Veg Out SA!: San Antonio's Campaign to Promote Fruits and Vegetables

This blog originally appeared on letsmove.gov.

In the Let’s Move! City of San Antonio, Texas, local leadership is calling on its residents to eat more fruits and vegetables by “Vegging Out”!  Veg Out SA! is a campaign to educate San Antonio residents about the benefits of fruits and vegetables.

The campaign, sponsored by BlueCross and BlueShield of Texas and the Children’s Hospital of San Antonio Foundation, will provide posters and other marketing materials available for free download on the Mayor’s Fitness Council website.  The community is encouraged to download the materials and post them at their schools, workplaces and community centers to help raise awareness.  The campaign will also include healthy recipes and tips to add fruits and vegetables to every day meals.  Local grocery store chain H-E-B has donated various prizes for the campaign including a workplace cafeteria makeover, free fruits and vegetables for a year, and will offer free healthy shopping tours with in store dieticians starting in March.

San Antonio Mayor Ivy R. Taylor addressed that March is National Nutrition Month and encouraged residents to start making healthier changes in their daily life.  “We’re fighting a host of diseases,” said Mayor Taylor. However, people can make a difference “by choosing to eat an apple a day…a smoothie…a salad.” Mayor Taylor also emphasized that eating healthy does not need to be expensive or difficult. She showed samples of what $40 of fresh produce looks like and admitted that she was going to place more attention on her own diet to impact her own health. “It’s easy and affordable,” she said.

Members of the Mayor’s Fitness Council launched the campaign after recognizing the need to focus on healthy eating behaviors for San Antonio residents and the lack of adults and youth that report eating fruits and vegetables daily.  This is not the first time San Antonio has focused on promoting nutrition in their community.  In 2011, they became one of the top cities for the Let’s Move Salad Bars to Schools initiative, with over 100 schools implementing salad bars.

The Veg Out SA! campaign consists of a number of components to target specific sectors of the community, and will run through May 2016. Components include:

• Outdoor marketing campaign
• Social media campaign
• Employer-based contest
• School-based contest

Learn more about the Veg Out SA! campaign here