United Fresh Produce Association President and CEO Tom Stenzel offered the support and congratulations of the fresh fruit and vegetable industry to First Lady Michelle Obama on the first anniversary of her groundbreaking Let’s Move! initiative.

            "With Let’s Move!, the First Lady has raised our nation’s awareness about the value of a healthy, nutritious lifestyle for America’s children. The Let’s Move Salad Bars to Schools initiative, announced by Mrs. Obama in November, brings additional focus to the importance of better nutrition in our nation’s schools," said Stenzel. "Research has shown that kids, given a variety of choices of fruits and vegetables in a salad bar, respond by trying new items, incorporating greater variety in their diets, and increasing their daily consumption of fruits and vegetables. United Fresh congratulates the First Lady for her accomplishments with Let’s Move! and thanks her for her ongoing promotion of fresh fruits and vegetables in schools. We look forward to the progress ahead as we work toward creating a healthier future for our kids."

            With support from the First Lady and Let’s Move!, United Fresh, the National Fruit and Vegetable Alliance and the Food, Family and Farming (F3) Foundation, collaborated in November 2010 to launch Let’s Move Salad Bars to Schools (www.saladbars2schools.org), a comprehensive grassroots public health effort to mobilize and engage stakeholders at the national, state and local level to support salad bars in schools. With the goal of significantly increasing children’s fruit and vegetable consumption through school salad bars, Let’s Move Salad Bars to Schools is committed to 6,000 salad bars to schools across the country over the next three years.

Representatives from United Fresh and Let’s Move Salad Bars to Schools are at Bernhard Moos Elementary School in the First Lady’s hometown of Chicago today to donate 10 salad bars to Chicago Public Schools, a donation made possible by a generous grant from Chiquita Brands.