Produce for Kids and Sprout Team Up to Promote Healthy Eating to Parents

Produce for Kids has signed on to a new national media partnership with Sprout, the 24-hour preschool television network available in more than 50 million U.S. homes.

Together, Sprout and Produce for Kids will work to educate parents and children about how to live healthy lifestyles. The "Get Healthy, Give Hope" campaign will feature "LazyTown," an award-wining series on Sprout network 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.

In addition, Produce for Kids will be featured in national spots airing on Sprout during the campaign, will be included in the Sprout e-newsletter distributed to over 650,000 subscribers and also have a presence on their companion website, www.SproutOnline.com, reaching one million visitors monthly.

"This new partnership will expand Produce for Kids' reach to our targeted mom consumer and preschool children whose eating habits are formed at an early age," said Heidi McIntyre, strategic development director, Produce for Kids. "Being on national television daily during our spring and fall campaigns will also provide more value to our participating retailers and sponsors."

The "Get Healthy, Give Hope" campaign will be the first to feature the "LazyTown" characters. This will be Produce for Kids' largest campaign yet, featuring 19 supermarket banners representing more than 3,300 grocery stores and fresh markets in 40 states and the District of Columbia. More than 50 fruit and vegetable growers sponsor the program, representing every major category in the fresh produce department.

Together, retailers, produce industry sponsors, Sprout and Produce for Kids will help raise funds for children's hospitals and other non-profit charities nationwide.