Fresh Baby's Peas & Carrots Blog

Pregnancy Care Center’s Expansion Gets Support from Fresh Baby

To kick off 2015 with a healthy start, Fresh Baby sought out an organization in the community that shared the company’s goal of providing support to families to live a
healthy lifestyle.
The Pregnancy Care Center of Petoskey (PCC) was the recipient of the Petoskey-based company’s nutrition education products and monetary donation to support the expansion of their program office to include a new space for displaying baby gear and clothing.

PCC has plans in the works for a new store as a part of “Earn While You Learn,” a program developed for young mothers and fathers. The program offers over 100 classes focused on educating expecting families from labor and delivery, breastfeeding, newborn care, baby language, parenting skills and much more. The center also offers classes specially designed for fathers and on educating new families on life skills. 

“Everyone here at Pregnancy Care Center loves what they do and each client is welcomed with that love,” says Judy Buss, executive director of PCC. “We seem to be busting at the seams with blessings and exciting new programs! Fresh Baby has become a part of this, gifting PCC with new baby products, including Baby Food Making Kits, Cookbooks, Spoons, Bowls, Breast Milk Storage Trays, and much more.” 

For more than 13 years, Fresh Baby has helped parents and caregivers foster their children's healthy eating habits and proactively respond to the childhood obesity epidemic that plagues our nation. Cheryl Tallman, founder and CEO donated more than $1,500 of the company’s products and $1,000 to support PCC’s store kick-off.

“The Pregnancy Care Center provides a nurturing and educational environment for new parents to prepare a healthy and loving home for their new arrival. Our community is lucky to have PCC and we are delighted that we could make our own contribution their success," Tallman said.

Buss said PCC will be incorporating these products into its "Earn While You Learn" classes, where clients receive points called Baby Bucks for each class they take.

Buss states the store will be filled with cribs, car seats, clothes, diapers and the new Fresh Baby items to be purchased using the earned Baby Bucks.

To learn more about the Pregnancy Care Center of Petoskey visit freepregnancytest.net. 

Fresh Baby Gives Back

This holiday season, Fresh Baby chose to offer our support to two local organizations. The Pregnancy Care Center of Petoskey and the Women’s Resource Center of Northern Michigan both share our goal of equipping families with the tools needed to living a healthy lifestyle.

Our team provided many of our products, including our dinnerware sets, cookbooks and portion plates, in addition to a monetary donation to both centers to support the centers’ healthy eating initiatives. We enjoyed meeting the dedicated teams who do so much for families in our community.  

 

The Pregnancy Care Center of Petoskey provides confidential support and resources to expecting mothers that may be new to motherhood or dealing with an unplanned pregnancy. The center offers free pregnancy tests, ultrasounds, and free and confidential counseling services for both men and women. Learn more at the Pregnancy Care Center’s website.

The Women's Resource Center of Northern Michigan provides a safe place and confidential support for women, children, and families suffering from domestic abuse. The center also offers counseling, violence prevention programs, children’s playgroups, and various other services. Visit the center’s website for more information. 

Thank you for another great year!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As we wrap up another great year at Fresh Baby, we wanted to give a big "thank you" to our customers and followers! For more than 12 years, we have loved providing family-friendly recipes, tips on healthy eating, and of course, the products the whole family can use to live a healthier life.

We enjoyed meeting many of you at various nutrition education conferences, such as WIC and Head Start. We are planning to attend several in 2015, so be on the lookout for our booth! 

A big thanks to our Mom Bloggers and our Amazon Review Team who worked on our product review campaigns throughout the year. We appreciate the time you take to share your Fresh Baby experience and we look forward to working with you next year!

And of course, we want to thank all of the parents and caregivers who have chosen Fresh Baby products to use in your homes. We appreciate your confidence in choosing us and we look forward to continuing to build our relationship with you.

