Dole Nutrition Institute

The Dole Nutrition Institute (DNI) is a research and education foundation within the Dole Food Company and is based in Kannapolis, North Carolina at the North Carolina Research Campus. The DNI was founded by David H. Murdock in 2003.^[1] The institute exists as a resource offering educational publications on a plant-based diet.

Activities

The Dole Nutrition Institute offers self-produced health and nutrition segments.^[2][3]

Dole Nutrition Newsletter

In 2008, the Web Marketing Association (WMA) awarded the Dole Nutrition News (DNN) their International Advertising Competition Award for Outstanding Achievement in Internet Advertising - Best Food Industry On-line Newsletter Award.^[4][5]

DNI classroom resources

Dole's classroom resources include a variety of free materials that teachers can download or order.

• 5 A Day Adventures CD-ROM, the centerpiece of the Dole Nutrition Program. Fruit and vegetable characters talk and sing on this interactive computer software program that includes eight interactive modules.
• Charts with reusable stickers to help students keep track of the number of fruits and vegetables they eat each day.
• Fun With Fruits and Vegetables Kids' Cookbook with simple fruit and vegetable recipes kids can make.
• SuperKids Super Songs CD
• 5 A Day Live performance kit which includes songs, sheet music, and the script of a play about proper nutrition.

Employee wellness program

Dole Employee Wellness Program

Dole Nutrition Institute created and maintains an employee wellness program that encourages employees at Dole headquarters to eat healthy foods and stay active by offering free healthy snacks, on-site fitness classes, discounted healthy meal options in the cafeteria, a gym, and on-site personal trainers.^[6] After six months, tests on sixty employees who followed the program showed they had lower cholesterol levels, lower levels of certain proteins that are predictors of future heart disease, lower triglyceride levels and lower glucose levels.^[7] In 2005, the program won the California Fit Business Award.^[8]

Corporate wellness toolkit

The Corporate Wellness Toolkit teaches businesses how to promote healthy eating and exercise. The kit includes signage, newsletters, videos, and instructional materials which encourage businesses to provide weight loss seminars, trainers, and healthier foods for their employees.^[8][9]

Dole Nutrition Institute School Salad Days

The School Salad Days program was designed to encourage healthy eating habits and promote daily fruit and vegetable consumption in California public schools. The pilot program was launched in 2006 with the donation of fifty full-service portable salad bars to public schools in California. DNI gave these schools nutrition information, worked with schools to develop fruit baskets to be sold as fund-raising alternatives, and helped schools plant on-site "edible gardens".^[2]

Dole Nutrition Institute and Children's Hunger Fund (CHF)

In 2007, Dole Nutrition Institute donated nearly 250,000 nutrition-focused publications to the Children's Hunger Fund (CHF), an international non-profit organization. CHF is now including these materials in their Food Paks, 20 lb. boxes of staple foods, which are delivered to the homes of needy families. The donation included DNI’s "Health & Wellness" brochure series and "What You Need to Eat Every Day & Why" in English and Spanish. For the children, "Dole's 5-A-Day the Color Way" coloring books and bookmarks help kids focus on their own nutrition and to make good food choices in the future.^[10]

See also

• Nutrition

References