Tuesday 5/1

On Tuesday we got to meet Janine Faber from Meijer healthy living.  I never thought of the role an RD could have in a grocery store, but Janine showed how creative RD's can get with their career.  The goal of Meijer Healthy Living is to increase sales and promote customer loyalty by creating and communicating health solutions and product knowledge to shoppers.  The Healthy Living team offers many resources to customers through community and in-store events, media segments, publications, and their websites.  It was neat to see the many ways Meijer reaches out to their community to promote a healthy lifestyle, I especially liked how they utilize social media like Pintrest and Twitter to connect.  We learned that a majority of their programs are funded through sponsorships from the different brands they offer.  However, the team has complete say over which brands they promote.  Though the business side wants to sell products and make money, they still focus on promoting the healthiest products.  Janine also went into detail explaining the NuVal system, which Meiher utilizes in their stores.  I think the scoring system is a great way for people to make simple swaps to eat healthier.  Though the system cannot replace nutrition education from a RD, I see how the system can help the customer make decisions between products if they are unsure of label lingo.  Tuesday's class was fun because it wasn't a traditional RD position, and Janine brought lots of handouts and goodies to keep us entertained. :)