Hockessin, Del. – For Produce for Better Health Foundation, 2016 was again highlighted by excellent media and social media impressions, strong website traffic, and strong industry support. Ongoing outreach to health professionals, including supermarket dietitians, implementation of a Store Tour Grant program and the Formula 5 Marketing Competition, release of the Moms’ Attitudes and Beliefs Related to Fruit & Vegetable Consumption, 2007-2015 report and a new Health & Wellness Resource Guide rounded out the year at PBH. Highlights include:
Media: Generated primarily through print and electronic PR and communication efforts, the year ended with nearly 50B media impressions, 14% higher than 2015. The likes and followers for all Fruits & Veggies—More Matters® social media channels increased in 2016 as well; Facebook likes (928K) increased 29% for the year, Twitter followers (59K) were up 10%, Pinterest likes (12K) increased 10%, and Instagram followers (nearly 14K) were up 116% for the year.
Web: The average monthly visits to FruitsAndVeggiesMoreMatters.org were 364K, up 4% over the 2015 average.
Industry: We will be honoring the 83 Fruits & Veggies—More Matters Role Models and 29 Champions for their support in 2016 at PBH’s upcoming Consumer Connection Annual Conference. We hosted Business Exchange Roundtables with buyers and supermarket dietitians at the PBH 2016 Consumer Connection Annual Conference and will do so again in 2017. We also maintained outreach efforts to independent retailers, including attending, exhibiting and speaking at the 2016 National Grocers Association conference and expo, and hosting 17 supermarket dietitians and bloggers at PBH’s 2016 Supermarket RD Program at Fresh Summit.
Grants/Competitions: PBH’s Store Tour Training Program grants were awarded to 16 universities in 2016. Altogether, a total of 38 nutrition/dietetic programs and 800 nutrition/dietetic students have been trained to host store tours, giving fruit and vegetable tours to nearly 6,000 consumers. Twenty-nine university student teams competed in PBH’s Formula Five marketing competition, with finalists competing at the 2016 annual conference. A total of 38 teams have submitted proposals for the next round of competition.
Health Influencers: PBH’s outreach to nearly 20,000 educators and health professionals continued through the sharing of education materials on our websites, including monthly pre-drafted social media posts, new food plates, and 6 webinars. Updates to more than 200 fruit/vegetable nutrition facts panels were made due to FDA’s recent labeling updates and the first 41 items were incorporated into a new Health & Wellness Resource Guide for Fruit & Vegetables, including health claims for each. Needed updates to existing information and additional commodities will be added to the guide twice per year.
Research: Preparations for 2017’s research were finalized and will be fielded early in 2017, with a goal of providing more action-oriented messaging for the industry to leverage in their marketing efforts. A cumulative report of Moms’ Attitudes and Beliefs Related to Fruit & Vegetable Consumption, 2007-2015 was released in 2016.
“It is both satisfying and exciting to see the results PBH was able to deliver and achieve in 2016,” says Elizabeth Pivonka, CEO of PBH. “Our efforts and results continue to be strong especially in the areas of media, our work with the industry and health professionals, and research.”
Kristen Stevens, Acting President, Produce for Better Health Foundation – kstevens@pbhfoundation.org or 302.235.2329, x312
About Produce for Better Health Foundation
Produce for Better Health Foundation (PBH) is a non-profit 501 (c) (3) fruit and vegetable education foundation. Since 1991, PBH works to motivate people to eat more fruits and vegetables to improve public health. PBH achieves success through industry and government collaboration, first with the 5 A Day program and now with the Fruits & Veggies—More Matters public health initiative. Fruits & Veggies—More Matters is the nation’s largest public-private, fruit and vegetable nutrition education initiative. To learn more, visit www.PBHFoundation.org and www.FruitsandVeggiesMoreMatters.org. Follow Fruits & Veggies—More Matters on Facebook or Twitter.
PBH also chairs the National Fruit & Vegetable Alliance (NFVA), consisting of government agencies, non-profit organizations, and industry working to collaboratively and synergistically achieve increased nationwide access and demand for all forms of fruits and vegetables for improved public health. To learn more, visit www.NFVA.org.
Source: Produce for Better Health Foundation