Global healthcare leader, Merck is teaming up with Sesame Workshop - the masterminds behind popular children's show Sesame Street - to develop Food for Thought: Eating Well on a Budget, a program designed to help low income families eat healthy.
The idea is to offer support and creative resources for children between the ages of 2 and 8 to cope with something they call "food insecurity." This term, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, is "households where there is a lack of access to enough food to fully meet basic needs at all times due to lack of financial resources."
Recent studies have shown that childhood obesity rates are at an all time high; currently, one in three children in America are considered overweight or obese. Merck and Sesame Workshop want to make sure that income isn't a factor.
Multimedia outreach kit Food for Thought: Eating Well on a Budget is available in both English and Spanish and includes a DVD starring the Sesame Street Muppets who teach messages about nutrition not just for today, but for a lifetime of healthy eating habits. Other items that are included in the kit: a documentary, child-friendly healthy recipes, a children's story, and a parent/caregiver guide that provides information about healthful eating and ways to make nutritional and economical food choices for the entire family. In addition, Sesame Workshop and Merck will take their message to those who are the face of the it, conducting training sessions and web seminars to caregivers.
Families can get their hands on the information through United Healthcare , Merck, the National WIC Association, and Feeding America.
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