first stores that will see the promised changes include St. Louis, Los Angeles, Dallas, Houston, Chicago and Minneapolis. The Center for Science in the Public Interest has reported that temptations of junk food, especially placed at kid's eye level are hard to resist for shoppers and children, who's willpower is fatigued after hours ...
Penny Parham is helping students in Miami-Dade County make healthier food choices more easily thanks to highlighted, veggie-promoting "Lean & Green" school lunch food menus. By providing more vegetarian options, officials with the Miami-Dade County Public Schools hope to increase students’ consumption of fruits and vegetables and make healthy food the easy choice. How did they make it happen?
Lean & Green
Penny Parham, the administrative director at Miami-Dade County Public Schools in Florida, realized the school district’s initiative of “Meatless Mondays” were popular for students. However, these vegetarian meal options were only available to students on Mondays. The Miami-Dade school district is the fourth largest in the nation, and having healthy eating ...
Traveling doesn't always allow time for healthy choices, especially when airports are filled with unhealthy options at every corner. But now more vegetable based options are coming to an airport restaurant near you. Many Airports are encouraging travelers to follow the 2015 Dietary Guidelines and offering up more fresh fruits, vegetables, whole grains and legumes in various ways. According to a recent article by foodtank, more than 70 percent of airport restaurants nationwide offer at least one plant-based entree, a 25 percent jump from 2001. Menus offered up include vegetable based plates with influences like Mediterranean vegetable plates and rice bowls. Chicago O'Hare is offering Bibb lettuce in Concourse G, and local vegetable shops are popping up in airport terminals in ...
Chef Ann Cooper founder of the Chef Ann Foundation (CAF) has created an online resource called The Lunch Box, to help support schools who want to change their school food situation. In a recent interview Emily Miller, from CAF told Food Tank that they want to help create healthier food for kids in today's world, where kids can learn the importance of nourishing their bodies and where their food comes from. Miller explains that the best way to teach kids about healthier foods is through school, where kids are already in a learning environment. The Lunch Box resource is an in-depth school food resource, where school food professionals can use free tools to help move from processed foods to scratch-made plates that are sustainable. Including over 200 recipes that are kid-tested, ...
The company behind Oreos, Ritz Crackers, and Cadbury chocolate, Modelēz, have announced to join the Council of Better Business Bureau (CFBAI). Joining CFBAI commits Modelēz to not advertise products directly to children under age 12, and to apply nutrition standards to all products marketed toward kids. The Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility has helped drive the change for Modelēz, dialoguing with the company to set stricter policies for kids ages 6-11 years old for nutritional reasons. According to recent studies, some kids see more unhealthy ads compared to their peers, and nearly 40 percent of Latino youths in the U.S. ages 2-19 are overweight or obese. Only 1 percent of food ads on Spanish television show water, fruits, or vegetables and 70% show unhealthy sugary ...
You may have heard the saying: “an apple a day keeps the doctor away,” but what if your doctor actually prescribed fruits and vegetables for what ails you? In Forest Grove, Ore., a health clinic and farmers market teamed up to help prevent obesity and fight disease by providing patients with prescriptions for healthy foods. Fruits and vegetables are what the doctor ordered, as Forest Grove families visit their local healthcare providers to eat their way to healthier futures.
Healthy Food Options in Local Neighborhoods
Awareness: Kaely Summers, nutrition, and market access coordinator of Adelante Mujeres, a nonprofit that organizes a farmers’ market in Forest Grove, Ore. (23.1% Latino), was well aware of the dietary health issues faced by community residents. U.S. Latinos ...
Fresh produce can be a rare commodity in Nogales, Ariz., where 17% of children are food insecure. Yolanda Soto saw the need for families all across Arizona to have fresh produce to improve nutrition and fight obesity. When Soto saw still-edible fresh produce being dumped into landfills every day, she had an idea for a fresh produce distribution program that rescues this food and provides it to food, insecure families. The program, Produce on Wheels - With Out Waste (P.O.W.W.O.W), now gives families, churches, communities and schools more access to fresh, nutritious fruits and vegetables that would otherwise be considered garbage.
Food a Crisis in Nogales
Yolanda Soto started helping families in food-insecure areas of Nogales, Ariz. (95% Latino) since January 1996, when she ...
California teen Elena Dennis wanted to help kids have healthy diets. What better way than to encourage them to learn how to make fresh foods? Dennis, while a high school senior, cooked up an idea for a camp that helps kids discover the fun of learning how to cook, and how to prepare and eat healthy foods from scratch. Bringing kids awareness of healthy foods, she also took the camp on local field trips to farms and farmers’ markets.
The Need for Fresh Foods Locally
Awareness: At the young age of 12, Elena Dennis of Novato, Calif. (23.1 % Latino), started developing a passion for cooking thanks to her father’s home-cooked meals and her attendance at Operation C.H.E.F., a nutrition-based cooking summer camp for kids and teens. “I’ve always been a believer in home-cooked ...
Did you know Applebees and IHOP restaurants have taken soda off kids menus and New York City Restaurants now show consumers which items are high in sodium? Choosing the healthier option when eating out can sometimes be confusing as most restaurant foods have high levels of either fat, sugar or sodium. MomsRising.org and Center for Science in the Public Interest are holding a #FoodFri Tweet Chat, Friday, December 18th, 10-11am PT/1-2pm ET to discuss how to eat healthfully while eating out. Participants will offer helpful suggestions for eating out, discuss efforts to improve restaurant kids' menus, and highlight ways to support access to healthier options in the community. To join this discussion, follow #FoodFri on ...
