Food City seeks to expand Healthy Living Kitchen
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Grocer Food City has inked a partnership with the University of Tennessee Medical Center to expand the Healthy Living Kitchen — a move that is expected to result in a significantly greater reach for Healthy Living Kitchen programs and educational efforts at schools, community events and Food City supermarkets throughout the region.
Consisting of a registered dietitian, cardiac nurse specialist and senior executive chef from UT Medical Center, the Healthy Living Kitchen team presents healthy cooking classes and provides information on nutrition, label reading and making the right choices while grocery shopping.
The expanded Healthy Living Kitchen program will include grocery shopping tours at select Food City locations, with a UT Medical Center registered dietitian informing consumers on how to read food labels, as well as providing information about healthier choices at the grocery store.
The partnership also will allow the Healthy Living Kitchen staff to deliver the message of healthy eating to Food City's customer base and will reach Food City's audience through its marketing efforts at such events as NASCAR races, the Knoxville Food Show and UT sports.
"Food City is excited to partner with UT Medical Center to bring about the expansion of this much needed program," stated Steven C. Smith, Food City president and CEO. "We're proud to be a local, family-owned company employing more than 13,000 associates. As the leading supermarket in our region, we have a responsibility to our customers, associates and community to do all we can to educate them on the importance of making wise decisions with regard to their purchases. Many of the issues that affect our health and wellness are a direct result of our eating habits — good or bad. We feel this program will work hand in hand with our NuVal nutritional scoring system to provide consumers with the added insight necessary to make more informed choices for their families."
Food City's NuVal system scores food on a scale of 1 to 100, taking into consideration more than 30 nutrients and evaluating the dietary importance of each to determine an overall nutritional quality score; the higher the score, the higher the nutrition. NuVal scores are displayed prominently on shelf price tags, scale labels and other in-store signage featuring the trademark blue hexagon design. NuVal has researched and scored more than 35,000 items.
"With Tennessee ranking as the fourth most obese state among adults, I'm proud to announce this partnership, which represents a commitment from both organizations to address the health needs of those we serve in this community," stated Joseph R. Landsman, president and CEO of UT Medical Center. "Together, we'll expand the message of positive nutritional choices well beyond the walls of the medical center, reaching out to so many more people in the region, including the loyal Food City customer base and the thousands of Food City associates. We're going to make a difference on behalf of the people of east Tennessee through the education provided by the Healthy Living Kitchen.