Kids "Belly Up" to organic, healthy snack bar

PR Newswire, Feb 15, 2006 PUYALLUP, Wa., February 15, 2006 – Last week in Puyallup, Washington, school kids tasted their way through the 2nd NW Healthy Foods Expo, along with school nutrition directors and snack buyers for schools, hospitals and workplaces. The assignment: find healthy foods that taste great. One product that got the thumbs- up was the Bear Fruit Bar by Mountain Organic Foods. “Fruit-forward, chewy but not sticky, with a clean finish,” were some of the more enological descriptions by adults. “Tastes pretty good,” was the typical verdict from high-schoolers. Ken Newman, an organic fruit farmer who owns Mountain Organic Foods with Craig Gass, thinks kids are outgrowing the knee-jerk rejection of healthier foods. “They know there’s more to life than candy bars and chips, and can appreciate good-tasting healthier snack options. Some are even knowledgeable about the benefits of organic farming,” he notes. The Expo was sponsored by the Washington State Dept. of Health and Kids First, a Rhode Island-based group that helps communities improve the nutritional and physical well-being of kids. “Rhode Island schools wanted help getting access to healthier food products, which weren’t available through their existing distributor channels, so we put on the Northeast Healthy School Foods Marketplace,” says Kids First Executive Director Dorothy Brayley. Washington State heard about the expo and asked Kids First to help create a similar event to bring together buyers, consumers and healthier food vendors in the Northwest. Despite a mixed bag of nutrition policies across states and even school districts, products that are all fruit, such as the Bear Fruit Bar, meet most guidelines. Each bar contains more than one apple, including the antioxidant-rich peel, is 100% organic and has no added sugar or preservatives. Good fiber content and lack of fat helps it meet FDA criteria for “healthy.” The bars score additional points with schools and parents for containing no common allergens such as wheat, dairy or nuts. Bear Fruit Bars come in 4 fruit flavors and are sold at www.morfoods.com (in 20-packs), and at select stores in California, Oregon and Idaho (see www. morfoods.com). For more about Kids First, visit www.kidsfirstri.org.