Your retailer, supplier social media toolkit is ready for September

What if every time you ate, a plant showed up?

That’s the question the Foundation For Fresh Produce wants consumers to ask themselves. It’s a way of encouraging them to think of how they can add fruit and vegetables to every single eating occasion throughout the day, especially for the fifth annual National Fruits and Vegetables Month this September.

The foundation’s 2023 theme, “Every Time You Eat, Have A Plant,” is part of the former Produce for Better Health Foundation’s Have A Plant Movement, started in 2019 as an opportunity to elevate fruit and vegetable consumption to a national priority, according to a news release. The annual month-long observance has reached more than 260 million impressions collectively since its inception. 

The organization wants participation to be easy for the industry, so it created a 2023 National Fruits and Vegetables Month Toolkit.

“This toolkit was designed with the industry in mind and to make it easy for everyone to participate,” foundation Marketing and Communications Director Katie Calligaro said in the release. “We challenge every company to create at least one activation; schedule at least one social media post, one consumer-facing newsletter promotion or one programmatic activity within their organization to get people to eat more produce.”

The theme is about including fresh produce all along the journey: While shopping, dining out, enjoying a meal with family, snacking, hosting or brunching, every time you eat — Have A Plant.

Related: PBH conference highlights collaboration in the freshest, most fun ways

According to the "Hacks To Habits: A Behavioral Research Study To Bolster Fruit & Vegetable Consumption" report, piggybacking off moments in time when people are already eating or enjoying other foods they love can present an opportunity to increase fruit and vegetable consumption. The report showed 40% of high-medium vegetable consumers add fruits and vegetables to favorite dishes, meals and snacks, and 43% said they add vegetables to sandwiches and burgers. 

The toolkit covers the needs of professionals in several produce-related industries, whether you are looking for ideas to implement at retail, you’re a chef wanting more ways to incorporate produce on menus or you’re a plant-passionate advocate or produce industry marketer searching for fun ways to spread the Have A Plant love on social media. In the toolkit, expect help for segmented, easy and fun activations; promotional ideas and opportunities; engaging social media tiles; and GIFs for people to engage with followers and create user-generated content.

These are some ways an organization can participate:

• Post weekly on your social channels, showing extra love for National Fruits and Vegetables Month. Find sample social media posts as well as downloadable graphics on the Point Of Inspiration page in this toolkit. Or, click to download the National Fruits and Vegetables Month logo below and create your own. Use the hashtags #haveaplant and #NFVM2023.
• Highlight the month, NFVM, in a consumer-facing newsletter with one of the images from the Point Of Inspiration section as an advertisement or promo graphic. Link it to www.fruitsandveggies.org/NFVM.
• Drive awareness about the month on your personal or company LinkedIn pages to increase awareness and show your personal commitment to improving fruit and vegetable consumption in America.
• Leverage NFVM as a media hook for your consumer-facing print or broadcast media opportunities this month.
• Share stories from growers who demonstrate the journey and care that goes into growing them (e.g., a day in the life of an onion) and how produce gets from the field to the table. The emotional connection and the eagerness to learn about where food comes from continues to inspire purchase behaviors.
• Educate consumers with fun facts and quick stats on how to best select, store, savor, and share your favorite produce. Get tips from the Fruits and Vegetables Section on fruitsandveggies.org.
• Stay inspired and share creative tips, tricks and all-around impressive food hacks and stories by following along on Have A Plant social media channels, such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram  and LinkedIn.

The foundation focuses on improving the appeal of fruit and vegetables as an integral part of people’s diets, supporting the development of infrastructure and supply chain solutions that provide easier access, and establishing strategic alliances that enable children and families to form healthier eating habits. To galvanize the industry efforts, the Foundation for Fresh Produce merged with the Produce For Better Health Foundation in January 2023. PBH programming, including the Have A Plant Movement, continues under the merged foundation.

Related: IFPA Foundation For Fresh Produce, PBH merge

The National Fruits and Vegetables Month Toolkit is available free for download here. For more information, contact Calligaro at kcalligaro@freshproduce.com.