The Walmart Foundation Commits to Growing Healthy Schools

A grant of $1.2 million helps FoodCorps dig deeper

Oct 13, 2014 – Today, FoodCorps announces the receipt of $1.2 million from the Walmart Foundation to increase nutrition literacy in the communities where its nationwide team of AmeriCorps leaders serve. The grant is part of the Walmart Foundation’s commitment to promoting nutrition education and healthy eating habits, through their healthier eating initiative. This program has distributed grants totaling more than $41 million in grants since 2011 in order to give thousands of Americans access to nutrition education classes, recipes and cooking demonstrations —essential tools for a healthier life.

The support from the Walmart Foundation will enhance FoodCorps’ mission to connect kids to the food that will help them grow up healthy. The donations will provide FoodCorps service members with additional food education supplies for their hands-on nutrition lessons, help implement a national measurement tool to assess the impact of FoodCorps programs in the schools the program serves; increase annual stipends for corps members and provide them additional training and professional development to amplify their effectiveness in the field.

“The Walmart Foundation is allowing FoodCorps to deepen its ability to foster a healthy future for all children,” says Debra Eschmeyer, FoodCorps co-founder and Vice President of External Affairs. “FoodCorps aims to create a future in which all our nation’s children know what healthy food is, care where it comes from, and have access to it every day.”

FoodCorps, entering its fourth program year has expanded its reach by increasing its service corps to 182 members. Now in sixteen states and Washington, D.C., FoodCorps addresses childhood health by working with schools to create a healthier school food environment. Service members are placed in limited-resource communities for a year of AmeriCorps service where they teach hands-on lessons about food and nutrition, build and tend school gardens, and teach cooking lessons, and help change what’s on lunch trays by giving kids healthy food from local farms.

“We know that eating healthy can be challenging for today’s on-the-go families,” said Karrie Denniston, director of hunger relief and nutrition at Walmart. “That’s why we work with dedicated partners like FoodCorps to help more families develop nutritious eating habits so children grow to be healthy, happy adults.”

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