Take A Fruit Break Campaign

Before

Take a Fruit Break

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Reasons why we think that take a fruit break is a good idea.

1. One in three American children is overweight.

2. This number is growing steadily, and has been since 1963.

3. According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), if current trends continue, the human and financial costs of this burgeoning public health crisis will soon cancel out all the advances made with the decline in smoking!

4. We live in a food-saturated environment, and lifestyle changes like eating out, urban sprawl and families with two working parents are key contributors.

5. Ultimately, everyone shares responsibility for making todays children an extra large, and unhealthy, generation.

6. Deaths of young people from diseases related to being overweight is triple that of deaths resulting from tobacco, AIDS, guns, and drug use combined.

7. Vending machine manufacturers pay schools much needed large sums of up-front money to put food vending machines in schools.

8. Diabetes is a $100,000,000,000 (one hundred billion dollar) a year industry.

9. Todays children are inundated with more food commercials than any other generation in history.

10. If the situation persists unchecked, in 10 years we may see many people in their 20s and 30s dying from diabetes, obesity, cancer, and heart conditions.

This information was presented in a recent episode of "Investigative Report" called "The Supersize Generation" on A&E. One in three kids in the U.S. are overweight! It is far too easy to dismiss this as a relatively small problem, but when you think about the loss of quality of life for so many children and young people, we hope you will realize that this is one of the major issues of our time.

As a nation we are one of the wealthiest and best educated groups of people in the world. So why are we so sick. If you look at Saturday morning cartoons you will see a mass of food commercials aimed at kids. All the major kids movies from Disney to Dreamworks are financed with food advertising. Even in the schools food machines are abundant. And the school cafeterias push huge amounts of food at our kids.

We are not going to be able to turn the food industry around in a day. We at Ekaya Institute realize this but we feel that by making eating fruit the cool thing to do that we can make a healthy start. We believe that corporations are viable entities that get things done. We are not trying to attack the food corporations, we just want to get them to upgrade their product. A good example of this is bottled water. When Coca-Cola saw how big the bottled water industry had become they started adding it to their distribution networks and vending machines. The reason being there were so many hip ads on TV showing cool people drinking water that it became good business to sell water. We want to do the same thing for fruit with the "Let's take a fruit break" ads.

Our plan is to make eating fruit "cool" by getting young people to create the "fruit break" commercials. By putting the "take a fruit break" ads in the language of today's youth, these ads will be far more effective than if they were made using the voice of adult reasoning. We have designed a competition for high school and college animation and film production departments to compete for cash prizes and mentorships with top industry animators. We will award and use the winning commercials and air them on cable and network television. We believe that these kids will generate some of the most creative spots on TV today and at the same time be a voice of reason and balance in the media and entertainment landscape that is such a large and influential part of kids' lives today.

We are currently raising funds to buy TV air time via donations from individuals, corporations and foundations. Donations are tax deductible. Donations may be anonymous or sponsored upon request, in the format: "This Fruit Break was brought to you by...".

To donate any amount to fund this campaign and send our kids a powerful message inspiring them to put some healthy fuel in their bodies, click here.

Click here for a sample of Paradox's beautiful acoustic music.

How To Donate:

Donate via 900#: Click here to make one simple phone call to automatically donate $9.99 and receive your CD and eBook.

Click here to donate $10 or more and receive your ebook and music CD. Donations are tax-deductible. We've made it fast and simple for you using PayPal, a safe way of donating online.

Checks or money orders to Ekaya Institute can be sent to 15-180 Central Rd., Duncan, BC, Canada V9L 5X7.

Companies who make a significant donatation may, upon request, receive credit in fruit break commercials for sponsoring this campaign.