As part of its mission to improve children’s nutrition Life Time Fitness has announced it will expand its program designed to inspire healthier food in our nation’s schools to Chicago, Dallas, New York and Phoenix. Led by the Life Time Foundation, the program focuses on removing 100% of bleached flour, processed sugar, food coloring, high fructose corn syrup, preservatives, trans fats and hormones from the school lunch menu.
Prompted by the success of its first year pilot program with Deephaven Elementary, which is part of the Minnetonka, Minn. Public Schools District 276, Life Time’s school lunch program expansion invites additional opportunities for schools to collaborate in partnership with the company’s health and nutrition experts in the design of new lunch menus that will launch in the 2012-13 school year. As with Deephaven Elementary, the effort will result in eliminating the key ingredients Life Time’s experts believe contribute to many health problems in youth today. Additionally, the Life Time Foundation has committed to fund 100% of the cost difference between the former and newly designed lunch menus for a period of three years.
“The positive impact of our initial pilot and the sustained interest we have seen by other schools and parents reinforce our desire to expand the program,” said James McGuire, director, Life Time Foundation. “In doing so, we will bring this opportunity to four additional schools, with the goal of providing a school lunch that is far healthier. At the same time, we welcome other companies like ours to embrace this model, which we are happy to provide, such that dozens more schools, students and staff may be positively impacted by attacking the nutrition issues children face. We also know that as better food choices are made, the cost of these improved ingredients will reduce over time, making it possible for the schools themselves to make this change.”