Hockessin, Del. – Produce for Better Health Foundation (PBH) has added new pages and features to its Fruits & Veggies-More Matters® consumer website, www.FruitsandVeggiesMoreMatters.org. The Fruit & Vegetable Daily News page, the Fruits & Veggies-More Matters Let's Move page, and the Fruits & Veggies-More Matters Vegetable Garden How-To Guide. The home page has also been redesigned for easier navigation to new and popular areas of the website, and new commodities and recipes have been added to the website's databases. Additionally, PBH's bi-weekly, consumer e-newsletter has been reformatted and given a new name, the Fruit & Veggie Voice. The website is becoming more well-known and even more new features are being planned.
Fruits and vegetables make the news every day, and it's easy to keep up with all the latest just by visiting the Fruits & Veggies-More Matters website, www.FruitsandVeggiesMoreMatters.org. The new Fruit & Vegetable Daily News page offers a running list of the latest news stories on fruit and vegetable research, policy, and health news. Hover over the headline to stop the scrolling, or click the headline to read the article. The About the Buzz: Fruit & Vegetable Headlines section sorts out the fruit & veggie news from the myths and misinformation "they" keep buzzing about. Look here to read PBH's position on today's headlines. Some of the latest About the Buzz articles have focused on the level of pesticide residue on fruits and vegetables and the effect of potassium on the risk of developing heart disease.
In support of first lady Michelle Obama's efforts to end childhood obesity in this generation, PBH has added a new website section devoted to the Let's Move initiative, the Fruits & Veggies-More Matters Let's Move page. This section discusses the three Ps necessary for Let's Move to work, the plan, the process, and the parents. PBH supports Let's Move and says that fruits and vegetables have a significant role to play in this important movement. Visit the Fruits & Veggies-More Matters Let's Move page periodically to get the latest updates.
Also new to the website is a Vegetable Garden How-To Guide. This section explains the steps involved in planning, preparing, and planting a vegetable garden and features a list of frequently asked gardening questions. Here consumers can sign up to receive gardening reminder e-mails with information on what they should be doing for their plants and when. Currently this opt-in e-mail has 570 subscribers, but that list grows weekly. Visit the Fruits & Veggies-More Matters Vegetable Garden How-To Guide as the growing season progresses for more fruit & veggie cultivation information.
The home page of www.FruitsandVeggiesMoreMatters.org has been redesigned with links to new and popular areas of the website listed out at the bottom of the page for easier navigation. A translate link has also been added to the header of the home page. It takes the user to Google translate where they can then enter the url of the page they want to see translated, select a language, and hit translate to read anything on the website.
Seventeen new commodities have been entered into the fruit and veggie database so far this year including fava beans, mustard greens, and Ugli fruit. The recipe database continues to be one of the most frequently visited areas of the website. PBH recently added 24 new recipes like Honeydew Summer Salad Wedges and Citrus Vegetables. The PBH web team is in the process of adding other new commodities and even more recipes supplied by donors Sunkist and U.S. Highbush Blueberry Council. PBH encourages all donors to submit new recipes for the website. Only recipes with print-quality photos of the completed dish will be considered. There is no recipe limit and the submitting donor will be credited for the recipe on the website. Please send recipes and photos to PBH Communications Specialist Jill LeBrasseur.
In addition to the new website features, PBH's free, bi-weekly Fruits & Veggies-More Matters e-newsletter has been updated. It's sporting a new look, a new name, Fruit & Veggie Voice, and a new leading teaser tied to PBH's mission, Get the Scoop. Stay Smart about Your Family's Health. As always, the newsletter highlights new and popular areas of the Fruits & Veggies-More Matters website. It includes a current topic of interest designed to resonate with the target audience and offers hints and tips for increasing consumers' intake of fruits and vegetables. The Fruit & Veggie Voice serves as a primary tool for connecting with PBH's target audience, keeping them in the loop about what's currently happening in the fruit and vegetable arena and updating them on their favorite sections and topics available on the website. Subscribership and readership continue to be high and the newsletter drives several thousand visitors to the website each month. Total opt-in subscribers to the e-newsletter increased to 20,350 recipients in 2009, 19 percent over 2008's subscriber numbers. Currently, 22,515 subscribers enjoy reading the Fruit & Veggie Voice. Sign up to receive the Fruit & Veggie Voice and forward it to others who might be interested in subscribing.
Plans are in the works for even more ways for donors and licensees to get involved and for consumers to interact and get educated via the website.
"We're continually developing new additions to the consumer website," said Elizabeth Pivonka, Ph.D., R.D., President and CEO of PBH. "We want to make sure that the website is an effective resource for consumers, not only by providing them with how-to tips and nutritional information, but also by weighing in on fruit and vegetable related topics currently making the news. We want to be the place they go to get accurate information and advice on nutrition issues that concern them."
Pivonka added that all new website features are designed to attract more visitors and keep them on the site longer to ensure the Fruits & Veggies-More Matters message reaches an even wider audience.
In 2009, the Fruits & Veggies-More Matters website received a monthly average of 61,318 visitors, a 23 percent higher average for monthly visits than in 2008. So far this year, the site is visited by approximately 58,597 consumers per month. Government, non-profit, and industry sites have increasingly been linking to www.FruitsandVeggiesMoreMatters.org from their own websites. Links to PBH's website at the end of 2009 were 20 percent higher than at the end of 2008, for a total of more than 1200 sites linking to www.FruitsandVeggiesMoreMatters.org, and new links are being added every week. If your company hasn't already added a link from its website to www.FruitsandVeggiesMoreMatters.org, add one now. To make adding a link easy, a link button and website copy are available for donors.
A continued favorite part of the Fruits & Veggies-More Matters consumer website is the Video Center which debuted in 2008 with a library of 275 short informational videos featuring produce celebrity Michael Marks, Your Produce Man. It now boasts 325 videos and is one of the most visited areas of the website.
The Fruits & Veggies-More Matters Video Center provides another pipeline for the Fruits & Veggies-More Matters message to flow to consumers. The videos educate consumers about fruits and vegetables, teaching them about proper selection and storage methods, demonstrating recipe preparation, and passing on a lot of other fun, useful information that encourages the consumption of more fruits and vegetables. The videos cover a wide variety of different fruit and vegetable topics and are searchable by theme, meal, or keyword searches making finding information quick and easy.
Some of these short informational videos are available for sponsorship. Retailers, growers, shippers, processors, and commodity boards shouldn't miss this opportunity to showcase their wares to a targeted audience of interested consumers.
Source: Produce for Better Health Foundation