DOLE SPONSORS 3rd ANNUAL TOUR DE FRESH
Fresh produce provider sponsors July 26-28 cycling event as part of Get Up and Grow!TM Together healthy-living initiative
Three-day ride unites fresh produce industry to benefit nationwide“Let’s Move Salad Bars to Schools” public health campaign
One of the world’s largest fresh produce providers is sponsoring a three-day road cycling event throughout Northern California – all with the goal of providing healthier food options at schools across the country.
Dole has officially signed on as a Premier Sponsor of the 2016 Tour de Fresh, a three-day cycling event which leaves Napa Valley, Calif. on July 26 and arrives in Dole Fresh Vegetables’ hometown of Monterey, Calif. on July 28.
The three-day, 193-mile journey unites the fresh produce industry to benefit Let’s Move Salad Bars to Schools, a public health campaign that aims to increase salad bars in schools across the country to give every child the choice of healthy fruits and vegetables at school. Since its inception in 2014, Tour de Fresh has generated more than $300,000 in donations to support the placement of more than 100 salad bars in schools across the country. The 2016 goal is to raise the funds necessary for 100 additional salad bars to bring the Tour de Fresh total to 200. Dole was one of the first, and continues to be one of the largest, supporters of the Let’s Move Salad Bars to Schools initiative.
Dole’s involvement in Tour de Fresh is part of the company’s year-long Get Up and Grow!TM Together healthy-living initiative, which seeks to increase America’s health through greater consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables.
The program represents a joint effort between Dole Fresh Vegetables of Monterey, Dole Fresh Fruit of Westlake Village, Calif. and the Kannapolis, N.C.-based Dole Nutrition Institute, including Dole’s newly formed Culinary Nutrition department, and uses a variety of interactive consumer tactics to impact long-term nutrition change through the adoption of a healthier plant-based diet.
“We’re thrilled to be a part of such a perfectly-aligned event like Tour de Fresh, which much like our own Get Up and Grow! Together campaign, directly promotes healthier eating and a healthier lifestyle,” said CarrieAnn Arias, vice president of marketing for Dole Fresh Vegetables. “Thanks to Dole’s longtime commitment to Let’s Move Salad Bars to Schools, and with the event’s return to Monterey, our involvement is a natural.”
Dole will sponsor a number of riders at Tour de Fresh, including company representatives Alan Ediger, vice president, full service solutions at Dole Fresh Vegetables; Andrew McClelland, director of innovations at Dole Fresh Vegetables; Jeff Feldeisen, product manager at Dole Fresh Vegetables and Jenn LaVardera, MS RD, nutrition and health communications manager for the Dole Nutrition Institute. Dole will also sponsor a rider representing the brand’s retail partner Whole Foods.
In addition to sponsoring the Tour de Fresh event, Dole’s Get Up and Grow! Together Tour will set up at a different location each day along the three-day event route, providing recipe samples and fresh energy-packed snacks to both riders and spectators.
The Get Up and Grow! Together events at Tour de Fresh are part of a larger 42-city nationwide summer Tour by Dole to promote better nutrition. Throughout the nationwide Tour, Dole’s brightly colored caravan is setting up at supermarkets and public events, offering free tastes, recipe booklets and other giveaways, an interactive Kid’s Corner, fruit and veggie-themed photo-sharing opportunities and other unique surprises. Visitors are also encouraged to take the Healthy Living Challenge by creating and submitting their own customized online Challenge to eat and live healthier – either as an individual or as a team with family, friends or co-workers. Riders and spectators at Tour de Fresh can even take the Healthy Living Challenge directly on-site at the Get Up and Grow! Together Tour stops along the route.
More information on Get Up and Grow! Together, including recipes, Get Up and Grow! Together Tour info, the latest produce-based insights and the Healthy Living Challenge will be posted at www.dole.com/GetUpandGrow starting mid-May. For details on specific DOLE® fresh fruits and vegetables, go to www.dole.com.
You can also follow the latest Get Up and Grow! Together developments on Facebook at www.facebook.com/Dole, and by using @DoleTweets on Twitter, @DolePins on Pinterest, and @DolePics on Instagram.
For more information about the Tour de Fresh, please visit www.tourdefresh.com.
About Dole Food Company, Inc.
Dole Food Company 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 and research. For more information, please visit www.dole.com.
About Tour de Fresh
Tour de Fresh, presented by The California Giant Foundation, is the first-of-its-kind, collaborative event that unites the most significant brands and influencers in the fresh produce industry for a three-day cycling event that raises funds to benefit the Let’s Move Salad Bars to Schools campaign. In its first two years (2014-2015), Tour de Fresh received over $300,000 in donations to support the placement of more than 100 salad bars in schools across the country. At a cost of $3,125 per salad bar per school, sponsors and participants alike strongly believe that providing healthy eating opportunities for school children should be a requirement.
About Let’s Move Salad Bars to Schools
Let’s Move Salad Bars to Schools is a public health campaign to increase salad bars in schools across the country so that every child has the choice of healthy fruits and vegetables every day at school. Let’s Move Salad Bars to Schools supports First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move! initiative to end childhood obesity in a generation. Let’s Move Salad Bars to Schools founding partners are: The United Fresh Start Foundation, National Fruit and Vegetable Alliance, the Chef Ann Foundation and Whole Kids Foundation. More information can be found online at www.saladbars2schools.org.
