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

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.