Learn More About Love Your Veggies™
The makers of Hidden Valley® Salad Dressings are excited to announce the 2008-09 Love Your Veggies™ grant program. This year, the program is offering $15,000 grants to 10 elementary schools in the United States. With support from its partners, the School Nutrition Foundation (SNF) and Produce for Better Health Foundation (PBH), the grant program will once again seek to help schools execute innovative programs that will increase the access to, and consumption of, fresh fruits and vegetables in the lunchroom.
Grant awards will be based on proposals that demonstrate need, innovation, greatest likelihood of sustainable impact on the students they are serving and potential for community involvement. Funding must be spent on any of the following efforts: fresh produce, a vegetable station, kitchen equipment, program staffing, nutrition education supplies and food safety training.
Elementary schools interested in winning a Love Your Veggies™ grant for their students can apply online by clicking here. Schools can apply for a grant beginning Aug. 15 and applications will be accepted through Nov. 7, 2008. Grant recipients will be selected by representatives of Hidden Valley®, SNF and PBH, and will be notified by March of 2009.
Now in its third consecutive year, the Love Your Veggies™ grant program was initially created to help schools implement a federally mandated local wellness policy that requires schools to develop and execute programs to improve their students’ overall health and nutrition, and in response to an overwhelming shortage of funds available for the execution of these programs. The makers of Hidden Valley® were inspired to create the program after findings from a 2006 study of two Northern California elementary schools conducted by the University of California Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program and the Butte County Cooperative Extension found that children consumed 23 percent more vegetables when paired with a moderate amount of ranch dressing. Since its inception in 2006, the Love Your Veggies™ grant program has awarded more than a half a million dollars to elementary schools across the country, helping to affect change in the diets of thousands of children.
To view the full grant guidelines, click here.
Hidden Valley® Original Ranch® Salad Dressings
Only Hidden Valley® offers the truly Original Ranch® dressing. Visit www.HiddenValley.com for recipe ideas and ways to get your kids to love their veggies.