New CDC Report Summarizes Fruit & Vegetable Consumption Data
In late September, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released the State Indicator Report on Fruits and Vegetables, 2009. This document summarizes data for fruit and vegetable consumption from multiple sources and breaks the results down by state for the first time. It also discusses policies and environmental supports that can make it easier for everyone to eat more fruits and vegetables.
The State Indicator Report shows that all states in the country fall short of national objectives for consumption of fruits and vegetables, which aim for 75 percent of Americans to eat at least 2 servings of fruit, and for 50 percent of Americans to eat at least 3 servings of vegetables daily.
Nationally, CDC supported state surveys indicate that only 33 percent of adults are meeting the recommendation for fruit consumption and 27 percent are meeting the vegetable recommendation. The statistics are even worse for high school students - 32 percent of them report eating at least 2 fruit servings daily and 13 percent say they eat at least 3 vegetable servings each day.
PBH Honors Three New Fruits & Veggies—More Matters Role Models
Chelan Fresh Marketing, of Chelan, Wash., Rainier Fruit Company, of Selah, Wash., and Welch's, of Concord, Mass., have been named the newest Fruits & Veggies—More Matters® Role Models. These companies have been long-term supporters of PBH and exhibited a true commitment to the Fruits and Veggies—More Matters brand in several ways. There will be a special luncheon at the April Board of Trustees meeting to celebrate PBH's role models.
Chelan Fresh Marketing earned role model status by mentioning Fruits & Veggies—More Matters at five speaking events before other growers and including the Fruits & Veggies—More Matters logo on produce packaging, display bins and totes, as well as several other activities throughout the year. Rainier Fruit Company received role model honors for mentioning Fruits & Veggies—More Matters at several speaking events and including Fruits & Veggies—More Matters materials and messaging in a public relations trip to New York City and through the Midwest, as well as numerous other actions. Welch's reached the rank of role model by featuring the Fruits & Veggies—More Matters logo on its Welch's Naturals product line and by their continuing support of PACK Week as well as many other activities.
The new WIC and Spanish Toolkits are now available online at www.pbhfoundation.org. The new WIC toolkit materials were designed to assist health professionals and retailers in helping WIC participants use their new fruit and vegetable vouchers. The new Spanish Toolkit materials are the response to requests from retailers, suppliers, and health professionals.
The WIC toolkit materials include a seasonal reference listing the most common, most economical, and most easy-to-prepare fruits and vegetables, an important nutrition tip sheet about fruits and veggies, and a sheet with tips for the safe handling of raw fruits and vegetables. Check out the new WIC toolkit materials in the health professionals’ area of www.pbhfoundation.org.
Frequent visitors may have noticed that www.fruitsandveggiesmorematters.org features a one-question poll on its homepage. In September, the website featured a poll question asking about the consumption of dried legumes.
The question specifically asked, "How many times/week do you eat legumes [e.g. dried beans, peas]?" and asked responders to select never, 1-2, 3-4, 5-6, or 7+. Out of 219 poll responders, 104 (47 percent) said they eat legumes 1-2 times per week, 47 (22 percent) said they never eat dried beans or peas, 36 (16 percent) said 3-4 times, 23 (11 percent) ate them 5-6 times per week, and 9 (4 percent) said they eat legumes 7+ times each week.
New poll questions are uploaded about twice per month and PBH keeps track of the results. Feel free to participate in these polls and encourage others to respond to these fun questions, too. For more information about the surveys or their results, contact PBH Nutrition Website Development Manager Sandra Ely.
Calling all growers, shippers, packers, commodity board members, nutritionists, and home cooks, PBH is in search of recipes to expand our collection! These recipes will be considered for use as featured recipes for a future Fruit or Veggie of the Month press release, added to our searchable recipe database on www.fruitsandveggiesmorematters.org, and included in other marketing materials. Recipe suppliers will receive a credit line whenever their recipe is used.
Recipes will be evaluated to make sure they meet PBH products promotable criteria and may need to be slightly modified in some cases before use as a featured recipe. Only recipes with print-quality photos of the completed dish will be considered. There is no recipe limit; you may submit as many recipes as you like, the more the merrier! Please send recipes and photos to PBH Communications Specialist Jill LeBrasseur.
Several PBH sponsorship opportunities are available for 2010, some of them new for next year! Returning sponsorship opportunities include: videos in the online Video Center at the Fruits & Veggies—More Matters consumer website, www.fruitsandveggiesmorematters.org; Consumer Columns; PBH's Annual Report; 2010 Annual Board of Trustees meeting sponsorships; 2010's Gala at the Castle Dinner and Auction; PBH Direct!, the foundation's semi-monthly e-newsletter; our quarterly retailer-specific print newsletter, Retail Matters; and more! Donors can also adopt a local school by sponsoring PBH's Adopt-A-School Community Outreach Program.
Many new sponsorship opportunities will be available for the first time in 2010. For the first time ever, donors will have the opportunity to sponsor several different research projects in 2010 including: consumer research to be administered by and presented in Eating Well magazine; the Barriers to Individual Commodities Study; menu trend research conducted by Food Beat; as well as web-based surveys sent to PBH's opt-in participants.
The Food Editors Luncheon is a new event for PBH that gives sponsors the opportunity to put their brand in front of as many as 20 magazine food editors and nutrition-focused bloggers. The Education Kit gives sponsors the opportunity to include their flyer or brochure in an education kit that will be distributed to trade show attendees who visit the PBH booth. This is an excellent way to reach customers and stakeholders without going to the expense of manning a booth at the show. Also for the first time ever, donors will have an opportunity to sponsor the 2010 PBH Nutrition Education Catalog, an indispensable resource to parents, educators and health professionals that is mailed to over 90,000 recipients.
PBH is pleased to recognize the following companies as leaders in the fruit and vegetable industry and thanks them for their support. Their generous contributions help make possible PBH’s many activities to increase fruit and vegetable consumption. PBH thanks all current and new donors who have contributed to the foundation from Aug. 28, 2009 through Sep. 18, 2009. Together we can make a difference in the nation’s fruit and vegetable consumption. To find out how you can support PBH, and grow your business in the process, contact PBH West Coast Fund Development Director Jennifer Armen-Bolen or PBH East Coast Fund Development Director Renee Bullion.
Returning Trustees ($10,000+ Annual Contribution):
Ahold USA*
American Frozen Food Institute
Florida Specialty Crop Foundation
Green Giant - Frozen and Canned Foods
Produce for Kids
Ventura Foods
Returning Donors:
Affiliated Foods, Inc., Texas
Boskovich Farms, Inc.
Ciruli Brothers
Coast To Coast Produce, L.L.C.
Lowes Foods Inc.
MountainKing Potatoes
Sakata Seed America, Inc.
Tony Vitrano Company
*Includes Giant of Maryland, L.L.C., Giant Food Stores, L.L.C. and Stop & Shop Companies, Inc.
