Dole Food Company Donating Salad Bars to Monterey Peninsula School District Students

MONTEREY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dole Food Company was joined today at Foothill Elementary School by representatives from the Monterey Peninsula School District, Monterey Health Department, California Department of Education, and Monterey County Agricultural Commissioner, Eric Lauritzen, to mark the donation of five salad bars to schools in the Monterey Peninsula School District.

“We will be expanding the salad bar program across the district as a part of on-going efforts to provide students with the foods and experiences they need for life-long wellness and achievement.”

“Salad bar donations are a natural extension of Dole’s ongoing commitment to childhood nutrition and what better community to do it in,” said Marty Ordman, Dole’s Vice President of Marketing and Corporate Communications. “This area of the country has long standing agricultural traditions with our company. We are thrilled to be able to give back to this particular community and ensure that the students are getting the fresh fruits and vegetables they need.”

The event underscored the practical actions schools can take to combat the growing childhood obesity epidemic through healthy lunch options. As schools work diligently to comply with the new United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) nutrition standards for school lunches, salad bars serve as a reasonably priced, attractive option to increase our students’ consumption of fruits and vegetables.

"We are honored to work with Dole in a partnership that is improving our students’ access to a variety of fresh fruits and vegetables,” said Jennifer Gerard, RD, Director of Nutrition Services, Monterey Peninsula Unified School District. “We will be expanding the salad bar program across the district as a part of on-going efforts to provide students with the foods and experiences they need for life-long wellness and achievement.”

The salad bars are being donated as a part of the First Lady’s Let’s Move Salad Bars to Schools initiative, which has donated more than 1,440 salad bars serving more than 720,000 children across the country to date.

In November 2010, Let’s Move Salad Bars to Schools, a grassroots public health initiative working in support of First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move! Initiative was created. The partners of the initiative, including Dole, share a vision to significantly increase the number of salad bars in schools across the country until every child has the choice of healthy fruits and vegetables every day at school. This initiative goes hand in hand with the new standards from USDA, which aims to offer more nutritious choices for kids, including whole grains, fruits and vegetables, and school flavored milk that is lower in sugar and calories than ever before.

About Monterey Peninsula School District

The Monterey Peninsula Unified School District serves kindergarten and grades one through twelve and adults in the communities of Marina, former Fort Ord, Sand City, Seaside, Del Rey Oaks, and Monterey, along the curve of the Monterey Bay. Our schools seek to prepare students for life in the 21st century by meeting individual needs through equal access to an integrated curriculum. We encourage all students to become life-long learners committed to the pursuit of knowledge. MPUSD offices are located at 700 Pacific Avenue, Monterey CA. 93940. For more information please visit www2.mpusd.k12.ca.us or call 831-645-1203.

About Dole Food Company

Dole, with 2011 net revenues of $6.9 billion, is the world’s largest producer and marketer of high-quality fresh fruit and fresh vegetables, and is the leading producer of organic bananas. Dole markets a growing line of packaged and frozen fruit and is a produce industry leader in nutrition education and research.