Donation supports development of nearly 100,000 square feet of garden space across the city
ST LOUIS – April 23, 2016 –UnitedHealthcare is donating $74,000 in support of Gateway Greening’s 2016 community gardening and urban agriculture programs across St. Louis to celebrate the kickoff of the spring gardening season. Gateway Greening, a local nonprofit organization, educates and empowers people to strengthen their communities through gardening and urban agriculture.
With UnitedHealthcare’s support, Gateway Greening will be able to build and expand 50 community and youth gardens – totaling nearly 100,000 square feet – reaching more than 2,000 people throughout the city. Funding for this project was made possible through CBS EcoMedia’s WellnessAd program.
UnitedHealthcare employee volunteers celebrated the new partnership by working in two of Gateway Greening’s local sites—Bell Garden and the Botanical Heights Community Garden. The volunteer day is part of UnitedHealthcare’s “Do Good. Live Well.” employee volunteer initiative, whose mission is to inspire service and encourage volunteerism.
Gateway Greening’s Executive Director, Matt Schindler, is looking forward to working with UnitedHealthcare. “Gateway Greening appreciates both the volunteers and financial support of UnitedHealthcare. This connection through CBS EcoMedia is enabling Gateway Greening to further our impact of strengthening St. Louis communities through urban agriculture,” said Schindler.
“UnitedHealthcare is grateful for the opportunity to partner with Gateway Greening and EcoMedia to give people in St. Louis a fun, safe and educational environment to learn how to grow fresh fruits and vegetables,” said Steve Walli, CEO, UnitedHealthcare – Heartland States.
Gateway Greening’s garden development services begin by providing training on community gardening best practices and continue through a multiphased garden planning process in partnership with garden groups. The educational program culminates with the award of garden materials and supplies such as raised beds, soil, garden tools, and additional infrastructure such as compost bins, picnic tables, arbors and toolsheds.
About UnitedHealthcare
UnitedHealthcare is dedicated to helping people nationwide live healthier lives by simplifying the health care experience, meeting consumer health and wellness needs, and sustaining trusted relationships with care providers. The company offers the full spectrum of health benefit programs for individuals, employers, military service members, retirees and their families, and Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries, and contracts directly with 1 million physicians and care professionals, and 6,000 hospitals and other care facilities nationwide. UnitedHealthcare is one of the businesses of UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH), a diversified Fortune 50 health and well-being company. For more information, visit UnitedHealthcare at www.uhc.com or follow @myUHC on Twitter.
About CBS EcoMedia Inc.
EcoMedia was founded in 2002 by social entrepreneur Paul Polizzotto. The company’s mission is to harness the power of the advertising dollar to make tangible, quality of life improvements in communities nationwide. In 2010, after successfully partnering on a wide range of environmental projects, EcoMedia was acquired by CBS Corporation, exponentially scaling its reach across television, radio, interactive, and publishing media.
Through EcoMedia’s patent-pending EcoAd, as well as EducationAd, WellnessAd, Viewers to Volunteers and Volunteering with the Stars advertising programs, national brands and local businesses provide millions of dollars in financial support to some of the nation’s most effective nonprofit organizations, funding critical veterans’, education, health and wellness, and environmental projects nationwide.
EcoMedia’s innovative and proprietary business model has fundamentally altered the advertising and nonprofit landscapes, elevating the ordinary, traditional commercial – and media, in general – into a catalyst for tangible, quantifiable social change.
EcoMedia has earned numerous awards and recognitions for its work, including the U.S. Conference of Mayors Award for Excellence in Public Private Partnerships (2009), Edison Awards for Social Innovation and Social Impact (2012, 2013), and the Starlight Children’s Foundation’s “General H. Norman Schwarzkopf Leadership Award,” which honors individual and organizational leaders who are doing extraordinary work to advance the common good and strengthen their communities.
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By participating in EcoMedia’s EcoAd, WellnessAd, EducationAd, and Viewers to Volunteers advertising programs, EcoMedia’s advertisers agree to provide funding for projects we believe will have a beneficial effect upon the environment, health and/or education within local communities. EcoMedia’s advertising programs are not certification programs nor are the EcoAd, WellnessAd or EducationAd logos seals of approval. EcoMedia does not in any way certify, endorse or make any representations about EcoMedia program advertisers, their products or services.
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