Dole Packaged Foods joins Key Food Stores and Captain Planet Foundation to celebrate Project Learning Garden at PS 316 Elijah Stroud Elementary School in Brooklyn
BROOKLYN, N.Y., Oct. 21, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Today New York State Senator Jesse Hamilton and State Assemblyman Walter Mosley joined executives from Key Food Stores Co-Operative, Inc, Dole Packaged Foods and Captain Planet Foundation at PS 316 Elijah Stroud Elementary School in Brooklyn to inaugurate a special Learning Garden for the school. Together, these three organizations joined forces to offer PS 316 Elijah Stroud students the opportunity to interact with the environment through a learning garden, while expanding their palates and learning about food origins.
PS 316 Elijah Stroud won the Learning Garden by submitting an application to the "Learning Garden Grant" contest conducted at Key Food Stores in the fall of 2014. The contest offered elementary schools in the Key Foods service area the chance to win a Learning Garden installation for their school.
"Here at Dole, we understand the importance of teaching children the benefits of incorporating fruits and vegetables into their diet, whether they are enjoying fresh produce from their learning garden, or a healthy Dole snack," said Larry White, Vice President - Sales, Dole Packaged Foods. "By partnering with Captain Planet Foundation and Key Food Stores, we are helping more students learn about and develop healthy habits."
"Anything can be taught in the context of the garden, and hands-on learning supports student understanding of natural systems, food origins, and healthy eating," explained Leesa Carter, Executive Director of Captain Planet Foundation. "Captain Planet Foundation is dedicated to nurturing the next generation of environmental stewards, and ensuring they are armed with an understanding of the natural world in which they live. We are thrilled to be working with Key Food Stores and Dole to provide PS 316 Elijah Stroud with a CPF Learning Garden!"
"We are thrilled to provide this Learning Garden to PS 316 Elijah Stroud Elementary School," said Michele Gissi, Marketing & PR Manager, Key Food Stores. "Giving back to the neighborhoods we serve is incredibly important to us, and we are always looking for ways to improve the quality of the life for children through education around nutrition and healthy living."
Added Olga Maluf, Principal PS 316 Elijah Stroud School, "We are so pleased to have this Learning Garden for our students. The garden enables us to provide enriched curriculum for all our grade levels. We pride ourselves in being part of the neighborhood and this gives an opportunity to offer a wonderful learning experience."
About PS 316 Elijah Stroud School
Our mission is to ensure that children leave P.S. 316 with a set of moral and social-emotional values that encompasses self-esteem, tolerance, resilience, and a sense of community; a complement of standards-based reading, writing, and thinking skills across the curricula; and appreciation and respect for cultures and diversity in our school and community.
We strive to nurture a community of students who are critical thinkers and problem solvers with discriminating minds on a quest for knowledge. We focus on developing the whole child, academically, socially, emotionally, and physically.
We value the partnerships that exist between our school, our families, and our community at large.
About Dole Packaged Foods
Dole Packaged Foods LLC, a subsidiary of Dole International Holdings, is a leader in growing, sourcing, distributing and marketing fruit, vegetables and healthy snacks throughout the world. Dole markets a full line of innovative packaged, frozen and dried fruit. The company focuses on four pillars of sustainability in all of its operations: water management, carbon footprint, soil conservation and packaging. For more information please visit www.dole.com or www.doleintlcsr.com.
About Key Food Stores Co-Operative, Inc
Founded in Brooklyn in 1937, Key Food Stores Co-operative Inc. includes over 190 independently owned and operated grocery stores with $1.8 billion in annual sales. In addition to Key Food, these stores operate under the Key Food Marketplace, Key Fresh & Natural, Food Dynasty, Food Universe, Urban Market, and various other banners in all five boroughs, Long Island, upstate New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania. Please visit www.keyfood.com for more information. Key Food. The Difference is Key.
About Captain Planet Foundation (CPF)
Based on the critically-acclaimed animated series Captain Planet and the Planeteers, CPF was co-founded in 1991 by media mogul Ted Turner and producer Barbara Pyle. Since then, the Captain Planet Foundation has played a critical role in helping to ensure that the next generation of business leaders and policy makers are environmentally literate citizens who leverage technology and information to manage and protect the air, land, and water upon which all life depends.
CPF is a grant-making foundation that has funded over 2,000 hands-on environmental education projects with schools and non-profits that serve children in all 50 U.S. states and in 23 countries internationally. More than 1.2 million children have directly participated in and benefited from these educational projects. In addition to its Small Grants Program, the Captain Planet Foundation also operates the following programs: Project Learning Garden, the Leadership Center, SAGES, Planeteer Clubs, and a number of other science education initiatives that exploit the intersections between technology, innovation, the environment and personal action. For more information: www.captainplanetfdn.org.
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SOURCE Dole Packaged Foods LLC
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