
Dole Teams With White House Drug Policy Office To Prevent Youth Drug Use Company Promotes Healthy Choices, Including A Drug-Free Lifestyle
Washington, D.C. - February 03, 2003
The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) announced today that Dole Food Company, Inc. is the first company in 2003 to partner with the ONDCP's National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign. Dole joins a growing number of companies that recognize the value in promoting youth drug prevention to customers and employees nationwide.
Studies show that parents are the single biggest influence on their children when it comes to drugs, and Dole will be providing parents and other concerned adults with the tools they need to keep kids drug-free. Beginning today, Dole customers will receive anti-drug information via e-mail responses to customer inquiries through the Dole Consumer Center. Visitors to Dole.com can now obtain the Campaign's useful information about preventing youth drug use and will find a link to the Campaign's award-winning Web site for parents, www.TheAntiDrug.com. In addition, Dole is printing the Media Campaign's parenting brochure, Keeping Your Kids Drug-Free: A How-To Guide for Parents and Caregivers. Consumers can now obtain free copies of the brochure through Dole.com and through the Dole Consumer Center.
To support its workforce, Dole is making the Campaign's anti-drug resources readily available to employees. The company is providing its employees with a parenting brochure, displaying the Campaign's posters, and encouraging employees to seek information online by linking to TheAntiDrug Web site from its company intranet.
"We are proud to have Dole Food Company join in the effort to keep America's youth healthy and drug-free," said ONDCP Director John P. Walters. "A recent study released by the National Institute on Drug Abuse indicates that the use of any illicit drug by 8th and 10th graders decreased between 2001 and 2002. With the support of companies like Dole, we can continue that trend by ensuring that youth and their parents have access to anti-drug information and resources."
"As a company that promotes healthy lifestyle choices, Dole is proud to promote this cause by providing helpful information to our customers and employees,"said Dole Chairman and CEO David H. Murdock. "We believe that this Campaign and our support for it will help parents and other concerned adults educate their children in making healthy choices in life."
The partnership with Dole is part of a larger Media Campaign effort to enlist corporate America in youth drug prevention. Businesses are encouraged to provide in-kind donations of goods and communications services and financial contributions to underwrite advertising, programs and materials. Through collaboration with business, the Campaign will reach more youth and parents with Campaign messages and information in more places, more often, and more persuasively.
Dole Food Company, Inc. is the world's largest producer and marketer of high-quality fresh fruit, fresh vegetables and fresh-cut flowers, and markets a growing line of packaged goods.
In 1998, with the bipartisan support of Congress and the President, ONDCP created the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign, an effort designed to educate and empower youth to reject illicit drugs. Counting on an unprecedented blend of public and private partnerships, non-profit community service organizations, volunteerism, and youth-to-youth communications, the Campaign is designed to reach Americans of diverse backgrounds.