Hippocrates said, "Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food." We couldn’t agree more. That’s why Vitamix is partnering with select 501(c)(3) organizations and hospital programs that share our passion for whole-food nutrition.
Vitamix chooses partners on an invitation-only basis, and donates high-performance blenders to these groups, making quality nutrition and education accessible to those who need it most. Many of the organizations use the blenders for their education and outreach programs, while our hospital partners pass donated or discounted blenders on to qualifying families with a special medical need.
To receive an invitation, organizations must serve communities in one of the following areas:
- Educating young children about nutritional choices and the benefits of healthy eating habits
- Making healthy food choices accessible to those who are coping with significant health challenges
- Supporting the needs of children with complex medical conditions, for whom a blended diet is medically appropriate
Meet Our Partners
WISE
We Inspire Smart Eating (WISE), a project out of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences and Louisiana Tech University, provides training and curricula to promote healthy food attitudes in preschool and elementary students. Educators use WISE to encourage kids and families to discover fresh, locally grown vegetables and fruits in authentic, developmentally appropriate ways. Utilizing research-based evidence and best practices, WISE has shown success at increasing the intake of fruits and vegetables at home and supporting children’s long-term growth and development of healthy food attitudes.
Charlie Cart Project
The Charlie Cart Project is a hands-on nutrition education program on wheels. The program centers around the Charlie Cart – a compact mobile kitchen complete with appliances and cooking equipment, a fully integrated K-5 curriculum, and training. With this comprehensive set of resources, the Charlie Cart Project removes the obstacles to teaching kids about food. The program is currently in over 30 sites in more than 12 states, including public and private school districts, food banks, libraries, hospitals, and other social service agencies where resources are constrained.
FoodCorps
FoodCorps believes every school should be a healthy school, and every child – regardless of race, place, or class – deserves to be well-nourished and ready to learn. In underserved communities across the country, its AmeriCorps leaders teach students about healthy food through hands-on lessons, partner with farmers and food service workers to create nutritious and delicious school meals, and collaborate with communities to inspire a long-term culture of health.
Project Learning Garden
Project Learning Garden encourages educators to use gardens as an extension of the traditional classroom. School gardens provide an opportunity for hands-on learning in every discipline, including math, science, health, social studies, and language arts. This integrative approach provides a variety of benefits to students, including increased engagement with learning, opportunities for outdoor physical activity, and a developed palate for fresh fruits and vegetables by taste-testing healthy foods from the garden.
Hope Lodge
The American Cancer Society Hope Lodge program is a free "home away from home" for cancer patients and their families who are traveling for treatment. More than just a place to stay, Hope Lodge is a nurturing community where patients support each other in an environment that promotes healing.
Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine
Since 1985, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine has led a revolution in medicine. The Physicians Committee empowers the medical community and beyond by advancing preventive medicine, especially good nutrition, and the implementation of clinical research. The Physicians Committee’s widely popular Food for Life nutrition and cooking classes translate the latest scientific research on nutrition to help people combat diet-related diseases and show them how to use simple recipes that can be easily recreated at home.
Vitamix Culinary Medicine Program
The Vitamix Culinary Medicine Program recognizes and supports institutions that are making a commitment to culinary medicine through education and teaching kitchens. We partner with select medical schools and residency programs to provide blending equipment, training, recipes, and other resource tools to support their efforts to develop hands-on culinary skills, giving physicians vital tools to benefit their current and future patients.
Our first priority is to work with medical schools that have a teaching kitchen and are committed to culinary medicine. In special circumstances where there is the potential to have significant impact, this program can be offered in settings beyond medical schools, such as residency programs.
Hospitals
Vitamix works with select hospitals throughout the country that offer special programs for children with feeding and swallowing challenges, for whom a blended diet may be medically appropriate. Through these programs, we are able to help clinically qualified families receive a product discount or donation, based on their financial need.
If you are a hospital or organization interested in partnering with Vitamix, please contact us.