Produce for Kids, Grocers Join Forces for Healthy Eating Campaign

Produce for Kids is gearing up for its annual Get Healthy, Give Hope campaign, working with 16 grocery chains across the country to help raise money for local children's hospitals.

Celebrating a milestone 10th birthday in 2012, the campaign will feature healthy meal ideas, as well as 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. LazyTown characters will be showcased 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 every major category in the fresh produce department. Together, Produce for Kids, grocery stores and produce suppliers will help raise funds for local children's hospitals.

From May through July, participating fresh fruit and vegetable suppliers will 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 their shopping 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 chef-created/nutritionist-approved meal solutions for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks.

"Parents are very busy these days," noted Kim Avola, VP of Produce for Kids. "We want to provide them with the tools they need to create healthier meals for their families. 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."

Retail partners participating in the Get 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.