Sprout Healthy Vending, based in Irvine, Calif., announced that Dawn De Stefano, who has spent the last three months as a locations specialist, is now moving into a product development manager/nutritionist role working out of the Irvine corporate office. De Stefano will now be educating operators on school nutrition, nutrition terminology, evaluating nutrition labels, and determining which products are top sellers in their local area, sourcing products, training operators on creating menu plans (planograms), and training operators on how to execute sample events.
“I am so excited to be a part of an up and coming company like Sprout Healthy Vending,” De Stefano said in a prepared statement. “Being able to work in a field that I am so passionate about has been a wonderful opportunity for me. I couldn’t be happier to be here and share the extensive knowledge that I have with others.”
Having been involved in the health and nutrition field for most of her life, De Stefano is very enthusiastic about her newly acquired role. It was in 1991 that De Stefano really started to develop her love for all things healthy. By chance, she ended up attending Anthony Robbins’ Mastery Certification in Hawaii where he spoke about vegan and all-natural foods and the positive effects they have on your body when consumed.
Not having been familiar with these foods before, De Stefano felt obligated to at least try the food that was provided at the conference. Much to her chagrin, the options were vegan and all natural. Between learning about the positive effects healthy food has on your body and discovering how animals are treated in the factory farming process, De Stefano realized she needed to make a change for herself and became a devout vegan.
After returning home from the conference, De Stefano attended The World School of Massage Therapy & Advanced Healing Arts. She became a certified Holistic Health Counselor. Then in 1995 went into the U.S. Army Reserve and became a Diet Technician and trained many of her peers in nutrition and health.
Throughout the next several years, De Stefano held many other positions and obtained many certifications in the health and wellness field including but not limited to the following: she is a raw food culinary arts associate chef/instructor, a certified wellness inventory coach, a board certified holistic health coach, and more recently in 2007, a graduate from the Institute for Integrative Nutrition as well as Columbia University Teacher’s College, where she attended to gain even more knowledge in the food world.
“Diets and food programs are always changing and there is no one set perfect plan for everyone. Everyone is different and they just have to find what works best for their bio-individuality,” De Stefano said.
Co-Founder Chris Wyland says, “With all of her educational background and her passion for maintaining a healthy lifestyle, Dawn has been an incredible addition to the team! We are at an important point of our growth in the company and we needed someone that was an expert in this field to be able to educate our operators on health and wellness. I look forward to seeing Dawn apply all of her skills and knowledge to the position – I know she is going to excel.”
