Six Columbus schools this month welcome a new ally in the fight against junk food in vending machines - an organic and all-natural healthy vending machine created by YoNaturals Inc.
Participating Columbus schools are Bishop Ready High School, Lincoln High School, Westerville North High School, Thomas Worthington High School, Gahanna West Middle School and Ohio Wesleyan University.
"YoNaturals started this program to prove that kids will eat healthy snacks and drinks - as long as they taste good," says Mark Trotter, CEO of YoNaturals Inc. "The response from locations around the country has been amazing, and our healthy vending initiative has triggered widespread interest."
YoNaturals offers over 400 different selections on its E-Commerce website and school location menus including Stacy's Pita Chips, Silk Milk, Clif Bars, Organic Valley, Go Lean Bars, Robert's Pirates Booty, Horizon Organics, Kagome Fruit Juices and many other top selling brands in the natural and organic food industry. Each item selected for the machine has gone through three rigorous tests - meeting either local nutritional standards or, in their absence, California-SB 19 guidelines; being reasonable in cost; and passing student taste tests. The California standards require that school snacks have no more than 35% of calories from fat, have no more than 10% of calories from saturated fat and be no more than 35% sugar by weight.
YoNaturals distributors, currently in over 60 markets of the US, provide the machines to the schools at no cost and offer sampling events allowing the students to participate in the selection process of what goes into the machines and most importantly "taste" them.
"School officials are recognizing the extent of the problem of childhood obesity and teens' poor eating habits and are doing something about it," said Trotter.
"We know that this is just the beginning when it comes to bringing healthier foods into schools," says Trotter, "but it's a step in the right direction."
For more information visit www.yonaturals.com<http://www.yonaturals.com/> or contact Mark Trotter at (858) 794-9955 ext 102.
