Posted on February 7, 2012

Walmart Awards $9.5 Million to Support Healthy Food, Nutrition Education Programs

Walmart and the Walmart Foundation have announced grants totaling $9.5 million to nine nonprofit organizations working to boost access to healthy foods and nutrition-education programs nationwide.

The grants will support efforts to provide families with the resources they need to live healthier lives, including obesity screenings, nutritional counseling, and healthy living education. Walmart, which last month pledged to increase funding for nutrition programs that help consumers make healthier food choices, hopes to reach nearly three hundred thousand people across the nation with this latest round of grants.

Grant recipients include D.C.-based Share Our Strength, which was awarded $4 million to provide grocery store tours and cooking classes to nearly forty thousand low-income participants through its Shopping Matters and Cooking Matters programs; Chicago-based Action for Healthy Kids, which was awarded $1.5 million for its efforts to increase access to healthy food and improve nutrition education at four hundred schools nationwide; the Children's Health Fund in New York City, which received $1.3 million to enhance obesity screening and nutritional counseling for ten thousand low-income and homeless children in six states as well as provide ongoing nutritional education through its Starting Right program; and the League of United Latin American Citizens in Washington, D.C., which was awarded $500,000 to provide healthy living education courses and community health festivals to eight thousand individuals.

"We want to help our customers make healthier decisions, whether that's through their in-store experience at Walmart or through taking a class focused on nutrition education," said Andrea Thomas, senior vice president of sustainability at Walmart. "The grants we're announcing...will give thousands of Americans access to nutrition education classes, cooking demonstrations, and nutritional recipes — essential tools to living a healthier life."