Nutrition education

Our Commitment: Provide education programs to promote good nutrition and feeding practices

By 2015 – Through the Start Healthy, Stay Healthy™ Early Childhood Nutrition program, educate caregivers based on research learnings to improve the diets and lifestyles of infants and toddlers.

By 2017 – Institute a structured internship program to provide mentorship to nutrition and dietetics students.

Our progress

Educating Communities

The Start Healthy, Stay Healthy™ Early Childhood Nutrition program continues to tackle childhood obesity rates in local communities by teaching parents and caregivers of children 0–3 years old simple ways of improving the diets of infants, toddlers and preschoolers. We’re partnering with academic institutions and community organizations to deliver an unbranded, peer-reviewed curriculum and training for local residents who then act as advocates and peer educators in their communities. This program covers topics including the importance of breastfeeding, how to increase fruit and vegetable consumption, healthy snacking, dealing with fussy eaters and recognizing hunger and fullness cues.

In 2015, we continued to build on our previous obesity prevention work started in 2014 in Newark, New Jersey, with Rutgers University-Newark and Program for Parents, Inc., and trained 57 people. Similarly, we continued work started in the Woodland neighborhood of Birmingham, Alabama, with the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Health Professions and Woodlawn Foundation and trained more than 200 parents, caregivers and students about preventing obesity through early childhood nutrition.

Educating Health Professionals

In 2015, Nestlé held more than 125 events for health professionals in both the nutrition and pediatric fields spanning topics from pediatric obesity to pediatric allergies to neonatal and pediatric nutrition via webinars, speaker-related programs, and continuing education programs. Both in-person meetings and online events resulted in more than 28,000 participants.

Nestlé Purina offers programs and funding to provide shelter professionals access to information, experts and continuing education. Adoption Options is a free, multi-city pet welfare workshop tour across North America that features nationally recognized speakers in the field. The workshop is geographically customized for employees and volunteers of pet shelters and rescue organizations, and is focused around the placement, promotion and behavior of homeless pets. Approximately 2,000 pet welfare professionals and volunteers attend annually. We also offer grants for shelter professionals to attend single-day workshops on shelter medicine, pet behavior and creative adoption and fundraising programs.

In 2015, Nestlé Skin Health announced plans to open a global network of innovation and education hubs around the world that will develop ideas, solutions and techniques to promote healthy skin through convergences of medicine, education and technologies. The development of this network, called SHIELD, or Nestlé Skin Health Investigation, Education and Longevity Development is a response to the expected rise in skin health challenges associated with unprecedented human longevity expected in the 21st century and beyond. The SHIELD network will be comprised of centers for collaborating with visionary thinkers from dermatology, general medicine, aging, nursing, technology, patient advocacy, and the arts, providing an environment for active engagement with innovative ideas and cutting-edge technologies, with the goal of creating solutions for skin health needs. The first location is planned to open in New York, followed by Asia, Europe, and Latin America.