Aramark Volunteers Encourage Healthy Lifestyles for Children in Nashville

Nashville, TN, March 19, 2014 /3BL Media/ - East Nashville is home to some of the city’s poorest housing communities with little access to healthy food and proper nutrition. The neighborhood is a USDA-designated food desert, one of five in the city of Nashville.

Recognizing the health and wellness issues facing Nashville residents, and families around the world, Aramark is extending its health and wellness commitment, Healthy For Life™, into underserved communities. During the company’s inaugural Global Volunteer Day on March 19, more than 125 employees are partnering with the Martha O’Bryan Center to help provide children and families with better access to healthy food, nutritional education and active play and physical activity spaces.      

Aramark will establish a Healthy for Life™ Zone that will be a year-round hub of health and wellness education and awareness.  Employees will transform an unused outdoor space on the center’s site to create a series of fitness stations for the community to use to help them find engaging ways to exercise. The center’s pre-school children will be encouraged to engage in creative play at a new interactive play area volunteers will construct, and families will be able to enjoy an outdoor area for healthy eating as well as nutrition education programs

 “Through Aramark Global Volunteer Day, we are expanding our commitment to support kids and families in need in cities like Nashville,” said Gary Crompton, President of Aramark Business Dining. “As a company, we are dedicated to empowering people around the world to lead healthier lives.”

“Aramark’s spirit and culture of volunteerism is helping us to improve the lives of the children we serve at our center,” said Marsha Edwards, Executive Director of the Martha O’Bryan Center. “Through the enhancements provided today, we’ll be even better equipped to help the underserved communities of Nashville.”

The Aramark Healthy For Life™ community engagement program educates families on the simple steps and concepts such as finding healthy choices on a limited budget, preparing inexpensive, nutritious meals and introducing children to healthy food choices.

Global Volunteer Day is an expansion of Aramark Building Community, the company’s volunteer and philanthropic program that enriches lives by helping improve family health, prepare youth and adults for work and support individuals working their way out of poverty in Nashville and in 52 cities around the world. Through Aramark Building Community, the company donates time, expertise, financial and in-kind resources to help families in need. Since 2008, in partnership with community centers around the world, more than 20,000 Aramark employees have impacted the lives of some four million families. Please join us on Facebook.

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About The Martha O’Bryan Center
Martha O’Bryan Center (MOBC) was founded in 1894 and began operating at its current site in Cayce Place of East Nashville in 1948. Our values and physical location at the heart of the community we serve allow us to be uniquely responsive to clients.  MOBC programs join family, community, and schools to support better education and employment opportunities for our city’s most vulnerable families. We serve over 6,000 individuals each year (40% are 18 years and younger) through a continuum of cradle to college to career services. These people are proving that the line between poverty and potential can be broken. 

About Aramark
Aramark (NYSE: ARMK) is in the customer service business across food, facilities and uniforms, wherever people work, learn, recover, and play.  United by a passion to serve, our more than 270,000 employees deliver experiences that enrich and nourish the lives of millions of people in 22 countries around the world every day.  Aramark is recognized among the Most Admired Companies by FORTUNE and the World’s Most Ethical Companies by the Ethisphere Institute. Learn more at www.aramark.com or connect with us on Facebook and Twitter.