WASHINGTON — During the second day of the Building a Healthier Future Summit, the Mushroom Council announced new commitments to the Partnership for a Healthier America (PHA). PHA, which hosted the summit, works with the private sector and PHA Honorary Chair First Lady Michelle Obama to solve the nation's childhood obesity crisis.
"Exploring innovative options for encouraging healthier eating and increasing physical activity is one of the central goals of the 2013 Building a Healthier Future Summit," said PHA CEO Lawrence A. Soler . "Momentum to reverse this epidemic is building every day thanks to organizations like Reebok and the Mushroom Council, which understand the problem and are determined to be part of the solution."
The Mushroom Council, an organization that nationally promotes fresh mushrooms, will help Americans understand the importance of a balanced diet and raise awareness about different ways that mushrooms can help create healthier options for everyday dishes. The Council's multi-faceted commitment to PHA consists of a number of marketing and school-based components, exposing Americans to more nutritious and creative ways to incorporate healthy eating into their lifestyles.
Specifically the Mushroom Council is making the following commitments, to be executed over the next three years:
Marketing
- Execute communication programs including one to three family-focused recipe contests to engage all ages in healthy cooking.
- Educate a minimum of 50 percent of the top 100 restaurant chains regarding new ways to add more produce to their offerings.
- Work with 10 restaurant chains and colleges or universities to create new menu ideas or concepts that follow the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans and showcase the addition of more produce through innovative mushroom culinary techniques.
- National School Food Programs
- Work with school systems to increase mushroom-based meal items within the current or forthcoming USDA school meal guidelines.
- Facilitate a minimum of 10 school pilot programs that will incorporate mushrooms and mushroom/meat blends on the menu. These programs will be supported by onsite kitchen training and will measure serving numbers and student acceptability.
- Coordinate the development and sharing of 30 to 40 recipes for schools that cook on location. Recipes will focus on meat/mushroom blends and uses for fresh mushrooms.
- Product Innovation
- Work with one to three meat-processing partners to develop new product prototypes that will be tested and evaluated to meet school food nutrition standards.
- Develop at least four new meat/mushroom blended products to be shared with the USDA for school foodservice.
Nutritional Educators
- Engage key educators of parents and children, such as public health and community nutrition experts to communicate the nutrition benefits of blending mushrooms and meat.
- Develop and share a Mushroom Council School Nutrition resource webpage for school food experts, with nutrition information and recipes that fit into USDA school meal standards.
The Partnership for a Healthier America (PHA) is devoted to working with the private sector to ensure the health of our nation's youth by solving the childhood obesity crisis. In 2010, PHA was created in conjunction with – but independent from – First Lady Michelle Obama 's Let's Move! effort. PHA is a nonpartisan nonprofit organization that is led by some of the nation's most respected health and childhood obesity experts. PHA brings together public, private and nonprofit leaders to broker meaningful commitments and develop strategies to end childhood obesity. Most important, PHA ensures that commitments made are commitments kept by working with unbiased third parties to monitor and publicly report on the progress our partners are making. For more information about PHA, please visit www.aHealthierAmerica.org and follow PHA on Twitter @PHAnews.
Source: Partnership for a Healthier America
About The Mushroom Council:
The Mushroom Council is composed of fresh market producers or importers who average more than 500,000 pounds of mushrooms produced or imported annually. The mushroom program is authorized by the Mushroom Promotion, Research and Consumer Information Act of 1990 and is administered by the Mushroom Council under the supervision of the Agricultural Marketing Service. Research and promotion programs help to expand, maintain and develop markets for individual agricultural commodities in the United States and abroad. These industry self-help programs are requested and funded by the industry groups that they serve. For more information on the Mushroom Council, visit mushroomcouncil.org.
Source: The Mushroom Council