Papayahead.com Selected as a Winner in Michelle Obama’s Apps For Healthy Kids

Oct. 6, 2010 - PRLog -- PapayaHead.com’s entry won Second Place in the tools category.  The Olympia, WA based company was chosen from among nearly one hundred submissions judged by leaders from nutrition, games, commerce, and government disciplines including, Mark Pincus, CEO Zynga (Farmville) and Steve Wozniak Co-Founder, Apple Computer. Contestants were challenged to “develop fun and engaging software tools and games that drive children, especially tweens (ages 9-12) – directly or through their parents – to eat better and be more physically active.”

Noted guests at the reception included Aneesh Chopra (Chief Technology Officer, White House Office of Science and Technology Policy), Tom Vilsack (Secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture), Dr. Kathleen Sebelius (Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services), Robin Schepper (Let’s Move Executive Director), and an enthusiastic group of game developers from across the nation.  Dean Jenkins and his team from PapayaHead.com were recognized at the Washington, D.C. awards reception at the Executive Office Building on September 29th, following a private tour of the White House.

“We are thrilled and honored to be recognized as being at the forefront in using technology in a new way to address this important problem,” said Dean Jenkins, CEO of PapayaHead.com.

About PapayaHead’s Web-Based Nutrition Analysis Engine

PapayaHead.com allows any family or child to make informed choices about what they eat, anywhere, in a fun, easy, and interactive way.  Key features:

• Build recipes or entire meal plans using easy drag and drop tools
• Extensive preference-based profiles
• Deep, dynamic, clinically-accurate analysis presented in simple graphical form
• Intuitive comparison to your profile
• Shopping cart with $-saving coupons
• Integrated social networking features
• Meal plan subscription program


For more information, visit www.papayahead.com  
Full Press Kit available at http://www.papayahead.com/press_kit.php

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PapayaHead makes a difference by creating fun, effective, and easy to use web-based tools that help anyone make accurate and informed eating decisions...
anytime, anywhere.

PapayaHead was founded in 2006. The PapayaHead team now numbers 14 people and includes noted obesity researcher Dr. Adam Drewnowski of the University of Washington as Chair of the Scientific Advisory Board. In addition to winning the “Apps for Healthy Kids” contest in September 2010, PapayaHead has partnered with the University of Washington to apply for an SBIR (Small Business Innovation Research) grant from the NIH (National Institute of Health) with Dr. Drewnowski as the Principal Investigator. The purpose of the research is to demonstrate the efficacy of a web-based tool like PapayaHead to affect a measurable change in the eating behavior of people at risk for obesity and diabetes.