News Releases

CHNA Roundtable to Collaborate and Promote Healthy Eating Social Marketing Campaign

The Center for Health Affairs' CHNA Roundtable, comprised of Northeast Ohio hospital staff involved in community health needs assessment (CHNA) work or community health initiatives at their facilities, has unanimously agreed to collaborate and support the Celebrate Your Plate social marketing campaign. This campaign, led by the Ohio Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program - Education (SNAP-Ed), aims to shift social norms in the local community to promote a healthy diet by increasing the consumption of fruits and vegetables among families earning at or below 185 percent of the federal poverty level. To accomplish this goal, a content hub has been created that contains:

• Helpful shopping, cooking, gardening and kitchen tips
• Healthy, inexpensive recipes
• Information to help locate farmer’s markets, food banks/pantries and community gardens.
• Resources to connect individuals and families to senior meal sites, food assistance programs and senior meal sites.

CHNA Roundtable members had recently participated in a facilitated discussion to identify one significant health need in Northeast Ohio that they wanted to work collectively to address. The health need that was identified through the facilitated discussion was obesity, which is always a top need identified in CHNAs. CHNA Roundtable members were presented with numerous potential partnership opportunities and chose to collaborate with Ohio SNAP-Ed on the Celebrate Your Plate social marketing campaign they have developed. This partnership opportunity came to light based on conversations between The Center and Darcy Freedman of the Prevention Research Center for Healthy Neighborhoods at Case Western Reserve University.

The Celebrate Your Plate social marketing campaign is being rolled out across Ohio using a quadrant approach. After being piloted in four Northeast Ohio counties (Athens, Fairfield, Franklin and Ross) from August to October 2017, the campaign will be rolled out in Southeast Ohio in early 2018, in Northeast Ohio starting in June 2018, in Northwest Ohio in January 2019 and in Southwest Ohio in June 2019. Hospitals in Northeast Ohio are actively considering ways that they can support the campaign such as by:

• Highlighting existing healthy options in their vending machines
• Having healthcare providers refer patients to the content hub
• Advertising the campaign in hospital waiting rooms, doctor offices and clinics
• Purchasing incentives (such as recipe cards, branded measuring spoons, can openers, etc.) to distribute

For more information or to learn more about how you can support the Celebrate Your Plate social marketing campaign, please contact us.