ShopRite Offers Free In-Store Wellness Classes
ShopRite and RWJBarnabas Health are expanding their partnership to provide an education program that aims to help shoppers to manage their weight and improve their overall well-being. The free six-week in-store program, Eat Well. Be Happy, launches this month, run by ShopRite’s registered-dietitian team.
The program is the second to be introduced as part of a joint initiative between the grocery store banner and RWJBarnabas Health, New Jersey’s largest and most comprehensive health care system. In 2017, ShopRite and RWJBarnabas Health first teamed up to create and roll out Hands-On Healthy Kids, a free program encouraging youngsters to adopt lifelong healthy eating habits. The program is available at select ShopRite stores across the Northeast.
“We are thrilled to be partnering once again with RWJBarnabas Health on another innovative and unique consumer education program,” said Natalie Menza-Crowe, ShopRite’s director of health and wellness. “We know that our free kids’ classes have been extremely popular with our shoppers and their children. With this new offering that we have developed in conjunction with RWJBarnabas Health, we can truly fulfill our shared mission of working together to keep communities healthy.”
Eat Well. Be Happy is based on a curriculum developed with nutrition experts and dietitians from RWJBarnabas Health, in addition to more than 100 full-time in-store and corporate dietitians at ShopRite. The classes will occur on a rolling schedule at participating ShopRite locations across New Jersey. Customers can enroll online.
“Providing access to fresh and healthy foods is a critical component as we seek to improve community health outcomes,” said Barry H. Ostrowsky, president and CEO of Oceanport, N.J.-based RWJBarnabas Health. “ShopRite has been a strong partner in tackling tough issues such as food insecurity and obesity, as well as the resulting chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, and depression. This program will provide adults with hands-on training and support in learning how to eat healthier, therefore creating healthier families and, by extension, healthier communities.”
Although both the kids’ and adults’ sessions are each six weeks long, participants can come by at any point. While the kids’ classes feature scavenger hunts, cooking instruction, healthy recipes, and nutrition and wellness tips, the adult class focuses on a wide range of issues, among them setting goals, meal planning, recipes and label reading.
“We wanted to ensure that the programs ShopRite and RWJBarnabas Health design provide customers with the skills they need to make the right choices that lead to sustainable life changes,” noted Barbara Mintz, SVP for healthy living and community and employee engagement for RWJBarnabas Health.
ShopRite is the registered trademark of Keasbey, N.J.-based Wakefern Food Corp., the largest supermarket cooperative in the United States. With more than 276 ShopRite supermarkets located in New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Delaware and Maryland, the banner serves more than 6 million customers weekly. Wakefern is No. 7 on Progressive Grocer’s 2018 Super 50 list of the top grocers in the United States.
