BACKGROUND

The Food Stamp Nutrition Education Support Network will be delivering a statewide social marketing campaign that will focus on increasing calcium consumption in both African American and Hispanic limited resource children and adolescents. Limited resource families in New Jersey have been found to have inadequate amounts of calcium in their daily diets. This is a major concern among children. Through social marketing efforts, the Food Stamp Nutrition Education Support Network is committed to increasing calcium consumption in New Jersey’s limited resource African American and Hispanic children during their formative years.

This program evolved as a result of comprehensive research studies which showed a lack of understanding of the benefits of calcium consumption as well as a lack of knowledge on calcium-rich food sources. Medical studies have also shown that these target audience groups are at higher risk for nutrition related diseases such as childhood lead poisoning, osteoporosis, and high blood pressure.

To address this need, the Calcium Select to Protect Social Marketing Campaign will be piloted in October 2005. The campaign utilizes social marketing principles that will apply a nutrition related health education message with a call to action to encourage behavior change. Culturally appropriate, low-literacy nutrition education materials are being designed and will be reproduced for use with the target audience. Materials are being developed in both English targeted for African Americans and bilingual for Spanish Speaking audiences. The distribution channels for these materials will be through the statewide Food Stamp Nutrition Education Support Network including retail food chains who will host retail promotions that will include coupons for discounts on calcium-rich foods and point of purchase displays flagging calcium-rich food items throughout the stores. The Dairy Council is assisting in efforts to reach Medicaid Pediatricians and Family Care Practitioners who serve these population groups.

TARGET AUDIENCES

The target audiences for the program are African American and Hispanic parents/caregivers of children 1-8 years of age and adolescents.

EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES

The educational objectives for this project are:

• Direct education to limited resource parents/caregivers of children 1-8 and adolescents: to promote the importance of calcium consumption for calcium-rich foods, through direct agency dissemination of information and educational materials that are science-based, culturally-sensitive and suitable for low-literacy audiences
• Information disseminated to medical care providers and community agencies regarding this issue illustrating the use and implementation of the materials created; and
• Retail promotion of calcium-rich foods

SPECIFIC COMMUNICATIONS

The program will educate both parents and children on the importance of calcium consumption to aid in disease prevention and better health. The program will follow the findings of the formative research by providing easy tips on:

1. Sample menus on how to indoctrinate the daily recommended calcium requirements into a child’s daily diet
2. Examples on how to prepare quick and easy meals that are calcium-rich
3. An illustration on how to read food labels to check the milligrams of calcium
4. Charts showing how to select foods that are rich in calcium
5. Information on what to do if you child is lactose intolerant
6. Diseases that children are at risk for if they do not get sufficient calcium intake

A name and logo were created to carry the overall identity for the program. Results from the formative research showed parents/caregivers as having a sincere concern for protecting their children from nutrition related diseases, therefore the name “Calcium Select to Protect” was chosen as the name and identity for the campaign. This educational platform encourages the target audience to “Check and Select Calcium to Protect their children”.

For more information please contact LeeAnn Weniger, Phone: (732) 932-7135, Fax: (732) 932-6522, Email: weniger@njaes.rutgers.edu