DOWNERS GROVE, ILL. — Sara Lee North American Fresh Bakery recently held the first ever Sara Lee Soft & Smooth Back-to-School Nutrition Summit. The gathering, which brought together 13 popular "mom bloggers" to the Kitchens of Sara Lee, was created to help mothers and experts work side-by-side to develop key tips to send children back to school with taste and nutrition in mind.

"Sara Lee went straight to the source to understand the nutrition challenges moms are having when sending their kids back to school, especially when it comes to the ongoing confusion that exists in the bread aisle," said Tim Zimmer, vice-president of Sara Lee North American Fresh Bakery. "Each mom blogger had great ideas to help us educate America’s moms when it comes to differentiating between traditional wheat and 100% whole wheat breads and moving white bread families to newer versions with whole grains."

Key tips to come out of the summit included making food fun by engaging children in the kitchen; packing lunches in fun, easy-to-transport containers such as bento boxes (lunch boxes with individual inner containers that encourage food diversity); organizing the night before by preparing lunches; making lunch components functional; and including fun games and jokes such as Soduku’s and comic strips in the lunchbox.

In addition, the summit featured a lunchtime nutrition challenge to create a sandwich-based lunch that had to taste great, be packed with nutrition and be loved by children.

"We’ve been investing in educating moms about whole grain nutrition for years, but this is the first time we’ve been able to actually meet with them one-on-one, engage them in dialogue, learn from them and work with them to help us share our message more impactfully," Mr. Zimmer said. "What we learned at this summit will help us be a better, more viable and approachable resource to moms."

Bloggers in attendance included Amanda Acuna of Mommy Mandy; Amy Lupold Bair of Resourceful Mommy; Louise Bishop of Mom Start; Amy Clark of Mom Advice; Stacie Connerty of Divine Miss Mommy; Stacy DeBroff of Mom Central; Tanya Gordon of Mommy Goggles; Amber Johnson of Mile High Mommas; Miranda Kuskie of Keeper of the Cheerios; Kathy Peel of Parent Dish; Kristina Saurwein of MOMformation; Melissa Summers of Suburban Bliss; and Tara Ziegmont of Feels Like Home.