Food & Beverage Marketing Assessment - We Have a Tool for That!

Do marketing materials on your campus include foods and beverages? Did you know that these should only include products that meet or exceed the Smart Snacks in School nutrition standards? This is a required component of the Local Wellness Policy Final Rule. Check out your policy to ensure that marketing standards are included and those standards meet or exceed Smart Snacks. If you can’t sell it, you can’t market it! Use the Smart Snacks Calculator to determine if the foods and beverages being marketed meet. 

Loop in your wellness committee.

• Enlist their help assessing the marketing materials on campus.
• Share the results with your committee, as well as your school community as a whole.
• Develop a replacement plan to address non-compliant materials together – prioritize where to start, replacements, funding or resources needed, etc.

Use Healthier Generation’s 3-step process to guide your marketing assessment and planning.

1. Step 1: Identify – determine if food and beverage marketing exists and where.
2. Step 2: Classify – take an in-depth look at the marketing. What kind of exists? Does it include only products that meet Smart Snacks?
3. Step 3: Replace – develop a plan for replacing non-compliant marketing.

Be sure to use our digital assessment tool instead throughout this process!

Remember, there are also nutrition promotion goals in your wellness policy! Use this opportunity to incorporate materials that promote good health Here are a few resources to get you started:

• Free posters from Team Nutrition
• Farm to School materials
• Nutrition Messages for television or computer screens

BONUS – Engagement! Use this as an opportunity to engage students in assessing the environment around them. As part of a project or class activity, they can help determine where marketing is, if it is compliant and find (or even create) replacements that promote good health! Engage your whole school community – classroom teachers can use these tools for classroom assignments, the PTO can brainstorm ways to ensure flyers and materials support your wellness policy, and the community at large may have goods or services to offer when replacing non-compliant materials.

Still unsure about marketing policies? Check out this Q&A from the USDA to learn more.

More Tools You Can Use!

The Smart Snacks Toolkit, created in conjunction with the School Nutrition Association, is a step-by-step guide to Smart Snacks Success. Unsure if the Smart Snacks in School nutrition standards apply to you? Check out this infographic!  And for more Smart Snacks information, visit the USDA's Smart Snacks in School tools page. Interested in diving deeper? Complete the Follow the Yellow Brick Road to Smart Snacks Success curriculum.

Looking for Local Wellness Policy resources? We have a Model Wellness Policy, Communication Checklist, and an on-demand learning opportunity for Putting Policy Into Practice! For a high level overview of wellness policy requirements, check out the USDA's Local Wellness Policy final rule summary.