Committed to increasing healthier options for students, Dole Food Co. and Meijer have partnered to donate salad bars to five public schools in Detroit, Cincinnati and South Bend, IN. These self-serve produce bars will feature a wide array of fresh fruits and vegetables to boost new choices for students at breakfast and lunch.

"Since one in three midwestern children ages 9 to11 are at risk or already overweight, we need to look at whole new ways to encourage healthier eating," Bil Goldfield, Dole's director of corporate communications, said in a press release. "One of Dole's goals is to start the nutrition conversation, and offer tangible healthy alternatives, as early in childhood as possible. By offering permanent salad bars stocked with fresh fruit and vegetables, we are hopefully establishing healthier eating habits that will last a lifetime."

The school districts receiving salad bars include:

• Cornerstone Charter Schools Detroit, one salad bar.
• South Bend Community School Corp. in South Bend, Ind., salad bars to three schools.
• Dohn Community High School in Cincinnati, one salad bar.

Representatives with Meijer and Dole recently presented Cornerstone Charter Health High School in Detroit with a new salad bar at a dedication ceremony.

"We are all very excited about this new salad bar, which will reinforce nutrition education messages while providing students the ability to select from a variety of fruit and vegetable options each day," Cornerstone Charter Health High School Principal Michael Griffie said in the press release.

"Meijer is best known for the freshness it offers in the grocery aisles, and we are pleased to partner with Dole to improve access to fresh produce with these salad bars," Brian Coates, senior produce buyer at the Grand Rapids, MI-based Meijer, added in the press release. "With these salad bars donations, Meijer aims to really impact the lives of students by making healthy food options readily available at school."

The salad bars were arranged through a partnership with the United Fresh Foundation to support the organization's Let's Move Salad Bars to Midwest Schools initiative, a new multi-year campaign aimed at increasing produce consumption in children by donating salad bars to schools in six Midwest states: Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin. The Midwest effort is a special campaign under the umbrella of the national Let's Move Salad Bars to Schools initiative, which has donated salad bars to more than 2,800 schools nationwide.

"We are pleased to partner with Meijer and Dole to provide salad bars to schools in this area of the country, ensuring students here will have access to more fresh produce, and healthier options at lunch," Tom Stenzel, president and chief executive officer of the United Fresh Produce Association, said in the press release. "Salad bars empower students to make healthy choices and get kids excited to eat their fruits and veggies at school and beyond."

New U.S. Department of Agriculture nutrition standards for school lunch require schools to dramatically increase the amount and variety of fruits and vegetable served to students each day, and salad bars are the easiest way for schools to meet these requirements.

Research and experience in schools across the country demonstrate that children significantly increase their fruit and vegetable consumption when given a variety of choices in a school salad bar. When offered multiple fruit and vegetable choices, children respond by incorporating greater variety and increasing their overall consumption.