Irwindale, CA – Back-to-school lunches and snacks just got a whole lot more fun – and nutritious – with the help of Ready Pac Foods, which launched a new line of Disney-themed Ready Pac® Cool Cuts® salads and mini-meals. The eight-item line is geared specifically for elementary and middle school-age children, and started shipping nationwide the first week of September.
The Disney-themed Ready Pac® Cool Cuts® line includes vegetables and / or fruit in every pack, along with other tasty, nutritious items and an element of fun. Each variety is a nutritious version of some of kids’ favorite foods, like pizza and tacos. Four salad items, Pizzeria salad, Taco salad, Harvest salad and Caesar salad feature kid-friendly iceberg and romaine lettuces; proteins such as chicken, turkey, pepperoni and cheese; grains and dressing. Each salad also includes a temporary tattoo that matches the Disney character on the label. Four mini-meals also include at least one kid-sized serving of fruit or vegetables, and tasty snack combinations including Veggies, Chicken and Pretzels; Turkey, Carrots and Cheese; Pizza Bites and Apples, Ham and Yogurt, along with a free Disney-themed sticker in each tray. All of the items meet Disney’s strict nutritional guidelines while appealing to kids through the Disney characters and kid-friendly foods, such as alphabet pretzels and fun cheese shapes.
“There’s a huge opportunity for retailers to generate incremental sales from selling nutritious items for kids,” said Tristan Simpson, director of marketing at Ready Pac. “These new items fit the bill with parents looking for more nutritious and convenient options for their kids.”
Building on its landmark nutrition guidelines established in 2006, The Walt Disney Company recently renewed its’ commitment to children’s health and wellness on June 5th, 2012 with new standards for food advertising on programming targeting kids and families. Disney’s Nutrition Guidelines are intended to give parents and kids more nutritious eating options. The guidelines are derived from U.S. government-recommended dietary guidelines with the input of top child health experts.
In the United States today, 25 million children (ages 2-19) are overweight or at risk of becoming overweight1, and 40 percent of parents often worry that at least one of their children is, or will become, overweight.2. Despite that worry, only 18 percent of parents say their kids are eating 3+ servings of fruits and vegetables per day, which Ready Pac saw as a need just waiting to be met.
“Our research showed that parents are becoming more and more motivated to play an active role in their children’s health through helping them develop good eating habits,” said Simpson. “As a parent of two young boys, I know that what we buy is influenced by what is good for our kids, and I believe elementary and middle school-age kids will be asking for these new nutritious items.”
Available now in retail locations nationwide, Ready Pac is supporting the kids’ salads and mini-meals with in-store point-of-sale materials along with instant redeemable coupons. Social media will be used to generate awareness among parents, including a program that will donate up to 250,000 meals to those in need through Feeding America. In-pack codes for music downloads are fun element of Ready Pac’s marketing support for kids.
Source: Ready Pac Foods, Inc.