Lidl US Partners With Healthy Kids Running Series
With more children than ever living a sedentary lifestyle due to social distancing, Lidl US is helping to combat increasing rates of childhood obesity by partnering with Healthy Kids Running Series and becoming an official East Coast sponsor for the 2021 spring and fall race seasons.
Healthy Kids Running Series is a five-week running program for children age 2 to 14. Each spring and fall, kids compete once each week in person or virtually as a part of the initiative's virtual world race, on a course of their choosing.
The partnership will support more than 17,000 kids in New York; New Jersey; Delaware; Maryland; Washington, D.C.; Virginia; North Carolina; South Carolina; and Georgia.
In addition to supporting physical races on-site, the two organizations will also create inspiring educational opportunities to help keep kids focus on staying healthy year-round, including online health, nutrition and fitness programming for young boys and girls in the I Am A Healthy Kid program guide.
“Healthy Kids Running Series is proud to partner with Lidl to help inspire families with young children to live active, healthy lifestyles,” said Jeff Long, founder of Thornton, Pennsylvania-based Healthy Kids Running Series.
Founded in 2009, Healthy Kids Running Series is a national, community-based nonprofit that provides a fun five-week running series. It affects more than 60,000 youth runners in 300-plus communities across the United States by providing an inclusive youth running experience.
As part of the partnership, Lidl will be included in Healthy Kids Running Series’ social media posts, newsletter and blog, and serve as the host for race packet pickup at select local series.
“We are excited to partner with Healthy Kids Running Series, whose values of a healthy lifestyle and an emphasis on fresh products align so well with Lidl’s,” said Nina Sichtermann, SVP of operations at Lidl US. “We look forward to kicking off this great partnership and working together to support the racing series for more than 17,000 kids along the East Coast this spring and fall.”
Last year, Lidl US revealed plans to open 50 new stores by the end of 2021 in Delaware, Georgia, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Virginia, bringing the grocer’s total number of U.S. stores to more than 150.
Neckarsulm, Germany-based Lidl currently operates about 11,200 stores in 32 countries, employing more than 310,000 employees worldwide. In the United States, the Arlington, Virginia-based grocer has more than 130 stores in nine East Coast states. The company is No. 96 on the PG 100, Progressive Grocer’s 2020 list of the top food and consumables retailers in North America.
