Acme, Dole partner to jumpstart healthy diets

Acme, Dole and the Captain Planet Foundation share in the belief that developing healthy eating habits begins long before you are grocery shopping for yourself and your family. It’s a lifelong process that starts in childhood as we are discovering and expanding our tastes and palates.

"We are bringing this belief to life as we launch the Project Learning Garden contest Sept. 21," the company said in a statement. "For one month, elementary schools in Acme Market areas can enter to win a Captain Planet Foundation Learning Garden complete with garden beds, gardening and lesson supplies and a fully equipped mobile cooking cart, among other tools for a one-of-a-kind hands-on learning experience."

Project Learning Garden was created in 2011 as a multi-disciplinary nutrition education-based initiative under the leadership of the Captain Planet Foundation, an organization that advocates for today’s youth becoming great agents of change. The Captain Planet Foundation saw a need to develop a well-rounded program that allowed children to learn the importance of healthy eating using all five senses.

Their Learning Gardens take lessons of healthy eating outside of the classroom by providing students and teacher’s materials for growing, cooking, tasting and learning new, healthy foods, which results in expanded palates and a strong foundation for healthy eating.

Since its creation, Captain Planet Foundation has provided 340 learning gardens to schools nationwide, 106 of which came out of a five-year partnership with Dole. Dole’s commitment to promoting healthy eating in local communities, through their famously delicious fruits and veggies, makes their partnership with the Captain Planet Foundation the ideal Project Learning Garden Team.