The Road to Healthy Food Access:Healthy Corner Store Initiatives

This Presentation is will Provide you with a roadmap to creating healthy corner store initiatives in your community. Provide tools and resources availible to help you understand what you can do for improving food access in your community.

Hello! I am Sara Elnakib I am here to talk to you about some of the work we have done and the lessons we have learned. You can find me at elnakib@njaes.rutgers.edu

1. Map the area To assess if this initative is right for your town you need to first map the area; USDA Food Access Atlas https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/food-access-research-atlas/go-to-the-atlas.aspx Health Departments have licenses to operate Corner Stores Do a walkability assessment – see it for yourself

Assess the invintory of the stores There are many tools you can use to assess food environment: Nutrition Environment Measures Survey in Stores (NEMS-S)  Instrument for Corner Store Snack Food Assessment Food Retail Outlet Survey Tool (FROST) We also created our own tool: The Healthy Corner Store Scorecard

Store Recruitment Who to recruit? When to approach stores? What materials? Recruitment flyer, product examples, store success stories How to prepare? - sample script, recruitment and inventory scenarios, recruitment plan www.TheFoodTrust.org

Let’s get started recruiting Make the pitch: recruitment script Expectations and Benefits: flyer, product menu Explain how its done: product examples, store owner success stories Make it official: enrollment MOU, baseline intake and inventory www.TheFoodTrust.org

Phases Our model is divided into 4 phases: www.TheFoodTrust.org

Phase 1: Inventory Changes Healthy Product Education – Introducing New Products Refer to: Sample healthy products www.TheFoodTrust.org

Is this corner store a good candidate? Consider the following: Store location and foot traffic Store maintenance and feel Store space and inventory Owner’s knowledge and attitude www.TheFoodTrust.org

Phase 2: Healthy Food Identification Marketing Campaign During the second phase of the program: Stores agree to display a series of healthy food marketing material. Examples of marketing material displayed in stores are: Shelf talkers And you can see here Green means Go, Yellow means Caution, and Red means Stop and Think. Shelf runners This shelf talker compliments the shelf runners which are placed under products to help the customers make better decisions, again following that stop light system. Recipe cards: Simple, affordable and healthy recipes that can be made with items sold in bodegas like: A black bean salad, with low-sodium canned beans and canned corn www.TheFoodTrust.org 11

Phase 4: Store Conversion (Small) Christian Grocery, Philadelphia, PA BEFORE AFTER The last of our phases is providing stores with equipment to stock more healthy items. We call this a ‘Conversion’ I think that it’s a good idea to leave the conversion phase as one of the last phases for many reasons: First, by this time you have built a relationship with the store owners and employees. Equipment can be expensive and you want to know that the owner is committed to increasing their healthy product selection. Also, the owner has received a training from you and they have learned about ways to display produce or ways to promote new items or how to ask for customer feedback. www.TheFoodTrust.org 12

Additional In-store Programming Taste Tests Cooking Demos Store Tours There are additional In-store programming that can be implemented during any of the phases. My favorite is in-store nutrition education lessons. It’s a great way to: build customer demand, especially when a store received equipment and is stocking new perishable items. Ask for customer feedback and share that information with store owners Promote the store with the community. Other examples of in-store programming are: Taste and tour events Free samples of healthy food Cooking demonstrations And even health screening! My collegue, and corner store nutrition ed guru, Nyssa Ertkin, is here today and can answer questions about lessons in the store as well.

Lesson Learned Summary of Lessons Learned Build relationships with owners Start small. Phase activities. Make it easy. Provide support. Collaborate with other stakeholders. Partner with local nutrition and health care groups to provide nutrition education and health screenings. Engage store owners in the education process. The relationship that you build with your stores owners are priceless! Last week I had a store owner in Camden recommend three stores to the program! Store owner word-of-mouth is really the best way to promote your program with stores in your city. Start small: You want to know your stores and build that relationship with them. It’s also good to start small because you can take time to really more learn about the businesses, like: Where do owners shop, what’s the busiest time of day ect. This can help you better plan you programing www.TheFoodTrust.org