Two healthy announcements came during America’s largest gathering of K-12 school foodservice directors at the School Nutrition Association’s Annual National Conference at Nashville’s Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center: Windsor Foods’ Fit Kids program and Red Gold’s launch of eight new tomato-based products.
Windsor Foods announced a Fit Kids program that ties new, healthy Child Nutrition (CN) products with tools for school fitness programs.
“Windsor Foods is playing a leadership role in helping school districts integrate healthier foods with the other key component for promoting lifelong wellness – fitness,” says Monica San Miguel, who is leading Windsor Foods’ K-12 initiative. “We know schools today are challenged by new requirements for healthier menus and funding for their fitness programs. Fit Kids from Windsor Foods offers a tremendous solution.”
The program offers free sports balls (basketball and dodge balls) with the purchase of cases of selected CN products, including: Posada Whole Grain burritos, Bernardi cheese raviolis and Golden Tiger Asian Whole Grain chicken wraps. The program offers 10 free sports balls with the purchase of 20 cases, 15 sports balls with the purchase of 30 cases, and 25 sports balls with the purchase of 50 cases on the same distributor invoice.
Red Gold, LLC, meanwhile, used the conference to announce the launch of eight new products. These products help them meet new, more stringent federal requirements for their school lunch menus. Under the umbrella phrase, Better Nutrition Made Simple, these new products all offer much lower sodium and no high fructose corn syrup as healthier ingredients options.
“We have just made providing better nutrition much easier for schools,” saysDavid Halt, Red Gold’s director of foodservice sales. “K-12 School Foodservice Directors are being directed by their federal, state, and local governments to serve foods to their students that contain significantly less sodium. Our new products help them meet these new requirements without sacrificing great tasting flavor. In addition, three of the most popular prepared tomato-based sauces are now nutritionally enhanced by providing excellent sources of essential vitamins A, C, and E.”
Red Gold is a market leader in bringing new nutritionally enhanced tomato products to the K-12 school market. The company launched the first of the nutritionally beneficial products to the K-12 school market two years ago. Redpack Nutritionally Enhanced Spaghetti Sauce has already been embraced by major school districts based on superior nutritional benefits and great taste.
Today, Red Gold added new Nutritionally Enhanced Marinara Sauce and Nutritionally Enhanced Fully-Prepared Pizza Sauce under the Redpack label. All of the products meet new U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) proposed rule for lower sodium and have the added benefit of containing no high fructose corn syrup. The Marinara and Spaghetti Sauces contain 50 percent of the required Daily Value (DV) of Vitamins A, C, and E per ¼ cup serving, while the Fully Prepared Pizza Sauce contains 25 percent per ¼ cup serving.
Also announced today is Red Gold Nutritionally Enhanced Salsa with half the sodium of their regular salsa. In addition, the product contains 20 percent of the required Daily Value for Vitamins A, C, and E per ¼ cup serving (Good Source). The salsa is available in 6/#10 cans and two-ounce plastic dipping cups.
A new Red Gold 100 Percent Natural Ketchup Made with Sugar tastes great and contains 68 percent less sodium than typical ketchup. It is available in 6/#10 cans, 9-gram portion control Packets, and 3-gallon Bag-in-Boxes.
“While the greatest interest today is in the K-12 School Foodservice segment due to new USDA requirements, I believe that these products will be of interest to other segments of the industry, such as healthcare, colleges, and universities,” Halt says. “I foresee demand will also emerge within the fast food and full-service commercial segments as governments and consumers demand better-for-you products.”
