Salad Bars: Marketing Your Salad Bar
Salad bars are an excellent way to engage the community and bring awareness to your food service department’s commitment to providing fresh and healthy whole foods to the students every day. Marketing supports the long-term success of your salad bar implementation by educating students, showcasing the program to principals and teachers, and reaching out to parents and community members to support this exciting addition.
Salad Bars: Marketing Your Salad Bar
Salad bars are an excellent way to engage the community and bring awareness to your food service department’s commitment to providing fresh and healthy whole foods to the students every day. Marketing supports the long-term success of your salad bar implementation by educating students, showcasing the program to principals and teachers, and reaching out to parents and community members to support this exciting addition.
Key Steps for Communication
- Set up individual meetings with school principals and agree on a rollout date.
- Post photos and information about the salad bar program on food service web pages.
- Distribute a press release via district communications office.
- Send information home to parents via the school network (e.g., Friday folders, newsletters, school website).
- Make announcements at PTA/PTO meetings. If well attended, set up a sample salad bar for them to experience first-hand.
Key Steps for Communication
- Set up individual meetings with school principals and agree on a rollout date.
- Post photos and information about the salad bar program on food service web pages.
- Distribute a press release via district communications office.
- Send information home to parents via the school network (e.g., Friday folders, newsletters, school website).
- Make announcements at PTA/PTO meetings. If well attended, set up a sample salad bar for them to experience first-hand.
Rainbow Days Activity
The Lunch Box offers a student activity called Rainbow Days that is very effective for increasing salad bar participation. For the best long-term results, plan Rainbow Day activities in every elementary school at least annually.
The excitement around salad bars grows tremendously with this one-day activity, which encourages kids to choose three food colors (not including white foods) from the salad bar and receive a prize once eaten; we recommend I Made a Rainbow Stickers.
The activity and supporting promotions have been put together in a step-by-step Rainbow Day Guide.
Tastings & Product Identification
Promoting salad bar participation through tasting events is a win-win. As with Rainbow Days, it is useful to place volunteers out in the dining room to assist the food service staff with student engagement. Ideas for tastings include:
- Try seasonal products
- Compare different varieties of the same item
- Taste something raw versus cooked
- Give feedback on a new salad recipe on the salad bar
Your produce vendors or local farmer contacts can be very helpful by showing up to engage the students and answer questions in a special tasting event. Regional Farm to School networks are a great resource for creating relationships with local farms and producers. “Harvest of the Month” (see Art Contests page for an explanation) is another theme that can be used to educate and support student tastings. Your State Department of Agriculture or local Agricultural Extension office is often a great resource for providing seasonality charts as well as identifying farms to engage with.
The activity and supporting promotions have been put together in a step-by-step Tastings event guide.
