8/2/08: Central Falls "Fresh to You" at Channel One
Vernia Carter, with the Channel One Community Center in Central Falls wants to be sure that their community gets fresh fruits and veggies on a regular basis. She has invited Kids First Chef, Sandy Sepe, to make a variety of healthy recipes with vegetables available at the market. The participant buyers will have a chance to taste some delicious fresh produce and purchase it at a reasonable price.

8/4/08: Healthier Meals Training for East Greenwich Cafeteria Staff
Back-to-school in East Greenwich will mean a fresher, healthier school food service program that meets new nutrition criteria, as developed and adopted by RI Department of Education. The new state nutrition criteria for school meals is entitled RINR 2009 or RI Nutrition Requirements 2009. The state plan, as funded through a USDA Team Nutrition grant, is that all 36 RI school districts will implement RINR 2009 by September 2009. However over a dozen RI school districts will begin implementation in September 2008! Kids First's Chef and Nutritionist team will be training East Greenwich food service staff today as to the requirements of RINR 2009. All will learn, practice and discuss how to incorporate RINR 2009 into the everyday breakfast and lunch programs of East Greenwich public schools. All children in the East Greenwich school system will be able to enjoy more and wider variety of fruits and vegetables (locally grown too!), more whole grains and less processed foods (lower sodium.)

8/14/08: The Northeast Regional Healthy Foods Marketplace
Thursday, August 14, 2008
10:00AM - 3:00PM @ the Crowne Plaza, Warwick, RI
This event brings vendors of healthy foods together with buyers seeking those products. All single-serve products exhibited during this free tradeshow meet the RI Healthy School Snacks and Beverages Law. Meal items will be approved for the show using nutrition criteria that is based on the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. This year, once again, we want to reach out and invite food buyers from colleges and universities, worksites, childcare, hospitals and other care facilities, as well as local distributors to join school foodservice buyers in taste-testing and collecting samples to bring back to your clients. Wellness Committee members are also welcome to come so you can influence healthier buying decisions in your school, business or community.
Registered for this year's Marketplace (as of July 31) are the following companies who are ready to exhibit and sample their healthier items:

• Jack Link's Beef Jerky
• AJ Letizio Sales & Marketing representing: Upstate Niagara
• Polar Beverages
• Big Sky Naturals, Inc.
• Cotton, Cotton & Hill representing:
  
  • Apple & Eve; Simply Blues; Muffin Town;
  • Sun Opta;Pierre Foods;Snyder's; Father's Table
    
• PepsiCo/Frito-Lay
  
• Devine Culinary representing:
  • Best Maid Cookies
• Oskri Organics
  
• Dr. Kracker
  
• Smucker Quality Beverage
  
• Enjoy Life Natural Brands
• National Raisin Company
• First Juice, Inc.
• Global Juices and Fruits
• Hansen Beverage Co.
• J & J Snack Foods Corp.
• Market Dynamics Group representing:
  • Bosco Pizza Co.; Nestle Hand;
  • Malt O'Meal; White Wave
• Benchmark Sales representing: Fruit 66
• Tribe Mediterranean Foods
• Hint, Inc.
• Rhode Island Farm to School
• MJM Marketing
• Natural Specialty Sales representing:
  • Amish Naturals; Rao's; Country Choice Organics;
  • Chez Gourmet; Power of Fruit;General Mills Foods
• Nestle Waters N.A.
• Wyman's
• Ole Mexican Foods, Inc.
• Holly's Oatmeal
• Pinnacle Foods representing:
  
  • Campbells; Sunbutter; Azar Nut
• Harbar
• LLC Rhode Island Division of Agriculture
• Rhode Island Dairy Farms Cooperative
• Garelick Farms
• Ridgefield's Brand Corporation
• Dahlicious, LLC
• Ronzio Pizza
• Helen's Foods
• Rustic Crust
• Snikiddy, LLC
• Tasty Bite
• The Switch Beverage Company
• Community Fruit
• Thurston Foods
• Hallsmith Sysco
• Tropicana.