Monumental Vending Hosts National Campaign Launch: Beltsville Vending Company Works with Pro-Football Legend Lynn Swann to Unveil National Campaign to Fight Childhood Obesity

    WASHINGTON, Jan. 13 /PRNewswire/ -- Beltsville, Maryland-based Monumental
 Vending today hosted Professional football legend Lynn Swann and the vending
 industry as together they unveiled the Balanced for Life campaign to help stem
 rising childhood obesity rates, National Automatic Merchandising Association
 (NAMA) President and CEO Richard M. Geerdes announced today.  The campaign is
 designed to educate parents, teachers and students about nutrition and the
 elements of a balanced diet along with the importance of being physically
 active.
     At the event Craig Kushner of Monumental Vending said, "The Balanced for
 Life initiative comes at a time when our nation continues to be focused on
 escalating childhood obesity rates, which is why the industry should be
 commended for taking the initiative to help schools, parents and teachers
 address this serious problem.  At Monumental, we've always been at the
 forefront of the industry which is why we are proud to be here today helping
 to launch this valuable program that will be so helpful to our community as we
 work together to solve this critical problem."
     Monumental Vending is a leading independently owned Vending Service
 Provider (VSP), conveniently offering cold beverages, snacks, coffee, fresh
 food and other fine refreshments to clients in Washington, DC, Maryland and
 Virginia.  By combining the latest technology advancements available in the
 vending industry with an intense dedication to service since 1991, Monumental
 Vending builds strong, long lasting client relationships by offering the
 highest levels of communication, service, professionalism, accountability,
 technology, and maintenance in the vending industry.  For more information,
 visit http://www.MonumentalVending.com.
     In discussing the campaign Geerdes said, "We are parents too, and are just
 as concerned as everyone else about the devastating impact childhood obesity
 will have on our children and their future.  We want to be part of the
 solution, which is why we have created this program.  If we can help our
 children truly understand the elements of a balanced diet and the importance
 of being physically active we can have a lasting impact on their lives,
 protecting and enhancing their future."
     Geerdes went on to unveil several new program elements including the
 campaign's new website, http://www.balancedforlife.net and two new
 partnerships:  one with non-profit America Scores to promote nutrition
 education and physical activity through the organization's highly successful
 and popular after school soccer and literacy program, and the second with the
 Columbus Children's Hospital to promote their Snackwise Nutrition Rating
 System.  The Snackwise system helps students understand how different food
 choices fit into an overall diet by ranking them as either 'choose rarely,'
 'choose moderately' or 'choose frequently.'
     To discuss the Snackwise Nutrition Rating System developed by Columbus
 Children's Hospital's Borden Center for Nutrition & Wellness, hospital
 research dietitian Jan Ritter said, "The Snackwise Nutrition Rating System
 rates the overall nutritional quality of snack foods.  This innovative program
 helps consumers select smarter snack choices through any easy to recognize
 color code of green, best choice, yellow, choose occasionally or red, choose
 rarely.  It's easy, fun and children can make smarter snack choices early on
 that will hopefully carry on into adulthood."
     Geerdes also outlined the campaign's partnership with non-profit America
 Scores, saying, "Balanced for Life calls for kids to learn about nutrition and
 be more physically active, and through our partnership with America Scores
 thousands of kids who in many instances don't have access to any school PE
 programs at all will learn all about nutrition and have the chance to be
 active after school playing organized soccer."
     Through the organization's partnership with non-profit America Scores NAMA
 Balanced for Life will deliver nutrition education directly to students in
 twelve cities and sponsor after school soccer programs in four cities across
 the country:  Washington, DC, Chicago, Denver and San Francisco/Oakland.  In
 addition, as part of the partnership, NAMA Balanced for Life dietitians will
 deliver nutrition education training programs directly to teachers and
 students in the target America Scores schools.  Bi-lingual written Balanced
 for Life educational materials and posters will be provided to students,
 teachers, parents and school officials as well.  Finally, at the end of the
 spring semester the program will culminate in a day-long soccer Balanced for
 life Jamboree! in each of the four cities where hundreds of students, parents,
 teachers and community leaders will turn out for a day-long Balanced for Life
 event to watch the students play back-to-back soccer matches.
     Concluded Geerdes, "NAMA's Balanced for Life campaign is one of the most
 important initiatives our industry has ever launched because it will help our
 nation's youth to understand how they can take steps to live better, healthier
 lives.  On behalf of the thousands of dedicated industry professionals working
 in our industry, we're proud to be here with you as together we work to
 protect the health and well being of our nation's youth."
     For more information visit http://www.balancedforlife.net., or
 http://www.vending.org.
 
     NAMA is the national trade association of the food and refreshment
 vending, coffee service and foodservice management industries including on-
 site, commissary, catering, & mobile.  Its membership is comprised of service
 companies, equipment manufacturers and suppliers of products and services to
 operating service companies.  The basic mission of the association, to
 collectively advance and promote the automatic merchandising and OCS
 industries, still guides NAMA today as it did in 1936, the year of the
 organization's founding.
 
 

SOURCE  NAMA