From everyone at Fresh Baby, we wish you and your family a happy and healthy holiday season! We look forward to working with you in the new year! 

Diabetes Awareness: Preventing Obesity

Diabetes Awareness Month is November. One of the best ways to prevent diabetes is preventing obesity, and encouraging healthy eating habits. 

The most current statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) show that 17% of kids between the ages of 2 to 19 are overweight. These kids have a bigger risk of developing heart disease, Type 2 Diabetes, bone and joint problems, sleep apnea, and psychological problems. They may also be subject to bullying at school and suffer from poor performance academically.

These kids also have a higher chance of becoming obese adults. According to the CDC, nearly 24 million Americans have diabetes, and what’s interesting to note is that about 6 million people don’t even know they have it. The CDC reports diabetes is the seventh leading cause of death in the US and it can lead to major complications such as blindness, leg amputations due to poor tissue perfusion and kidney failure. Millions of people have a love-hate relationship with food and constantly struggle with their weight.

Fresh Baby was founded, and continues to operate, on the belief that all parents want to raise healthy children, but when it comes to healthy eating habits, they often lack the tools, skills, and knowledge needed to be effective. Our line of products provides you with tools and knowledge to create healthy eating habits that last a lifetime. Obesity is a 100% preventable disease, but it takes work. The payoff is a healthier body, a healthier mind, an improved self- image, and significant savings in health care costs. Let’s work together to raise a nation of healthy eaters. Tips For Raising Healthy Eaters According the National Weight Control Registry, people who lost 30 pounds or more and kept the weight off for more than five years had the following daily habits.

The earlier you instill these habits in your kids, the less likely they will ever have to struggle with their weight.

1. Eat a healthy breakfast. Download our free Healthy Breakfasts Tip Sheet as a handy reference for planning a healthy start to your child’s day.

2. Limit the amount of junk food and sugary drinks you keep in your house. Read our Junk Food Juveniles article for information to help you raise a healthy eater. And, our Healthy Food Choices article is full of ideas to encourage healthy food choices.

3. Get a good night’s sleep. Sleep is very important because it helps you manage stress. If your body experiences too much stress, your cortisol levels rise. High cortisol levels have been shown to increase abdominal fat.

4. Engage in physical activity every day. Physical play and exercise keeps us all fit. Look at our MyPlate Placemat for activity ideas for kids age 3 – 5.

5. Pay attention to portion size. Kids and adults require different amount of food. We’ve developed an Adult Portion Plate and Kids Portion Plate to give you a blueprint for eating healthy at every meal. Try our Portion Storage Bags to store leftovers, soups and single serving meals.

Start with setting easy goals to replace unhealthy eating habits with healthier habits. For example, if a bedtime snack of cookies and milk is the norm, try replacing it with a cup of milk and a few slices of apple. Little changes can help to make a big difference in developing healthy eating habits for a lifetime.

It's a girl!

We’re excited to announce that this past week, our sales account manager, Becky Doan welcomed her new granddaughter into the world! 

Becky’s daughter, Hannah, gave birth to Sophie Michelle, a 6 lb, 9 ounce baby girl! Mother and baby are both healthy and Becky has loved being around her new granddaughter and on hand as Hannah enters into motherhood!

Fresh Baby in the Community

The Fresh Baby team and family members recently gathered with local businesses and supporters of The Manna Food Project, a non-profit food organization supporting the hungry throughout northern Michigan. In addition to providing a food bank and food pantry, Manna also works with various programs to provide nutritious food to families in its community.

The recent event was focused on thanking the community for donations and support for the project. In addition to drawing attention to the cause, Fall is also prime hunting season in the North, so Manna put out a call to hunters to donate at least 1 lb. of ground venison to the food bank. A small donation can really make a big difference for families, especially with the upcoming holiday season.

Consider donating to your local food bank, with either cash or food from your pantry, or get your family involved in donating time during the holidays and throughout the year. To find your local food bank, click here!