142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition

Annual Meeting Recordings are now available for purchase

301900
Maximizing the message: The SNAP Ed New Mexico social marketing project

142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition (November 15 - November 19, 2014): http://www.apha.org/events-and-meetings/annual
Tuesday, November 18, 2014 : 8:30 AM - 8:50 AM

Sally M Davis, PhD , Prevention Research Center, University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center, Albuquerque, NM
Glenda Canaca, MD
Alexandra Morshed, MS
Jose Canaca, MD
INTRODUCTION: The USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) provides assistance to participants from low-income households in purchasing food through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and provides nutrition education through the SNAP-Ed program. This presentation will focus on the importance of reaching different populations with educational material that is tailored to the population served. We will describe how we engaged Hispanic communities and used social marketing approaches to adapt FNS core nutrition messages to be culturally relevant and relatable to each community. APPROACH: The multiphase SNAP-Ed New Mexico Social Marketing Project explores how the core nutrition messages developed by FNS are received by Spanish-speaking people, and implements a tailored, multi-level social marketing campaign to increase fruit, vegetable, whole grain, and low-fat and fat-free dairy consumption. We conducted focus groups in Spanish with parents of preschool- and school-age children, and with children 8-10 years old with the goal of developing slogans and messages that would resonate with and encourage families to make healthy food choices. RESULTS: We developed a community-wide campaign that includes educational materials, posters, banners, and videos that portray the local Hispanic population in positive situations promoting the core nutrition messages. These materials were tested, revised, and re-tested, and disseminated throughout the partner community and other venues. DISCUSSION: It is important to tailor nutrition messages based on populations they serve. The SNAP-Ed New Mexico Social Marketing Project did this by utilizing social marketing processes and engaging Hispanic communities of New Mexico.

Learning Areas:

Communication and informatics
Diversity and culture
Planning of health education strategies, interventions, and programs

Learning Objectives:
Describe the importance of tailoring nutrition messages to the population served. Describe the process of partnering with under-represented communities to adapt and disseminate the USDA FNS core nutrition messages. Give an example of using social marketing strategies for developing and implementing a community wide campaign for SNAP eligible populations.

Keyword(s): Underserved Populations

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: Sally M. Davis, Ph. D. Professor, Department Pediatrics Dept Family & Community Medicine Prevention and Population Science Director, Prevention Research Center Senior Fellow, NM CARES Health Disparities Center I have been conducting health promotion and disease prevention in partnership with under-represented communities for 40 years. I am or have been the prinicipal investigator on numerous projects funded by NIH, CDC and other agencies.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.