Generating enthusiasm for fitness isn’t always easy, but a team of General Mills employees recently proved it can be done.    The team, working with staff at Nellie Stone Johnson school in north Minneapolis, hosted a Box Tops for Education Family Fitness Night for children and their parents. The evening event, which drew about 80 attendees, focused on the importance of physical activity and nutrition.

The Nellie Stone Johnson Family Fitness Night was the first one held in the Minneapolis Public School district. Other schools in the district are following suit, all through a grant from the General Mills Foundation.

The Family Fitness Nights tie into the One Million PALA Challenge, a new initiative to help kids get fit all across America. The General Mills Foundation launched the program in September and is working with the Box Tops team to encourage Family Fitness Nights at 8,000 schools.

Earning Presidential Active Lifestyle Awards Nearly 70,000 schools in the United States already participate in the Box Tops program as a way to raise funds for their school. Now, the schools’ volunteer Box Tops coordinators (typically parents) and gym teachers are receiving details on how to organize a Family Fitness Night, where students can start the process to earn a PALA: the Presidential Active Lifestyle Award.

General Mills is PALA’s largest corporate partner and, together, General Mills and PALA are already providing tens of thousands of PALA certificates to students.

With the new initiative, the bar is being raised. To earn a PALA, a student needs to “move” for an hour a day, five days a week for six weeks. Activities can range from jump roping to swimming, running to shooting hoops.

At the Nellie Stone Johnson event, kids and parents learned how to lunge while holding canned vegetables as weights. They practiced dance steps, and completed a paper-plate art project highlighting good nutrition. Attendees also were served turkey and vegetable sandwiches, granola bars, fruit and water.

 Inside General Mills