27,054 Say: Mark the Way to Fruits & Veggies!

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Families want healthy food choices where they shop.

In fact, more than 27,000 people signed our Salud America! letter campaign to ask grocery stores to use labels, floor arrows, and other marketing strategies to promote fruit and veggie options for Latino families.

“As a shopper, I know the marketing ploys used by groceries to entice me,” Myrna Mendez, resident of Bloomfield, Mich., wrote in her letter to grocers. “All we’re asking for is to use those same marketing skills to promote fruits and vegetables for a healthier nation.”

latina mom in grocery store with fruits and vegetablesWe’ve delivered all 27,000 letters to the leadership of these grocery store associations:

  • Alabama Grocers Association
  • Arkansas Grocers and Retail Merchants Association
  • Arizona Food Marketing Alliance
  • California Grocers Association
  • Connecticut Food Association
  • (Colorado) Rocky Mountain Food Industry Association
  • Delaware Food Industry Council
  • Florida Retail Federation
  • Georgia Food Industry Association
  • Hawaii Food Industry Association
  • Iowa Grocery Industry Association
  • Idaho Retailers Association
  • Illinois Food Retailers Association
  • Indiana Grocery and Convenience Store Association
  • (Kansas) Retail Grocers Association of Greater Kansas City
  • Kentucky Grocers & Convenience Stores Association
  • Louisiana Retailers Association
  • Maryland Retailers Association
  • Massachusetts Food Association
  • Maine Grocers And Food Producers
  • Michigan Grocers Association
  • Minnesota Grocers Association
  • Missouri Grocers Association
  • Mississippi Retail and Grocer Association
  • Montana Food Distributors Association
  • Carolinas Food Industry Council
  • North Dakota Grocers Association
  • Nebraska Grocery Industry Association
  • New Hampshire Retail Grocers Association
  • New Jersey Food Council
  • New Mexico Grocers Association
  • Retail Association of Nevada
  • Food Industry Alliance of New York State, Inc.
  • Ohio Grocers Association
  • Oklahoma Grocers Association
  • (Oregon) Northwest Grocery Association
  • Pennsylvania Food Merchants Association
  • Rhode Island Food Dealers Association
  • South Dakota Retailers Association
  • Tennessee Grocers & Convenience Store Association
  • Texas Retailers Association
  • South Texas Merchants Association
  • Utah Food Industry Association
  • Virginia Petroleum, Convenience & Grocery Association
  • Vermont Retailers and Grocers Association
  • Washington Food Industry Association
  • Wisconsin Grocers Association Inc.
  • West Virginia Oil Marketers and Grocers Association

We will share their responses with you once we get them.

Why is this change important?

Fruit and veggie options are critical to help kids grow up at a healthy weight.

Access to, and purchases of, affordable healthy foods tends to improve when healthy food offerings are expanded and promoted in underserved communities, according to Salud America! research.

But some grocers’ marketing, placement, and store design nudges families toward unhealthy foods.

Our letter campaign aimed to push state grocers to consider changes like these:

“I work with parents who voiced their concern about the multiple unhealthy food choices in store checkouts,” said Ariana of Downey, Calif., in her letter to grocers. “The parents I work with are already making changes at home to help their families eat more nutritious foods but the environments outside of the home are not supporting their efforts to live healthier lives. Simply changing the food options in checkout lanes can go a long way in supporting our parents make healthy choices for their families.”

Stay tuned for more campaign results!

Salud America! is a Latino childhood obesity prevention network funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation based at UT Health San Antonio.

By The Numbers By The Numbers

20.7

percent

of Latino kids have obesity (compared to 11.7% of white kids)

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