Supermarket Perimeter - April 2019 - 15

tasks of working with store department heads
in catering to dietary needs, building healthy
prepared food options and more, they also
serve as the company's Mealtime Mentors.
As the Mealtime Mentors, Festival Foods'
RDNs offer consumers support in everything
from making delicious meals in 20 minutes to
getting kids to eat more fruits and vegetables
to helping transition to a new way of eating.
"We've been able to help people in our community find ways to improve their daily lives
and that's really rewarding," Tulig says. "We
can help people get back into the kitchen and
get them learning and exploring and loving
new foods."

We've been able
to help people in
our community find
ways to improve
their daily lives
and that's really
rewarding."
Lauren Tulig, Festival Foods
Consumers can contact the Mealtime
Mentors through Festival Foods' website, or
through the company's active social media
presence. Tulig and fellow RDT Jenni Dreyer
maintain Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and
Pinterest pages to interact with consumers,
answer questions and offer tips and ideas.
Festival Foods' RDTs also maintain a
presence outside of the store, appearing on
regional television programs to share advice
as well as offering health and wellness presentations and educational opportunities to
customers at no charge.
Another key part of the Festival Foods website is its Peak This Week page, where the company highlights its produce department, telling
shoppers what's in season and at its prime, and
what's not. Consumers can browse through
sections like Areas To Watch, Upcoming Peak,
In Season/At Peak and Out Of Season to plan
their produce purchases in advance.

A recent Peak This Week page, for example,
highlighted New York McIntosh apples, which
were getting ready to hit Festival Foods shelves
as the supply of Wisconsin McIntosh apples
were drying up.

Publix personalizes nutrition
Publix, the popular Southeastern retailer
headquartered in Lakeland, Florida, not only
employs registered dietitians, they offer said
dietitians' services to their consumers through
personalized programs.
The company offers a pair of customized
weight loss programs. The first includes 12
weeks of guidance for $200, during which
time the consumer gets initial and followup counseling, shopping assistance with
Shopping Smart group tours, meal planning,
ongoing weigh-ins, one-on-one monthly
check-ins, recipes and more.
Publix also offers a number of other plans.
Some focus on dietary needs, such as the gluten-free packages, while others are tailored to
specific health concerns, like the heart health
package or the diabetes program.
The sports nutrition package, meanwhile,
caters to athletes who need the right balance
of nutrition before and after workouts to
provide energy and assist with recovery. The
Publix dietitians provide a personalized nutrition plan, education on tools that may help
maximize performance, as well as counseling,
meal planning and tips and shopping assistance, if needed.
All of the packages come with a $10 Publix
gift card.

Interactivity through
multiple channels
Whole Foods Market, based in Austin, Texas,
regularly offers interactive events with its instore dietitians to help educate shoppers.
A recent functional nutrition demonstration
at a Tennessee store stressed the importance
of selecting the most nutritionally dense
sources and eating healthier for life, not just
for a short-term diet. Consumers learned how
to incorporate super foods such as cacao
and maca into their diets with engaging and
easy-to-recreate recipes.
But Whole Foods also maintains a deep online library of content from its RDNs. Regular
posts on Whole Story, the company's official
blog, deal with health-related matters and
www.supermarketperimeter.com

EASY TO SPOT,
EASY TO READ
PUBLIX , Lakeland, Florida,

uses its wellness icons to
help consumers make wise
choices about the foods they
eat. They are located right
on a product's shelf tags.

The company's dietitian
nutritionists compare a group of
similar products and identify the
product that has more essential
nutrients and less of the things
consumers don't need.

This icon identifies
products than have been
declared gluten free by the
manufacturer in accordance
with FDA regulations.

Products that contain 95%
or more certified organic
ingredients get this icon.

Meanwhile, items than
contain at least 70% certified
organic ingredients can be
identified with this icon.

The leaf icon signifies
products made without
artificial preservatives, flavors
or colors. They may contain
colors from natural sources.

APRIL 2019 - 15

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Supermarket Perimeter - April 2019

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