This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Walmart for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.
I believe it is important that the major companies out there that feed us, make steps to help feeds us properly.
It’s no secret that obesity is an epidemic in this country and part of the reason is that it’s so much easier to chose food that is convenient over food that is healthy. And this affects our health and our weight.
Walmart has taken steps the help educate people and give them the information they need to lead healthier lives. A big part of what is missing from the equation is education and when a company like Walmart makes it accessible to everyone I think it is a positive step to making big changes in this country.
This month, Walmart has announced they will make $9.5 million dollars in grants to organizations across the country that have a mission of helping create and promote healthy families and healthy habits. The goal is to fund educational programs with cooking and nutrition classes and solutions for eating healthy on a budget.
I think it is extremely important to educate people about not only how to cook health foods but be able to afford them. This is a challenge that we have struggled with in our house and have slowly begun making changes. We cook from scratch as often as possible. We have started buying fresh foods and we buy organic versions whenever possible.
A program like this will help change the focus of our entire community because it provides access to everyone, no matter what their income or situation, the learn the tools necessary to make healthy choices. We have a Walmart in our community and I think they set a great example encouraging the people who shop there because of their lower prices, to also choose healthier foods.
To help them spread this message, Walmart has enlisted the help of Dr. Ro.
Rovenia M. Brock, Ph.D.
Dr. Ro is an award-winning health journalist and television personality known for her easy-to-apply diet, fitness, and health tips for women and families. A leading nutrition coach for over 2 decades, she was recently named by More magazine as one of America’s top-five nutritionists. She holds a Ph.D. in Nutritional Sciences from Howard University and is author of “Dr. Ro’s Ten Secrets to Livin’ Healthy” (Bantam) – a best-seller praised as a top-ten diet book by USA Today. Having survived the loss of her mother at age 9 to stomach cancer, she has researched and written extensively about how to break bad health habits – from eating high-calorie comfort foods and resisting exercise to giving up on health goals and taking on the negativity of saboteurs. Dr. Ro says it takes only three weeks to form a new habit – an important note to women striving to replace bad habits with new healthy behaviors. For more information on Dr. Ro and her healthy lifestyles platform visit www.everythingro.com
What a great expert to have leading the way!
Walmart is contributing grant money to a number of worthy non-profit organizations as a part of this initiative, but my favorite is the National 4-H Council.
$1.35 million to deliver healthy living education to 40,000 youth in 15 states through Youth Voice: Youth Choice program. State councils will also be encouraged to develop healthy living action plans to combat unhealthy eating habits.
4-H is a youth organization in communities across the country that enables kids to “do for themselves” and provides them with the opportunities and tools to make it happen. It is a hands-on program that encourages a community mentality while creating leaders.
For more information about the program and the non-profit recipients, visit the Walmart healthy living page.
You can also watch the video below to learn more:
So how about you? Have you made healthy changes in your life? Do you think that having a leader like Walmart focus on education will help people in this country make better choices? Do you think that this initiative will help food manufacturers focus on providing healthier foods and potentially lead to lower prices on the fresh foods vs pre-packaged?
