Special Offers | Melanie's Corner

Free Tattoos for Facebook Fans!

Posted on October 14, 2011 by LZX Team in Special Offers

Maybe we should be more specific – make that free temporary tattoos for Facebook Fans. It’s a reward for our cyber friends.

How does is work?

Visit our Facebook Page, “like” us and then click on the Free Temporary Tattoos link on the left column of our Facebook Page. Complete the form and we’ll send you a sample of 3-5 of our individual tattoos. Please remember that we will need your street address to mail the tattoos to you. We will not share your address with anyone. Also, we will check to make sure that you are a Facebook Fan. If your Facebook name is significantly different from your “real world” name, please put the Facebook name as your “middle name” on the form.

We hope you like the free tattoos. We wanted to share something fun with our Facebook fans – but we also have an ulterior motive. We’re on a campaign to promote healthier trick or treat giveaways. We thought the temporary tattoos might give you some ideas. (More on a healthier Halloween soon!)

(Please limit one per fan.)

Garden Hero on the Go

Posted on October 12, 2011 by LZX Team in Garden Heroes, Special Offers

Garden Heroes are back on the road. This time Alonzo Avocado is leading the pack. Guess Where in the World Alonzo is and WIN A FREE GARDEN HERO of your choice. Guess correctly, and choose a single character from any of the 39 Garden Heroes! (Please post gue sses on Facebook!)

Grants to promote healthy habits

Posted on October 10, 2011 by LZX Team in FACS Resources, Health News, Special Offers

Over the weekend I ran into a few grant opportunities that I thought might be of interest to readers. The first two are particularly targeted to teachers, lunchroom and school cafeteria staff and healthcare professionals. The third is a bit of a wildcard – but if you wanted to open the door to working with a local farmer on a farm fresh program with the school or with your classroom that this grant might help.

Good luck!

Youth Service America is offering grants of up to $1,000 to students, teachers, and staff members of community-based organizations working within a public K-12 school, or service learning coordinators, for service-learning projects in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Deadline: 11/9/2011. http://tinyurl.com/6y7ynqn
USDA has funding available to nonprofits for grants to plan or implement community food projects that improve health and/or nutrition among disadvantaged and/or low-income populations and communities. Deadline: 11/17/2011. http://tinyurl.com/5t9vwuf
Farmers and ranchers with innovative ideas for producing or marketing their crops or products may find funding through the SARE Farmer-Rancher Grants program. Proposals are due December 2, 2011 for up to $22,000. Go to: http://www.cfra.org/node/3524 . The North-Central Region Sustainable Ag Research and Education (NCSARE) Program expects to fund 45 farmer-led projects in 2012. These projects can address production, marketing, processing, environmental impacts, and community effects of farming and ranching. Projects would test or demonstrate a new idea and include a way of telling other farmers about it. This year the grant has a new category for partner-applicants. Individuals may apply for up to $7500, partners may ask for $15,000, and groups may ask for $22,500. Interested applicants can find the call for proposals as well as useful information for completing a proposal at: http://www.northcentralsare.org/Grants/. Assistance is available from grant coordinator Joan Benjamin at benjaminj@lincolnu.edu, 573.681.5545 or 800.529.1342.

Where in the World are the Garden Heroes!?

Posted on October 6, 2011 by LZX Team in Garden Heroes, Special Offers

Garden Heroes are back on the road and being led by Gracie Grapefruit. Guess Where in the World the Garden Heroes are and WIN A FREE GARDEN HERO of your choice. Guess correctly, and choose a single character from any of the 39 Garden Heroes! (Please post gue sses on Facebook!)

MyPlate Video Contest – deadline Nov 15

Posted on September 26, 2011 by LZX Team in Special Offers, USDA MyPlate

We are excited to help spread the word on the USDA Fruits and Vegetables Video contest. We think it’s going to be a great way to get good advice from teachers, parents, health care professionals – maybe even kids about how they are eating more fruits and vegetables and how they are doing it affordably.

The deadline to submit a video is November 15. You can get more details from the Challenge.gov web site…

About The Challenge

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) MyPlate Fruits and Veggies Video Challenge invites you to create short videos (approximately 30 seconds) showing how you’re adding fruits and vegetables to your diet without spending a lot of money. We encourage you to create videos that are inspiring and instructive — show a healthy tip that has worked for you and that you think can work for other people. Videos must be submitted in one of the following categories:

Tips for kids

Tips when eating at home

Tips when eating away from home

The goal of the challenge is to encourage healthy eating habits and raise awareness around USDA’s MyPlate dietary guidelines, which includes making half your plate fruits and vegetables.

If you haven’t checked out the Challenge.gov web site before – this is a great opportunity. They host contests and opportunities in a range of industries on a regular basis.

Learning ZoneXpress Launches FreeMyPlate.com for Free Teaching Resources on September 13

Posted on September 13, 2011 by LZX Team in Garden Heroes, Special Offers, USDA MyPlate

We gave a sneak peek to readers last week – but today we are pleased to make our official announcement…

Learning ZoneXpress Launches FreeMyPlate.com for Free Teaching Resources on September 13 in Partnership With the USDA’s MyPlate Nutrition Initiative.

