CHICAGO – On this National Child Health Day, Action for Healthy Kids (AFHK) and Dole Food Company announce a new partnership to promote healthy eating for kids and families, both at home and at school. Good health is just a click away with their new interactive Healthy Eating Toolkit full of recipes, tips, resources and more to make healthy eating accessible, fun and delicious.

Most children in the U.S. do not consume the recommended amount of fruit and vegetable servings on a daily basis. Dole and AFHK want to help families change that patter by inviting parents and caregivers to use the toolkit to try one new recipe or activity each day to foster healthier eating at home. The toolkit features more than just delicious and nutritious kid-friendly recipes from Dole—it also includes articles and tip sheets for eating healthy on a budget, getting kids involved in the kitchen, reading nutrition labels, conducting surprisingly tasty taste tests at home (cinnamon roasted cauliflower, anyone?), and dealing with picky eaters (hint: no bribery necessary).

“Research shows that when children are exposed to nutritious foods, involved in the kitchen, and start healthy eating habits at a young age, they are more likely to embrace trying new foods and develop those healthier habits into adulthood. Furthermore, eating meals together as a family is shown to contribute to children’s long-term physical and mental health,” said Rob Bisceglie, CEO of Action for Healthy Kids. “With Dole’s support, we now have even more tools to share with parents and caregivers to help kids make healthy choices.”

A version of the nutrition toolkit is also available for educators and includes resources around incorporating nutrition education into the school day, getting creative with school gardens, healthy fundraising, ensuring water access, and staff role modeling. New content will be added to the toolkits on a regular basis.

“Giving people—including kids— the power to experience healthy living is what we love to do at Dole. Yes, that means providing them with the freshest ingredients possible, but also the knowledge, tools, tips and information that can help them make healthy choices,” said William Goldfield, Director of Corporate Communications at Dole Food Company. “Through our new partnership with Action for Healthy Kids, we see a tremendous opportunity to help empower kids to embrace fruits, vegetables and other healthy foods as they forge their own healthy futures.”

Dole’s partnership with AFHK also includes sponsorship support for the expansion of the organization’s parent ambassador program. As part of its Parents for Healthy Kids initiative, AFHK’s parent ambassadors support other parents and caregivers locally in engaging school leadership around child health issues, starting healthy school-based projects, and leading a parent-driven movement to change the culture of health in their schools.

Visit actionforhealthykids.org/nutrition-toolkit for more information.

About Action for Healthy Kids®
Action for Healthy Kids is dedicated to improving children’s health and well-being by bringing together educators, parents and communities to transform school into a place where children learn to lead healthy lives. Through funding opportunities, programmatic support, and our flagship programs Game On and Parents for Healthy Kids, we support children’s healthy and happy futures in communities where change is most needed. Action for Healthy Kids is also a partner and the organizational home to Active Schools, formerly known as Let’s Move! Active Schools, a collective impact movement of public and private sector partner organizations working to prioritize physical education and physical activity in schools. To learn more about the ways our growing network of 140,000+ volunteers and champions is helping to make every kid healthy, active and ready to learn and thrive, visit us at actionforhealthykids.org.

About Dole Food Company, Inc.
Dole Food Company, Inc., is one of the world’s largest producers and marketers of high-quality fresh fruit and fresh vegetables. Dole is an industry leader in many of the products it sells, as well as in nutrition education. For more information, please visit www.dole.com.