Here’s to Hoping Companies Step Up Their Kid Meal Game

About nine years ago, I was freelancing for a PR agency working specifically on a large food company account.  I supported two programs – one was launching their new innovative school food service menu items that incorporated 100% whole grain but maintained the flavor of white bread.  At the time, this was considered a huge breakthrough in school lunch meals.  The second program was promoting their frozen kids meals for back-to-school season.  This latter item was incredibly unhealthy with high fat, sodium and calorie values.  It was this moment that got me interested in kids and nutrition.  Here we had one of the country’s largest food companies with the ability to really improve the nutrition values of their products aimed at kids, and they’re only implementing these benefits across select items.  Why not incorporate the whole wheat technology that we’re promoting into their other products so as to provide some sort of nutritional benefit?  Perhaps I was naïve being just out of school thinking that if a company discovered something that made their products more nutritious, they’d incorporate it across their portfolio. 

It’s been interesting to see this recent shift in nutrition & wellness and especially the skeptical look at nutrition in schools…this movement, coupled with the greater transparency and engagement with corporations (thanks to social media) will hopefully ensure that experiences like I had will happen less and less frequently.     

The Lifecycle of Nutrition Education from a Sprout to Living Strong

As we grow up, it’s interesting to reflect on how our influences and interests develop and adapt and how those change from generation to generation.  When I was growing up in the eighties, nutrition was something my mom talked about, and healthy foods were widely accepted among my friends as boring and tasteless.  I’d like to think that we’re making strides in turning this around and that healthy eating isn’t something only adults care about or discuss in hushed tones.  With a little thing called the Internet, sites can be hyper targeted to speak to any aged group, in a language to which they relate and addressing their relevant concerns.  Let’s take a gander at three nutrition sites that target specific generations:

Super Sprowtz:  Super Sprowtz is all about nutrition education for children.  Its founding principle is to change the culture on how kids perceive vegetables vs. hiding vegetables.  The organization educates elementary school kids on nutrition and wellness with a multi-media and multi-pronged approach, such as live shows, a mobile app, school curriculums and programs for grocers and hospitals.  The goal is simple – get kids to eat more vegetables. 

While their organization is New York based, their reach potential via social channels is vast.  Super Sprowtz’s YouTube channel contains several videos reaching tens of thousands of viewers (one video exceeds 80,000 views).  Their Facebook page has about 9,000 likes fans, and Twitter weighs in at about 3,000 followers.  These two sites announce not only upcoming appearances and new video launches but also contain humorous content for mom and dad. 

The key piece for Super Sprowtz is their content.  With their entertaining videos, fun recipes and games & activities, the site is a great place for families to have fun learning about vegetables.  My advice would be to focus on how to gain greater traction on Facebook and Twitter to increase their fan base across the country.  They have a lot of celebrity friends featured in some of the videos…perhaps asking them to tweet out their support could also help garner more fans. 

Seventeen:  Growing up, Seventeen magazine was THE source of all things cool and loaded with tons of advice for the advice-seeking pre-teen and teen.  I, of course, was not allowed to read this magazine, which was probably obvious to anyone who saw me seeing as I would wear my brother’s Umbros to school…something I’m sure the Seventeen fashion police would consider arrest worthy.  Anyway, the brand is still a powerhouse in reaching girls and young adults and is considered a very reliable source (by its readers) during a critical age span.  Seventeen.com is an incredibly robust site covering essentially every facet of tween and teen life.  It was hard to sift through all of the content and find good nutritional information.  However, it wasn’t hard to find an “Am I a Good Kisser” article. 

Most of the content is in article form.  I was hoping there would be more multi-media content, as that’s most engaging, especially for this audience.  After about 15 minutes of surfing, I found a “body peace” initiative that Seventeen has launched with a bunch of celebrities encouraging readers to take a pledge for greater self-acceptance.  However, it didn’t seem to be a hugely important program, as it wasn’t prominently featured.

In terms of social media, Seventeen has 1.9 million Facebook fans, over 650,000 Twitter followers, 210,000+ Pinterest followers, nearly 770,000 Google+ followers, and a Tumbler page.  Three Pinterest boards are devoted to health & wellness…hairstyles have four dedicated boards.  Seventeen has a robust Facebook content calendar, and in the last 25 posts, one was “nutrition” related.  However, this post stated: “6 sneaky habits that are probably messing with your health” and led to an article entitled “Weight Loss Tips for Teenage Girls”…this wasn’t exactly the sound advice I was hoping Seventeen would bestow.  Net/net: Seventeen has a huge audience at a very important age for health and wellness education.  I wish the brand would put as much attention into ensuring their reader stays healthy as they do in ensuring she learns a flirty French braid.

Livestrong: I’d argue that Livestrong has truly made a name for itself separate from its founder Lance Armstrong, and the timing couldn’t be more perfect.  Right on the homepage, it’s obvious that the brand’s focus is health, wellness and nutrition (for adults).  And while some sites struggle with establishing credibility, Livestrong showcases its advisory board prominently on the homepage.  They cover a wide range of content with very specific content pieces, great imagery and videos, as well as mobile apps.  Livestrong also has an incredibly robust catalog of food nutrition content…Google “how many calories are in…” and I bet that just about whatever you enter, Livestrong will be among the top results.  The brand is truly establishing itself as a go-to resource for all things healthy living, and while they also have general lifestyle content, wellness will remain their core pillar. 

Livestrong has 1.7 million Facebook fans, and 510,000+ Twitter followers.  However, those channels focus more on the organization’s cancer initiatives than promoting the nutrition content on their site.