Learning ZoneXpress (LZX) announces the launch of a new website featuring free educational downloads to promote the message “Make half your plate fruits and vegetables” from the USDA’s new MyPlate food icon.

Owatonna, MN (PRWEB) September 13, 2011

Today, Learning ZoneXpress (LZX) announces the launch of a new website featuring free educational downloads to promote the message “Make half your plate fruits and vegetables” from the USDA’s new MyPlate food icon.

As a National Strategic Partner with the U.S. Department of Agriculture Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion (CNPP), Learning ZoneXpress is committed to amplify the key MyPlate initiatives nationwide. Melanie Nelson, CEO of Learning ZoneXpress, invites you to visit http://www.freemyplate.com today for free nutrition education resources for educators, parents and all those with a desire to improve nutrition and health. Available resources include:

o Fun Taste Testing Activities
o MyPlate Bulletin Board Lesson Plans
o Delivering Fruits and Vegetables Activity
o What Does Cooking Do? Activity
o Veggie Bagel Face Recipe

“Both USDA and LZX are trying to help children and adults live healthier lives. As a National Strategic Partner, we can help educate and encourage people of all ages to follow the MyPlate Guidelines to eat more fruits and vegetables,” said Nelson.

In addition to the free educational resources, Learning ZoneXpress will give any customer who orders $200 or more of product a free Garden Hero, an adorable fruit or vegetable plush character, as a reminder to include fruits and veggies at every meal.

Owatonna, Minn.-based Learning ZoneXpress is a leading source of award-winning teaching tools and is a USDA National Strategic Partner. Its mission is to help improve the health and vitality of children by providing relevant, creative and affordable learning tools about life skills, healthy behaviors and nutrition. Learning ZoneXpress offers a wide variety of affordable educational DVDs, posters, MyPlate products, lesson plans, and PowerPoint presentations. They are dedicated to responsive and personalized customer care. For more information about Learning ZoneXpress products, visit http://www.learningzonexpress.com or call Linnea Duffus at 888-455-7003.

Proud MyPlate Partners

Posted on September 1, 2011 by LZX Team in LZE Team News, Special Offers, USDA MyPlate

We’ve mentioned that Learning ZoneXpress is a MyPlate National Strategic Partner but we’ve never talked much about what that means for us. First, we are clearly proud to partner with the USDA and the network of partners on promoting healthy eating for all ages through the MyPlate strategy and infographic. Here are some of the things we signed up for when we became a National Strategic Partner:

National Strategic Partners consist of companies/organizations that are national in scope and reach and also fulfill the following requirements:

They must have a health mandate consistent with the Dietary Guidelines for Americans and the mission of USDA Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion (CNPP).
They will promote nutrition content in the context of the entirety of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans.
They will specifically disseminate CNPP’s Dietary Guidelines messages in innovative ways.
They will participate in CNPP sessions to develop and execute a joint strategic nutrition promotion plan annually.

We have always worked well with these group so it was an easy decision.

USDA MyPlate Fun in September

In September, the USDA MyPlate partnership will be focusing on actively promoting fruits and vegetables and making them half our MyPlate. Each partner will celebrate in a different way. We will do our best to get out the word on MyPlate events and specials via the blog, Facebook and Twitter. Our special day is coming up later in the month – but for our insiders we wanted to share a super sneak preview of our MyPlate specials web site…

Let us know what you think!

Next adventure: Where in the World are the Garden Heroes!?

Posted on August 26, 2011 by LZX Team in Garden Heroes, Special Offers

The Garden Heroes took a little time off – but we’re traveling again. Guess Where in the World the Garden Heroes are and WIN A FREE GARDEN HERO of your choice. Guess correctly, and choose a single character from any of the 39 Garden Heroes!

This time the Garden Hero is taking a long weekend break. We’ll post pictures between now and the end of August. You’ll have until August 31 to guess the locations. (Please post guesses on Facebook!)

Final Fab Friday Sale – Today

Posted on August 26, 2011 by LZX Team in Special Offers

The final Summer Fab Friday sale is here. So enjoy the bargains while it’s hot! (But don’t fret, we have some fun planned for September too.)

We are DRASTICALLY reducing the price of a select few posters, poster sets, DVDs, or PowerPoint presentations. Today is our Final Sale day, so make your purchases today for optimal savings. We have a range of nutrition education posters, DVD and videos, PowerPoint presentations, tablets and lesson plan kits.

Enjoy the sale and then enjoy the weekend!

Fabulous Friday Sale – August 19th

Posted on August 19, 2011 by LZX Team in Special Offers

Don’t forget to is Fabulous Friday. Each Friday, we are DRASTICALLY reducing the price of a select few posters, poster sets, DVDs, or PowerPoint presentations. The online-only sale will run for 24 hours and is limited to the first 50 customers.

Check out the posters, DVDs, PowerPoints, tablets and more. Here’s a sample: