Arizona Cardinal Rolando Cantu Introduces PepsiCo’s S.M.A.R.T. Program In Phoenix To Promote Active, Healthy Lifestyles
PepsiCo Partners With KaBOOM! To Build Smart Spot Playground At Esperanza Montessori Academy
PHOENIX, AZ – (April 7, 2006)—Arizona Cardinal Rolando Cantu is kicking off the Phoenix launch of the PepsiCo S.M.A.R.T. program today to promote active, healthy lifestyles by building a new Smart Spot playground at Esperanza Montessori Academy (EMA). Under the leadership of KaBOOM!, a national non-profit that envisions a great place to play within walking distance of every child in America, the playground will be built at 4838 South Second Street by 200 volunteers from PepsiCo’s Frito-Lay division and EMA. Senator Linda Aguirre and Mark VanBrunt, Chief Operating Officer of the National Council of La Raza Development Fund, also will participate in today’s event.
Live S.M.A.R.T.
S.M.A.R.T. stands for five simple steps that encourage active living and better food choices:
- Start with a healthy breakfast
- Move more
- Add more fruits, vegetables and whole grains
- Remember to hydrate
- Try lower calorie or lower fat foods
“Staying healthy takes living an active lifestyle and making better nutritional choices, which is what we at PepsiCo are trying to demonstrate through our S.M.A.R.T. initiative,” said Kirk Tanner, Region Vice President, Mountain Region, Frito-Lay. “This Smart Spot playground enables kids and their parents to move more, one of the basic principles of the S.M.A.R.T. life.”
Designed to be easy-to-remember and easy-to-incorporate into daily life, the S.M.A.R.T steps are based on research by James O. Hill, Ph.D., a developer of the National Weight Control Registry and co-founder of America On the Move. They address both sides of the energy balance equation: managing the calories consumed through food and the calories burned from physical activity.
“As a busy parent, I always look for fun, easy ways to keep my family eating healthier and staying active, but it can be challenging,” said Rolando Cantu. “What I like about PepsiCo’s S.M.A.R.T. steps is that they make a healthy lifestyle seem a lot more realistic and achievable for families.”
“Healthy communities are made up of healthy kids. The new Smart Spot playground will provide a safe place for children and families to play, and it will improve the overall wellness of the entire neighborhood,” said Fernando Ruiz, President, Espiritu Community Development Corporation, parent corporation of EMA. “We want to thank PepsiCo and KaBOOM! for building the playground at our school so we can ensure our children have the opportunity to be physically active and establish healthy habits to last a lifetime.”
The S.M.A.R.T. Lifestyle
The tenets of the S.M.A.R.T. lifestyle are based on Dr. Hill’s research with America On the Move, which showed the people who were most successful in improving their health didn't make drastic changes. Instead, they did a few basic things that could be easily incorporated into their everyday lives.
This conclusion was further supported by Dr. Hill’s research with the National Weight Control Registry, which identified behaviors most successful in maintaining weight loss.
S.M.A.R.T. is a comprehensive lifestyle program with a number of components including an industry-leading , national advertising campaign that promotes healthy lifestyles beyond products, a free mini-magazine called Everyday SMART Moves, and a comprehensive website in English and Spanish with tips, tools and resources at www.smartspot.com.
PepsiCo is also helping people make better choices by putting the Smart Spot™ symbol on products that meet a nutritional criteria based on authoritative statements from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the National Academy of Sciences. The Smart Spot symbol appears on more than 250 PepsiCo products including Tropicana Pure Premium, Aquafina, Gatorade, Baked! Lays, Quaker Oatmeal and Diet Pepsi, among many others.
Find Smart Spot Playgrounds Across the Country
PepsiCo and KaBOOM! will build 12 playgrounds by the end of 2006. The playgrounds will be located in Washington, D.C.; Dallas; Phoenix; San Antonio; Chicago; Sacramento, Calif.; Little Rock, Ark.; Detroit; New York; Los Angeles and Miami.
“At KaBOOM!, we want to see a great place to play within walking distance of every child in America,” said Darell Hammond, chief executive officer and co-founder of KaBOOM!. “PepsiCo is helping us realize this vision by building Smart Spot playgrounds in communities that want to move more, have fun and live healthier.”
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About PepsiCo
PepsiCo is one of the world’s largest food and beverage companies, with 2005 annual revenues of more than $32 billion. Its principal businesses include Frito-Lay snacks, Pepsi-Cola beverages, Gatorade sports drinks, Tropicana juices and Quaker foods. Its portfolio includes 17 brands that each generates $1 billion or more in annual retail sales.
About KaBOOM!
Celebrating its ten year anniversary in 2006, KaBOOM! is a national nonprofit organization that envisions a great place to play within walking distance of every child in America. Over the past decade, KaBOOM! has used its innovative community-build model to bring together business and community interests to construct nearly 1,000 new playgrounds, skateparks, sports fields and ice rinks across North America. KaBOOM! also offers a variety of resources, including a web portal and online community, regional and national trainings, grants and publications for communities that wish to plan a new playspace on their own. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., KaBOOM! also has offices in Chicago, Atlanta and San Mateo, CA. For more information, visit www.kaboom.org.
About Esperanza Montessori Academy
Esperanza Montessori Academy (EMA) provides an educationally prepared environment using the Montessori Curriculum for children in pre-school through third grade and their families. Started in a small one bedroom apartment in 1993, serving just eight students, today there are 375 students in EMA and more than 900 students in its sister schools operated by the Espiritu Development Corporation. EMA will soon begin the process of establishing a Montessori and Atrium Training Center for Teachers in developing and third world countries. In 1996, Super Bowl XXX of the National Football League was played in Phoenix, Arizona and the NFL awarded Esperanza Montessori Academy a $1,500,000 legacy grant to build new facilities and a football field. Super Bowl XLII will return to Arizona in February 2008 and the National Football League will again award Esperanza Montessori another Super Bowl Legacy grant
