NuVal

Company : Tops Friendly Markets

Program category : 2015 Community Outreach Awards Nominees

Origins:

Four to five days a week, our Community Outreach Coordinator has been going into schools to speak about living a healthy lifestyle and how to make decisions when choosing foods to eat. With the assistance of NuVal, a company that developed a nutritional scoring, we were able to create a unique, 45 minute presentation for students, faculty members and community organizations. Though a large part of the program is to teach students how to use this NuVal system, information on MyPlate, portion sizes, and physical activity is heavily discussed. Our coordinator has students out of their seats doing jumping jacks, push-ups, along with having them work in teams to compete in the Nutrition by The Numbers Game. We even had the unique opportunity to team up with Buffalo Bills players to present our program along with their Play60 program. Not only is our coordinator in schools, but she attends numerous health fairs, PTA meetings and presents at senior citizen homes.

Contribution:

At TOPS Friendly Markets, we know that health and nutrition are important for all people. We also understand that it isn't always easy to determine what is nutritious. Our commitment to health has inspired us to incorporate a nutrition base program called NuVal.

Objectives:

The main objective of this program is to educate. We want or customers to utilize the nutrition system and make better eating decisions and therefore lower obesity rates. As a consumer, it is important to know what goes into your foods. It is difficult with advertising to know what is the “healthy choice.” The NuVal Nutritional Scoring System grades almost all of the foods in our stores from 1-100, with 100 being the most nutritious and 1 being the least nutritious. It is a simple grading system that does all the work for you. This allows our shoppers to save time so they are not sitting in the aisles looking at nutrition facts panels and trying to figure out the complex ingredient lists.

Impact:

This fun and interactive presentation gets student involved in creating a healthier home and school environment. Since its inception in 2011, we have reach more than 30,000 students and faculty members in over 75 schools from Western New York to Syracuse

Quote:

“At TOPS Friendly Markets, we know that health and nutrition are important for all our shoppers” said John Persons, President and Chief Operating Officer. “Our commitment to health has inspired us to invest in a nutritional based program know as NuVal (Nutritional Scoring System). “TOPS is dedicated to helping children and their parents make healthy nutritional choices.”