Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Hidden Valley Search for Veggie Champions Contest

With young kids, I am always looking for new strategies to get them to eat more vegetables!!Some clever ideas I have heard of include: grating up carrots in pasta sauce and creating a contest to see who could eat the most cucumber slices in 30 seconds! One trick that is sure to work in our house involves cutting up a variety of fresh veggies with a bowl of dressing as an after school snack!! They can't help but eat a handful every time they walk past!
The makers of Hidden Valley® Salad Dressings launched the Love Your Veggies™ campaign soon after a 2006 study by the University of California Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program and the Butte County Cooperative Extension revealed that kids ate 23% more vegetables when they were served with ranch dressing. To help moms encourage their kids to eat more vegetables, the Love Your Veggies™ campaign teaches families how to eat healthfully, purchase and grow the best veggies, and find innovative ways to serve them with the following:
*a Web site full of information at www.LoveYourVeggies.com
*a school grant program to provide students with better access to fresh produce
*a mom retreat hosted by celebrity chef, Art Smith
Also as a part of the campaign, Hidden Valley created a contest inviting Moms to submit their brainstorms for a community garden. The garden can reside at a school, religious organization, neighborhood park, etc. and would ideally help to get the community involved in and excited about eating and enjoying more vegetables. The ten lucky winners will receive an all-expense-paid trip to Chicago for classes and lessons on selecting and cooking the best vegetable dishes, dinner at Chef Smith's restaurant, Table Fifty-Two, plenty of pampering, and $5,000 to create or maintain their community gardens.

Be sure to check out the activities and tips page to help your kids have fun learning about the importance of vegetables with printable activity kits and learning pages. These are great for the classroom and at home. Also, the recipe page offers fun recipes to get your kids cooking and eating their vegetables!


Thanks so much to Mom Central and Hidden Valley for letting us know about this great campaign :)

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