Jason Hart of the Sacramento Kings Introduces PepsiCo S.M.A.R.T. Program in Sacramento to Promote Active, Healthy Lifestyles
PepsiCo Partners With KaBOOM! To Build Smart Spot Playground In Oak Park
SACRAMENTO, CA – (June 9, 2006) – Jason Hart, point guard for the Sacramento Kings, is kicking off the Sacramento launch of the PepsiCo S.M.A.R.T. program today to promote active, healthy lifestyles by building a new Smart Spot playground in Oak Park at Capitol Heights Academy, an Aspire Public School. 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 Capitol Heights Academy at 2520 33rd Street by 200 volunteers from Pepsi-Cola, Frito-Lay, Capitol Heights Academy and the local community. Rose Amador, President and CEO, Center for Training and Careers, the National Council of La Raza 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 requires 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 Troy Shea, Zone Sales Leader, 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.
“My family always looks for fun, easy ways to keep our family eating healthier and staying active, but it can be challenging,” said Hart. “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.”
“At Capitol Heights Academy, we prepare students for a successful future in all ways, including their health and well being. The playground will provide a safe place for our students and families to play, and it will improve the overall wellness of the entire neighborhood,” Robert Spencer, principal, Capitol Heights Academy. “Because of the generosity of these organizations, this playground will ensure our children stay 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.”
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 Capitol Heights Academy and Aspire Public Schools
Aspire Public Schools is California’s leading not-for-profit charter school management organization (CMO). Aspire’s mission is to build and operate high-quality small charter schools in low-income urban neighborhoods, and send more kids to college. Aspire has opened 14 high-quality charter public schools in the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, the California Central Valley, and Sacramento, including Capitol Heights Academy.
Located in the Oak Park neighborhood of Sacramento, Capitol Heights Academy serves children in grades K-8 with a rigorous and thoughtful education program that prepares students for college.
