The founders of Bob’s Red Mill Natural Foods are giving $5 million to Oregon State University to establish an academic center that will boost the school’s research in areas such as nutrition and childhood obesity.
By Corey Paul
The founders of Bob’s Red Mill Natural Foods are giving $5 million to Oregon State University to establish an academic center that will boost the school’s research in areas such as nutrition and childhood obesity.
OSU President Edward Ray announced the donation today during the State of the University address downtown as he reviewed a record investment year at $275 million. In December alone, the school nearly matched the $23 million it raised during the entire 2002-2003 fiscal year.
Bob and Charlee Moore’s gift comes soon after a $5 million federal grant was awarded to the university through the United States Department of Agriculture to start a project called “Generating Rural Options for Weight-Healthy Kids and Communities.“
The Moore’s gift establishes the Moore Family Center for Whole Grain Foods, Nutrition and Preventive Health, and it will also pay for a new professor, renovations to the food research laboratory, endowments for the center’s director, program costs and fellowship for graduate students studying health and nutritional benefits of whole grain foods.
“Far too many kids are overweight — and so are their parents,” Bob Moore said in a statement. “It’s a very serious problem for our nation and the world. This center at OSU will help provide solutions.”
Corey Paul is an associate writer for Oregon Business
