PRE Fights Child Obesity
PRE® Brands Partners with Common Threads to
Help Fight Childhood Obesity
Better-for-you Food Brand Sets Goal to Send 300 Under-served Chicago Kids to Cooking School
PRE® Brands, purveyors of better-for-you food, including a line of 100% grass fed and grass finished premium beef, will donate a portion of proceeds for every package of ground beef sold in the Chicago area during the month of August to Common Threads. The funds will bring the nonprofit organization’s practical cooking and nutrition programming to underserved Chicago youths. Consumers can help PRE Brands reach its goal of serving 300 new children by purchasing specially labeled ground beef at grocers in Chicagoland including Mariano’s, Meijer, Heinen’s, and Treasure Island.
- Sarah Russo, Culinary Manager of Chicago-based food startup PRE(r) Brands, guides a Common Threads student through a cooking lesson at PRE’s kitchen in Chicago’s River North neighborhood.
Founded in Chicago by Chef Art Smith, artist Jesus Salgueiro and CEO Linda Novick O’Keefe, Common Threads brings health and wellness to children, families and communities through cooking and nutrition education. By integrating preventative health programs into school districts and community organizations, Common Threads not only helps combat the rising number of diet-related diseases, but also cultivates a culture that embraces a healthier lifestyle and celebrates diversity through food. The programs are statistically proven to make significant health and wellness impacts, as participants have demonstrated increased nutrition knowledge, vegetable liking and consumption, communication to the family about healthy eating, self-confidence in their cooking skills and frequency of cooking at home.
“We believe that combining nutrition know-how with the joy of cooking from an early age is one of the best ways to instill a lifetime of healthy habits,” said PRE Brands’ founder and CEO Lenny Lebovich. “We couldn’t be more pleased to encourage local children to get involved with their families in the making of healthy and delicious meals in their own kitchens.”
As part of the partnership, PRE Brands Culinary Manager Sarah Russo developed an array of meals for families of four, under $15, with simple recipes and ingredients designed for the whole family to join in on, available on PRE’s website and social media channels. Local youths were also invited into the PRE kitchen to cook with Russo and further fuel their inspiration to turn their passions into careers.
PRE Brands is a Chicago-based startup founded in 2015, dedicated to moving the food 2.0 movement forward and giving consumers healthy, high quality food. PRE is now available in more than 600 retail locations nationwide. The brand is building on this success by continually expanding its product portfolio, landing in new retailers and forging new partnerships. As one of the few 100 percent grass fed beef brands that’s Whole30 approved, the brand aligns with a wide variety of whole food diets, and is beloved by chefs and foodies alike.
For recipes and more information on PRE and its partnership with Common Threads, visit www.pre-brands.com/cook. For more information on Common Threads, visit www.commonthreads.org.