General Mills Supports 'Partnership for Play Every Day' Initiative

19/02/07 General Mills has announced its support for the "Partnership for Play Every Day" coalition, a collaboration led by the YMCA of the USA, the National Recreation and Park Association, and the National Association for Sport and Physical Education. Partnership for Play Every Day brings together the public and private sectors to advance policies, programs and practices that ensure that children and youth engage in at least 60 minutes of physical activity every day.

“General Mills is pleased to support Partnership for Play Every Day as part of our ongoing commitment to helping kids incorporate fitness into their lives,” said Ellen Goldberg Luger, executive director of the General Mills Foundation and a General Mills vice president. “Through initiatives like our Champions for Healthy Kids grant program, we seek to instill healthy lifestyle habits that will last a lifetime for America’s kids.”

Since 2002, Champions for Healthy Kids has invested more than $8 million in youth nutrition and fitness programs that have served more than 150,000 children across the country. As part of the program, the General Mills Foundation is celebrating its fifth year of sponsoring the Presidential Active Lifestyle Awards (PALA) for students in 61 Minneapolis public schools.

PALA is a proven motivational recognition program developed by the President’s Challenge, in which students complete 60 minutes of physical activity five days a week for six weeks.  This is an important first step in developing lifelong habits to incorporate more physical activity into the daily routine of our youth.

General Mills is helping make lives healthier in numerous ways, including increasing people’s intake of whole grain, delivering important nutrients, providing foods that contribute to a healthy heart, and providing low calorie or portion-controlled options to help them manage their weight. In fact, General Mills now has 250 products that contain 130 or fewer calories per serving. They include cereals, soups, yogurt, granola bars, dinner rolls, vegetables and soymilk.
 
General Mills’ commitment to Partnership for Play Every Day will further these efforts to improve physical activity levels among youth through collaboration among local and national stakeholder groups.