WESTLAKE VILLAGE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Taking a page from the fantasy sports playbook, Dole is challenging Americans to think of healthy eating and living as team sports in 2016.
The fresh produce provider has launched a community-focused version of its popular Get Up and Grow!™ initiative introduced in 2015 to increase America’s nutritional health through greater consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables. Last year’s multifaceted program ultimately distributed more than 145,000 healthy recipe samples at 381 supermarkets and special events in 44 cities in the U.S. and Canada, and persuaded more than 15,000 people to commit to a healthier lifestyle.
Unveiled today, the refreshed Get Up and Grow! Together year-long initiative builds on that success by asking Americans to recruit their friends, family or co-workers to create teams of fellow health seekers – and then offers culinary-immersion and other group experiences celebrating the wonder of fruits, vegetables and salads to certain lucky individuals and those teams that rise to the top.
The program represents a joint effort between Dole Fresh Fruit of Westlake Village, Dole Fresh Vegetables of Monterey, Calif., and the Kannapolis, N.C.-based Dole Nutrition Institute, including the newly formed Culinary Nutrition department, and uses a variety of interactive consumer tactics to impact long-term nutritional change through the adoption of a healthier plant-based diet.
“We created Dole’s first truly integrated nutritional initiative to encourage North Americans to go beyond just talking about healthier eating and take tangible steps toward achieving their own diet, fitness and wellness goals,” said Bil Goldfield, Dole Food Company’s director of corporate communications. “Of the 15,000-plus people who took our Get Up and Grow! Pledge last year, a large percentage ended up recruiting their friends and family to join them in their quest for better living, which suggested to us the sheer power of teamwork and positive peer pressure in achieving personal health goals.”
“We’re leveraging these key learnings to add a new group focus to this year’s program to encourage even more Americans to take positive action toward their own health and happiness. Now, teams with similar wellness ambitions can support, encourage and keep each other accountable to achieve their goals and be rewarded with unique group experiences led by the nutrition and culinary experts at Dole and the Dole Nutrition Institute.”
Like last year, the highlight of the program is the Get Up and Grow! Together Tour, which will bring healthy-living insights, recipes, free tastes and sharable fruit and vegetable experiences for kids and adults to approximately 400 supermarkets and special events in 42 cities across the U.S. This year’s tour kicks off on National Eat More Fruits & Vegetables Day on May 26, 2016, an annual healthy-eating holiday created by Dole, and continues through September.
Also returning in 2016 is the interactive Get Up and Grow! Together Healthy Living Challenge which will supplement last year’s individual pledge option with a new team focus, enabling participants to build groups of like-minded pledge-takers. Team leaders can recruit their friends, family, co-workers or other associates to join their team, and then track the growth of their group against others across the U.S.
All individual and team challenge participants are encouraged to enter a pair of summer promotions to receive culinary immersion parties and other experiences designed to show the delicious (and unexpected) possibilities of fruits, vegetables and salads. Participants can submit their challenge commitment and enter the promotion online or at any Get Up and Grow! Together Tour stop.
Dole is creating a new batch of easy and delicious Get Up and Grow! Together fruit and vegetable recipes for the year-long initiative and summer tour. The recipes, many showcasing on-the-road convenience or offered in family sizes to reflect the campaign’s group focus, were developed in partnership with Chef Mark Allison, Dole’s director of culinary nutrition, and the RDs and nutritional experts at the Dole Nutrition Institute.
Once again, Dole will leverage its close to 2 million social followers and strong blogger, influencer, registered dietitian and media relationships to encourage widespread public participation, consistent with its larger goal of making America a happier, healthier and more nutritious place.
Throughout the program, Dole aims to maximize consumer involvement with the Dole Nutrition Institute (DNI), created by Dole Chairman David H. Murdock, as the world’s definitive, accessible, scientifically-validated resource on plant-based nutrition and health. DNI harvests findings from universities around the world – including the eight institutions working with the Dole Nutrition Research Laboratory – and distributes them via newsletters, reference materials, cookbooks and in-school, teacher-education programs that reach millions.
Details on all aspects of Get Up and Grow! Together, including the interactive challenge, promotion and nationwide tour, will be continually updated on the new Get Up and Grow! Together microsite (www.dole.com/GetUpandGrow).
About Dole Food Company, Inc.
Dole Food Company, Inc., is one of the world’s largest producers and marketers of high-quality fresh fruit and fresh vegetables. Dole is an industry leader in many of the products it sells, as well as in nutrition education and research. For more information, please visit www.dole.com.
