First Healthy Vending Machine Launches To Combat Childhood Obesity

STONYFIELD FARM FIRST HEALTHY VENDING MACHINE First healthy vending machine launches to combat childhood obesity. (PRNewsFoto)[RV] LONDONDERRY, NH USA 10/24/2003

     Schools, local nutrition education organization and business form a
         partnership in Rhode Island and will expand to other states.

    LONDONDERRY, N.H., Oct. 24 /PRNewswire/ -- This week Rhode Island students
are some of the first in the nation to have a new option in their school's
vending -- an innovative healthy, vending machine. Not only is this
refrigerated vending machine a novel contribution to the world of school food,
but it came from a once unlikely partnership. Stonyfield Farm, the nation's
largest organic yogurt company, Kids First, a local nutrition education
organization, distributor United Natural Foods, Inc., Rhode Island school
administration, and high school students have brought together the best in
taste and health to help improve student nutrition.
    (Photo:  NewsCom:  http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20031024/NEFNS1 )
    Three schools have joined the first healthy vending pilot subsidized by
Stonyfield Farm, including Tollgate, Cranston East and Cranston West High
Schools. The machine includes organic yogurt, string cheese, dried fruit, soy
nuts, and pita chips among other low-fat and low-sugar products. Each item
selected for the machine has gone through two rigorous tests -- meeting the
nutritional standards set up by Kids First and being taste-tested by students.
The Kids First guidelines for are based on a food-group focused approach that
encourages the offering of snack foods that are of maximal nutrient density.
These foods also have minimal added sugars and fats, so are essentially lean
sources of protein and/or complex carbohydrates containing a significant
amount (10%) of at least one of the following: calcium, vitamin C, vitamin A,
iron or fiber.
    Dorothy Hebert, Executive Director of Kids First describes healthy vending
and her work with Stonyfield to change the future of children's health. "For
the past 18 months, healthy vending in schools has been a Kids First dream.
We have been working behind-the-scenes researching existing guidelines,
seeking and sampling hundreds of products, conducting taste-tests with
students, and presenting the concept of healthier vending to schools and
vending suppliers.  Stonyfield was impressed with our work and began helping
us to make this dream a reality through this exciting pilot project.  I am
certain that together we can make a difference in building healthier school
environments for our children."
    Vending, which is not regulated by the USDA is a particularly critical
area to change. According to researchers at the University of Minnesota School
of Public Health, in study published by the American Public Health
Association, "competitive foods" such as those foods sold a la carte or in a
vending machine have no federal nutritional guidelines and these foods are
higher in fat.
    "Let's face it, businesses like mine can either be part of the problem or
part of the solution," explains Gary Hirshberg, a father of three and
Stonyfield Farm's President & CE-Yo.  "Twenty years in the yogurt business
have taught me that if kids are offered great-tasting, healthy alternatives
they will make the right decision. With healthy vending we can help schools
take a step toward improving nutrition and help change our children's future."
The current obesity epidemic amongst youth (one in seven now suffers from the
health problem according to the US Centers on Disease Control and Prevention)
ignited Hirshberg to get involved with improving school food and sparked the
development of a program he started a year ago called Menu for Change.
    Stonyfield is currently working to partner with school districts in
several other states to offer this healthy vending program, including
California, Connecticut, New York, Massachusetts and New Hampshire.  They have
posted an application for interested schools on their website at
http://www.stonyfield.com/MenuForChange/ParentActionKit/SchoolApplication.cfm
    The Menu for Change program includes other initiatives that also encourage
change in school nutrition. The Superintendent's Challenge is another
business/school/non-profit partnership that Stonyfield created, and launched
in California and Washington State this fall, that seeks to incent schools
with that create the most innovative and successful nutrition programs with
cash awards. Stonyfield Farm's Menu for Change also includes the Parent Action
Kit available online at http://www.stonyfield.com/ which offers useful tools and ideas
to help interested parents, students, educators, and advocates bring help
bring healthier foods into school.

    About Stonyfield Farm
    Stonyfield Farm, celebrating its 20th year, is the world's largest organic
yogurt company with all natural and Certified Organic yogurt, cultured soy,
frozen yogurt and ice cream distributed in all 50 states.  The company
advocates that healthy food can only come from a healthy planet.  It is the
nation's first dairy processor to pay farmers not to treat cows with the
synthetic bovine growth hormone rBGH.  Stonyfield donates 10% of its profits
to environmental causes.  In addition, Stonyfield is America's first
manufacturer to offset 100% of its CO2 emissions from its facility energy use,
just one of their efforts to reduce global warming.  For more information on
the company's many other environmental and health initiatives, visit
http://www.stonyfield.com/ or call 1-800-PRO-COWS.

    Contact: Cathleen Toomey
     603-437-4040 ext. 2306