New, free downloadable resource will help families and caregiving grandparents seeking support for nutritious foods, and offer tips and fun, informational activities

UnitedHealthcare and Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit educational organization behind Sesame Street, are celebrating National Grandparents Day on Sept. 11 with a new resource, Happy, Healthy, Hopeful: Stretching Our Food Dollars. The free resource provides important information and resources to help support families who are coping with limited access to affordable and nutritious food, and is available to download at www.grandparentsday.com.

The Happy, Healthy, Hopeful: Stretching Our Food Dollars activity is the latest resource in Sesame Workshop’s Growing Every Day, Every Way program, made possible by UnitedHealthcare, that includes strategies for planning and making easy, healthy, budget-friendly meals and helping children develop healthy relationships with food. Since 2010, Growing Every Day, Every Way has provided families with educational and bilingual resources on developmental milestones, including the importance of making nutritious food choices and incorporating physical activities into daily routines.

"We recognize grandparents and their role in raising kids, sometimes as primary caregivers, and understand there are many barriers to accessing affordable and nutritious food, which have only been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic," said Tim Spilker, CEO, UnitedHealthcare Community & State. “UnitedHealthcare is honored to partner with Sesame Workshop to support families and children with resources to help access healthy food and develop healthy habits, while we celebrate the important role that grandparents play in the lives of their families."

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted food security significantly, as 29 million adults and 12 million children struggled to afford food in the past year. According to The State of Senior Hunger in 2020 report by Feeding America, older adults with a grandchild present in the home are nearly three times as likely to experience food insecurity than those without grandchildren in the home. The new Happy, Healthy, Hopeful: Stretching Our Food Dollars activity was developed based on independent research by Sesame Workshop indicating the resources are successful in helping families increase their knowledge, beliefs and behaviors around nutrition. The research found that within four weeks of incorporating the resources into their routine, nearly 3 in 4 families reported making positive nutritional changes including seeking information on how to cope with food insecurity, taking steps to save money on food, and making changes to promote healthy eating in the family.

“With a mission to help kids grow smarter, stronger, and kinder, Sesame Workshop is committed to improving the health of the whole family across generations and providing resources to support healthy habits,” said Dr. Jeanette Betancourt, senior vice president of U.S. Social Impact at Sesame Workshop. “We’re thrilled to team up with UnitedHealthcare once again in honoring the important role that grandparents play in young children’s lives this Grandparents Day.”

To learn more about new Grandparents Day resources and Growing Every Day, Every Way, visit www.GrandparentsDay.com.

About Sesame Workshop

Sesame Workshop is the nonprofit media and educational organization behind Sesame Street, the pioneering television show that has been reaching and teaching children since 1969. Today, Sesame Workshop is an innovative force for change, with a mission to help kids everywhere grow smarter, stronger, and kinder. We’re present in more than 150 countries, serving vulnerable children through a wide range of media, formal education, and philanthropically funded social impact programs, each grounded in rigorous research and tailored to the needs and cultures of the communities we serve. For more information, please visit sesameworkshop.org.

About UnitedHealthcare

UnitedHealthcare is dedicated to helping people live healthier lives and making the health system work better for everyone by simplifying the health care experience, meeting consumer health and wellness needs, and sustaining trusted relationships with care providers. In the United States, UnitedHealthcare offers the full spectrum of health benefit programs for individuals, employers, and Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries, and contracts directly with more than 1.5 million physicians and care professionals, and more than 6,700 hospitals and other care facilities nationwide. The company also provides health benefits and delivers care to people through owned and operated health care facilities in South America. UnitedHealthcare is one of the businesses of UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH), a diversified health care company. For more information, visit UnitedHealthcare at www.uhc.com or follow @UHC on Twitter.

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