RYE BROOK, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

With March being National Nutrition Month, Chartwells School Dining Services is pleased to report the successful results of 25 mini-grants that were awarded to Chartwells schools in September 2012 as part of the Kids Eat Right campaign. Founded by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics and the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics Foundation, the Kids Eat Right campaign is dedicated to supporting the efforts of the White House to end the childhood obesity epidemic by providing resources that will help educate families, students and communities about the importance of quality nutrition.

The $200.00 mini-grants gave Chartwells grant recipients access to five toolkit presentations on the topics of healthy breakfast, healthy snacking, family meals, cooking activities and nutrition myth-busters. Each toolkit included information such as ready-to-use PowerPoint presentations, nutrition handouts, cooking demo recommendations, activity sheets, recipes and talking points and scripts.

Grant recipients were each required to deliver two presentations in their school for students, parents and members of the community. A total of 61 presentations were completed and approximately 3,300 people nationwide attended. After the presentations were delivered, 92 percent of recipients said they would be very likely to use these materials again in the future to help educate their student population about good nutrition habits. A second round of twenty-five additional grants will be implemented in late Spring 2013.

The Kids Eat Right toolkits really enabled us to change attitudes and behaviors around healthy eating, said Margie Saidel, RD, VP of Nutrition and Sustainability for Chartwells School Dining Services. After attending the presentations, students said they would make time to eat breakfast in the morning now that they knew how important it is. Older students were taught what is in the food they are eating and how to incorporate protein and other beneficial nutrients into their diets. Parents were especially enthusiastic about the cooking demonstrations and learning how to mix and match various vegetables into their dinner menus.

For more information about Chartwells School Dining Services, visit http://www.eatlearnlive.com and follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

About Chartwells School Dining Services

Chartwells, a division of Charlotte, NC-based Compass Group, provides dining services for over 550 public school districts and private schools, comprising over 6000 separate elementary, middle and high schools nationwide. For more information about Chartwells School Dining Services, visit http://www.eatlearnlive.com.

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Chartwells School Dining Services Provides Nutrition Education and Awareness Through Kids Eat Right Campaign Grants