A Belleville school district and a Belleville business are teaming up to promote healthy eating habits among the city’s youth.

Rick Delashmit, assistant manager at the Belleville Farmer’s Market, said the Farmer’s 4 Education fundraiser for Belleville District 118 schools is “a win-win for everybody.”

“If you’re interested in raising funds for your school, we can’t think of an easier way to do it that also reinforces healthy eating habits for your children,” Delashmit said. To participate in the Farmer’s 4 Education program, customers can get a card at either of Farmer’s Market’s two Belleville locations and enroll online at www.farmers4education by submitting their name, e-mail address and membership card number.

The Farmer’s Market then donates 5 percent to 10 percent of the money from cardholders’ purchases back to the schools they wish to support. The more cardholders assigned to a school the greater the percentage of proceeds that school receives. Delashmit said he and his wife Jennifer came up with the idea for the program when they thought of the “unbelievable epidemic” of diet-related health conditions among youth, like childhood obesity and juvenile diabetes, and the fundraisers their two children often participate in at Westhaven School.

“When we try to raise money for our schools, we have our kids selling cookie dough,” he said. “It kind of got me thinking about how we struggle every day to get people to understand if you want to be healthy you’ve got to eat healthy.”

Superintendent Matt Klosterman said the program falls in line with the mission of the district’s wellness committee, which is to encourage healthy choices.

“It definitely allows us to promote to our students and their families consumption of fruits and vegetables and things like that, which are healthy options,” Klosterman said. “The other benefit, which is probably more indirect for the kids, would be us developing partnerships with folks in the community.”

Delashmit said the program could benefit the market’s business by drawing new customers who appreciate its commitment to their community.

“What we’re trying to drive home is ’support your local businesses because these are the businesses that support the community,’” he said.

He said the benefits the market and the district get from their partnership is what made starting the Farmer’s 4 Education program “a no-brainer.”

“This is all stuff we should be eating anyway, and if you’ve got a local business that gives back to the community and money goes back to our schools at the same time what’s not to like about that?”

Delashmit said while the fundraiser gives Belleville a way to support its schools, he plans on expanding it within the next few weeks to include churches and church-owned schools as part of a Farmer’s 4 Faith program.

In the meantime, people can visit www.farmers4education.com for to get more information about the District 118 fundraiser and track schools’ earnings.

It only took 7 minutes!  Stay tuned for pics from the game and keep watching for your chance to win all season long!

We have a winner in 8 minutes flat!  Stay tuned for more tickets and pics from the most recent winner coming soon!

So you want tonight’s Cardinal tickets, huh?  Be the first to follow these directions and you’ll be sitting in the FIRST ROW of the Redbird Club courtesy of Farmer’s Market!

1) You are not eligible if you’ve won our tickets within the last 30 days…

2) You must be the first to arrive at our 500 North Illinois location.  We want the other side of town to have a chance to arrive first.  You’ll still need to pick up the tickets at the North Belt location once you are declared the winner.  Please drive safely!

3) When you arrive you must have a Cardinals item of some kind in your possession (hat, shirt, pennant, keychain) anything Cardinals.

4) Upon arrival you must proclaim loudly inside the store “I LOVE FARMER’S MARKET!”

5) You must be taking at least one child (15 & under) to the game with you.

6) We will supply the child/children with Farmer’s Market T-Shirts which they must wear at the game.

7) You must agree to email us a photo of said child/children at the game with their Farmer’s Market T-Shirts on.

That’s it!  Seems like an easy way to get 4 awesome tickets to tonight’s game from Farmer’s Market!