PONTE VEDRA, Fla., – MDI Holdings, one of the nation’s leading healthcare risk management companies, has made a healthful donation to Ponte Vedra/Palm Valley Rawlings Elementary School just in time for the holidays. MDI, based in Ponte Vedra, Florida, donated the labor, materials and trees to double the school’s orange grove to 60 adult trees.

“We are thrilled to become partners with PVPV Elementary,” said Richard Willich, MDI CEO. “This project is another example of our commitment to our local community and its schools.”

PVPV Elementary planted an orange grove five years ago to both educate and feed the students. The orange trees yield between 3,000 and 3,500 oranges a year and are picked to feed the students and faculty as part of the school’s Healthy Initiative, which includes the promotion of diet, exercise and healthy habits.

“This donation from MDI will allow us to sustain and expand our program,” said Principal Kathleen Furness. “The new trees are already bearing delicious Mineola Tangelos.”

The newly-planted trees will help the school double its available oranges during harvest and perhaps meet another goal of expanding the harvest to a surplus that could then become a revenue source for the school. Peak harvest is during the fall and winter months before the holiday break. During that time, all the oranges picked are available to students at no cost.

“That helps us provide healthy options and also defray the cost of providing those options to our students,” continued Furness, who said the orange tree project is one of the only of its kind in our area.

MDI and elementary school employees performed the physical labor needed to plant the new trees. This included planning for the trees, digging all the holes and installing these large trees on the campus. The donation equated to about $10,000.