Partnership for a Healthier America Launches 'Pass the Love w/ Waffles + Mochi' -- a New Campaign with Former First Lady Michelle Obama to Spread the Joy of Food and Cooking to Families Around the Country

The Pass the Love campaign will partner with food retailers, non-profit organizations, and more to raise awareness of food equity and help bring 1 million meals inspired by Waffles + Mochi to families around the country.

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Partnership for a Healthier America

Mar 10, 2021, 09:00 ET

WASHINGTON, March 10, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Partnership for a Healthier America (PHA), in collaboration with PHA Honorary Chair Michelle Obama and Higher Ground Productions, is launching "Pass the Love w/ Waffles + Mochi" — a new campaign inspired by the forthcoming debut of Waffles + Mochi on Netflix. The campaign will leverage the show, its characters, and Mrs. Obama to meaningfully shift our food culture toward more affordable, fun, at-home meals for families of every income level through a new website, WafflesandMochi.org. With support from inaugural partners Walmart and Blue Apron, PHA will raise awareness of food equity issues with the goal of providing more than one million meals through Pass the Love branded, bundled meal boxes distributed by the campaign to families in food insecure communities around the country.

"On our new show on Netflix, we have so much fun as Waffles and Mochi take us on adventures all around the world—trying new pastas in Italy, eating mushrooms in Japan, visiting salt ponds in Peru. At the same time, we know the pandemic has made this year hard on so many, and we want to help make sure families all over the country can access fresh, nutritious food," said Former First Lady Michelle Obama. "That's why our goal is to provide more than one million meals to families in need through our Pass the Love campaign with the Partnership for a Healthier America. If you'd like to learn more and help out, visit WafflesandMochi.org to get started."

WafflesandMochi.org will host resources for parents and families, including recipes inspired by the show and at-home activities based on the ten main ingredients featured in the show's episodes. Parents and children will be able to earn badges for trying new foods and going on at-home food adventures, bringing the joy and wonder of Waffles + Mochi into homes around the country. The website will also serve as a platform for educating Waffles + Mochi viewers about the need for food equity and PHA's broader efforts through the Pass the Love Campaign.

Through inaugural partnerships with Walmart and Blue Apron, both companies will work with PHA to engage with their customers to spread the message of Waffles + Mochi while raising charitable funds for Pass the Love meal box distributions. More details will soon be announced about both Walmart and Blue Apron's Pass the Love programming, along with additional Pass the Love partnerships.

Pass the Love meal boxes will be provided for free to families in cities throughout the country with funds raised from the campaign. Each city deployment will take place over four weeks and will be structured to build the capacity of local non-profits in those cities, modeled in part after PHA's successful COVID-19 Fresh Food Fund, launched in 2020. Socially-conscious food service organization Genuine Foods will source, assemble, and ship the Pass the Love meal boxes to participating cities. Each box will include high-quality ingredients, and easy, replicable recipes to create three family meals that are fun, fast, and affordable. All recipes will be inspired by or featured in Waffles + Mochi and will support children participating in the cooking process and earning ingredient badges on WafflesAndMochi.org. Participating cities will be announced later in 2021.

"PHA's mission is to transform the food landscape in pursuit of health equity," said Nancy E. Roman, President and CEO, Partnership for a Healthier America. "This campaign will focus on creating access and exposure to affordable meal making for families in economically disadvantaged communities, laying the groundwork for long-term shifts in attitudes and behaviors to benefit health. Food has the power to build health and we need to leverage that power."

COVID-19 has made clear the inequity rampant throughout our food and health systems. Those suffering from underlying diet-related conditions -- including diabetes, high blood pressure, or heart disease -- are dying at disproportionately higher rates from COVID-19. During COVID-19, more people are cooking and eating at home than ever before. Research has shown that Americans who prepare meals at home frequently are more likely to have an overall better quality diet. Through Pass the Love, PHA will work to sustain and accelerate this trend among families at every income level.

About Partnership for a Healthier America
The Partnership for a Healthier America (PHA), founded in partnership with Michelle Obama's Let's Move! campaign in 2010, is the premier national nonprofit working to transform the food landscape in pursuit of health equity. PHA seeks partnerships that have the greatest potential to reduce health disparities. We do this using evidence-based approaches that drive systemic access to better food. In a decade of work, we have partnered with more than 300 corporations, convenience store chains, and distributors, hospitals, early childhood education centers, and SNAP-Ed implementing agencies, among others, in pursuit of our vision that all children grow up healthy and free from obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and other chronic conditions.

Contact:
Partnership for a Healthier America: Andrew Brenner ([email protected])

SOURCE Partnership for a Healthier America