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<wcm:element name="MainBody">&lt;p&gt;&lt;img alt="park image with playground" width="680" src="[!--$wcmUrl('resource','wcms1q-068702')--]" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h1&gt;Healthy Vending in Minneapolis Parks&lt;/h1&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Healthy Vending Project Overview&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Minneapolis Health Department (MHD) is partnering with 10 Minneapolis parks to pilot a healthy vending project to develop a sustainable and successful model of healthy vending in public places.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;Goals of Healthy Vending in the parks:&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;Ensure that a minimum of 75% of foods sold in the vending machines meet the USDA guidelines for healthy snack foods&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Develop a model of healthy vending for the park system that provides healthy food options and maintains revenue for parks&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Implement the healthy vending model across all Minneapolis Park and Recreation sites&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;h2&gt;Progress so far:&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;Collected baseline data on percent of healthy foods in vending machines: Average across parks was at 4%&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;In August, the average of healthy products was up to 68% and still moving towards the 75% goal&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Conducted taste tests with park users to identify desired healthy products&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Worked with vending machine operators to transition healthy products into the vending machines.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;p&gt;MHD staff continue to work with vending machine operators to achieve the goal of 75% healthy snacks. Once achieved, staff will monitor sales and alter product offerings until a sustainable, revenue-generating, easy-to-use model is developed.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;table class="tableborders"&gt;&lt;tbody&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;th colspan="3"&gt;Participating Parks&lt;/th&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td&gt;&lt;p&gt;Bottineau&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Folwell&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Lynnhurst&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Matthews&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;&lt;p&gt;North Commons&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Painter&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Powderhorn&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Stewart&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;&lt;p&gt;Waite&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Whittier&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;/tbody&gt;&lt;/table&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img alt="" width="180" src="[!--$wcmUrl('resource','img_2226')--]" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;Program Contact&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;Sarah Reuben Meillier, MA &lt;br /&gt;Project Specialist&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Phone: (612) 673-2672 &lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="mailto:sarah.reubenmeillier@minneapolismn.gov"&gt;sarah.reubenmeillier@minneapolismn.gov&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h2&gt;Resources&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="[!--$wcmUrl('link','CONVERT_242089')--]"&gt;A Toolkit for Developing Healthy Vending Machines&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</wcm:element>
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