SESAME WORKSHOP AND NATIONAL WIC ASSOCIATION
TEAM UP TO PROMOTE HEALTHY HABITS
National WIC Association Introduces New Food Packages
with Sesame Street Healthy Messages
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE. Washington, D.C. March 10, 2009. Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit educational organization behind Sesame Street, and the National WIC Association (NWA), a voluntary, non-profit member organization enabling pregnant women, nursing mothers, infants and children considered high-risk to receive nutrition and food assistance as well as healthcare referrals, announced today a partnership to help children and their families have healthier options and encourage them to make healthy habits a part of their daily routines.
WIC Programs across the nation will deliver new child and family-friendly messages from the Sesame Street Muppets to aid in implementing the Program's new WIC food packages. WIC's new food packages including for the first time fruits and vegetables, whole grain products, reduced-fat dairy options, and culturally appropriate food choices including tofu and soy beverages options will transform the over 34 year nutrition program by expanding the food options that are available to WIC's diverse populations.
The announcement was made at the 19th Annual National WIC Association Leadership Conference by Gary E. Knell, President and CEO of Sesame Workshop, Margaret Saunders, President of the National WIC Association, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, and Sesame Street's Cookie Monster.
Sesame Workshop and the National WIC Association's healthy habits educational campaign has been launched to support the nutritional and health efforts that WIC clinics provide to the over 9 million mothers and young children who participate in WIC each month and as part of Sesame Workshop's Healthy Habits for Life Initiative. As a way to introduce friendly and engaging healthy messages into each state's new food package rollout, 3.6 million Sesame Street's Healthy Habits for Life: Get Healthy Now multimedia outreach kits will be distributed to WIC families.
The Healthy Habits for Life (HHFL) outreach kit consists of an original DVD and storybook starring the Sesame Street Muppets: featuring "The Get Healthy Now Show" that encourages children with the help of their friends, Elmo, Telly, and Rosita, to explore ways to eat and drink so that they can play, learn, and grow up healthy, and a guide for parents and caregivers that contains strategies and hands-on activities for everyday and on the go. The outreach materials were originally produced in partnership with Nemours Health and Prevention Services and KidsHealth.
"President Obama has challenged us to eliminate childhood hunger by 2015," said Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack. "WIC is proven effective at helping low-income mothers get their infants and children off to a healthy start and through the $500 million provided through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, USDA can further assist those nutritionally at-risk. Our collaboration with Sesame Workshop and the National WIC Association is just another example of our commitment to ensure healthy and nutritious food is available to our children."
"Establishing healthy habits early in life is critical to a child's physical and emotional development," said Sesame Workshop President and CEO Gary E. Knell. "For almost 40 years, Sesame Street has created engaging media to help children reach their highest potential, and we welcome this opportunity to collaborate with the National WIC Association in improving children's lives." Knell added, "I'm confident that our message of embracing healthy habits for life continues to resonate with children
and adults alike."
"WIC's well documented successes at improving the nutritional health and well-being of our nation's at-risk mothers and young children make this a perfect partnership opportunity with Sesame Workshop," said National WIC Association President and CEDA WIC Program Director Margaret Saunders. "The Healthy Habits for Life messages," Saunders added, "will help us imaginitively promote healthy eating habits and physical activity to combat overweight and obesity as we roll out the new, transformational WIC food packages!"
"Me know cookies are a sometimes food but me love to eat everything," stated Sesame Street's Cookie Monster.
The Healthy Habits for Life materials will offer healthy messages such as:
Eat a Rainbow! Colorful fruits and vegetables are good for you.
What you eat and drink can help you to play, learn and grow.
Everyday is an anytime food day. There are foods like vegetables, fruits, and whole grains, that you can eat anytime, because they are so delicious and super nutritious.
Being physically active is fun, enjoyable and it's something everyone can do. Parents and caregivers can be wonderful role models for eating healthy, doing physical activity and using everyday moments to help children learn, practice, and celebrate healthy habits.
Getting to know your body and learning to eat a balance of "sometimes" and "anytime" foods can help lead to a healthy life.
For fifteen years the National WIC Association, NWA, advocated for changes to the WIC food packages to assure that the packages were consistent with current dietary science and the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. The new food packages that are being implemented by State WIC Agencies across the nation have the potential to transform the eating habits of not only WIC mothers and young children, but the eating habits of all Americans. At long last WIC will have the real tools, through these new and improved food packages, to reinforce the quality nutrition education that is offered every day in WIC clinics where WIC's dedicated staff work to promote and support breastfeeding, stem the incidence of overweight, obesity, diet related chronic diseases, and promote life-long healthy eating habits for the over 9 million mothers, infants, and young children WIC serves every month.
In response to the growing crisis of childhood obesity, Sesame Workshop launched the Healthy Habits for Life initiative in May 2004, on Capitol Hill, to harness the power of Sesame Street to guide children and their caregivers through lessons related to healthy eating, the importance of physical activity, and other healthy habits such as hygiene and rest. Featuring a coalition of partners and an advisory board of health, nutrition, fitness and education experts, the program continues to develop and distribute multiple-media, age-appropriate content.
About Sesame Workshop:
Sesame Workshop is the nonprofit educational organization that changed television forever with the legendary Sesame Street. As the single largest informal educator of young children, local Sesame Street programs produced in countries as diverse as South Africa, Bangladesh and India are making a difference in over 120 nations. Using proprietary research to create engaging and enriching content, Sesame Workshop produces programs such as Dragon Tales and Pinky Dinky Doo. In addition, multimedia needs-driven initiatives provide families tools for addressing such issues as children's health, military deployment and emergency preparedness. As a nonprofit, product proceeds and philanthropic donations support Sesame Workshop's educational research and creative content for children around the world. Learn more at www.sesameworkshop.org.
About National WIC Association:
The Natioanl WIC Association (NWA) is the non-profit education and advocacy voice of the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children Program (WIC), the over 9 million mothers and young children served by WIC and the 90 State and 2,200 Local Agencies and 10,000 WIC Clinics who are the front lines of WIC services for the nation's nutritionally at-risk mothers and young children. Learn more about NWA at www.nwica.org.
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Press Contacts:
Pam Hacker Tae Chong
Sesame Workshop National WIC Association
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Stephanie Baumoel Angela Harless
FerenComm for Sesame Workshop USDA Office of Communications
212.983.9898 202-720-4623
stephanieb@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Angela.Harless@xxxxxxxxxxx
USDA News
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202 720-4623
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