Detroit, Mich. – – On March 4, Cornerstone Health + Technology High School launched its fresh and fun eating program and salad bar, provided by Dole and Meijer. The partnership revealed a state-of-the-art salad bar and allowed students to test out and sample items for lunch. The event concluded with remarks from partnering businesses, students and school administrators including: Tom Stenzel, President, United Fresh Produce Association; Bill Goldfield, Director, Dole Food Company; Brian Coates, Meijer; Thomas Willis, CEO, Cornerstone Charter Schools, and Michael Griffie, Principal, Cornerstone Health + Technology High School.
Committed to increasing healthier options for students, Dole Food Company and Meijer have partnered to donate salad bars to public schools in Detroit, Cincinnati and South Bend, Ind. These self-serve produce bars will feature a wide array of fresh fruits and vegetables, to boost new choices for students at breakfast and lunch.
“Since one in three Midwest children, ages 9 to11, are at risk or already overweight, we need to look at whole new ways to encourage healthier eating,” said William Goldfield, Dole’s director of corporate communications. “One of Dole’s goals is to start the nutrition conversation, and offer tangible healthy alternatives, as early in childhood as possible. By offering permanent salad bars stocked with fresh fruit and vegetables, we are hopefully establishing healthier eating habits that will last a lifetime.”
“We are all very excited about the new salad bar and partnership with Dole and Meijer, which will reinforce nutrition education messages while providing students with the ability to select from a variety of fruit and vegetable options each day,” said Principal Michael Griffie.
The Cornerstone Health + Technology High School was the brainchild of former Detroit Mayor Dave Bing and the Detroit Medical Center, and was created to be a school for students interested in pursuing health-related careers. Students are exposed to healthy lifestyle techniques, hear from speakers from various health/wellness fields and receive internships prior to graduation.
“As a leading provider of groceries in these communities, we are committed to improving health through nutrition, and especially fresh produce,” explained Cathy Cooper, senior director of community partnerships and giving at Meijer. With these salad bars we aim to impact the lives of students by making healthier food options easily available at school.”
The salad bars are arranged through a partnership with the United Fresh Foundation to support the organization’s Let’s Move Salad Bars to Midwest Schools initiative, a new multi-year campaign aimed at increasing produce consumption in children by donating salad bars to schools in six Midwest states: Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin. The Midwest effort is a special campaign under the umbrella of the national Let’s Move Salad Bars to Schools initiative, which has donated salad bars to more than 2,800 schools nationwide and supports First Lady Michelle Obama’s broader Let’s Move! initiative to end childhood obesity in a generation.
“We are pleased to partner with Meijer and Dole to provide salad bars to schools in this area of the country, ensuring students here will have access to more fresh produce, and healthier options at lunch,” said Tom Stenzel, President and CEO of the United Fresh Produce Association. “Salad bars empower students to make healthy choices and get kids excited to eat their fruits and veggies at school and beyond.”
New USDA nutrition standards for school lunch require schools to dramatically increase the amount and variety of fruits and vegetable served to students each day, and salad bars are the easiest way for schools to meet these requirements. Research and experience in schools across the country demonstrate that children significantly increase their fruit and vegetable consumption when given a variety of choices in a school salad bar. When offered multiple fruit and vegetable choices, children respond by incorporating greater variety and increasing their overall consumption.
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