Using a Monthly Calendar to Promote Food, Nutrition, and Health Themes

Abstract

The purpose of creating a monthly, web-based food, nutrition, and health themed calendar was to provide information about and reinforce healthy behaviors to consumers and multiplier groups working with consumers. The general adult population, educators, and health professionals. Similar to MyPlate, which was “designed to remind Americans to eat healthfully,” and “not intended to change consumer behavior alone,” the themed calendar utilized the same rationale to also “help consumers make better choices.” The calendar provides resources, tips, and recipes for selected national food and health themed days, weeks, and months. A calendar approach helped optimize the use of social media and search engines in promoting content, leading to visits and links to our organization’s website. According to Google analytics, the calendar received over 45,875 pageviews, a 17% increase over the previous year. It has been linked 493 times from 186 websites, including other universities, blogs, and social media sites. The calendar was listed in the top 3 recommended webpages by search engines. A web feedback form indicated the helpfulness of this monthly content curation; a sample comment was, “Having all this information in one place makes it easy when looking for something specific like pumpkin. Gave me lots of ideas!” The calendar multiplies our efforts by assisting others find research-based, unbiased information and is a “go to” resource for the public, educators, and health professionals. It has helped us move from “good to great;” statistics show increased visits to our website as people have become more aware of our calendar.