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Extension Partners With Walmart to Provide Nutrition Education

Virginia Cooperative Extension’s Smart Choices program provides nutrition education to help low-income families make healthy food choices within their limited budgets. What better place to talk nutrition and economics than right in a grocery store – and better yet – in a Walmart?

“We surveyed the state to see where the redemption rates for food stamps were the highest. In the central district, it happened to be Walmart,” says Anne-
Carter Carrington, district coordinator for the family nutrition program. According to Carrington, Walmart stores in central Virginia redeem $300,000 to $400,000 in food-stamp dollars each month.

After making several attempts to contact Walmart about the possibility of bringing the Smart Choices nutrition program into their Central Virginia stores, Carrington’s persistence paid off. She convinced the district store manager to allow trained program assistants to provide nutrition information in the stores at the beginning of each month.

Program assistants set up tables in each store where they hand out nutritional information, recipes, and food samples, as well as engage shoppers with a quick, handson activity. “We make sure the recipes are nutrition packed and economical. We also provide a 20–30 second educational message,” says Carrington. “It is hard to convince someone that the recipe is good unless you have products in front of them. We often compare the cost of a sugary or salty prepackaged snack to a healthier vegetable snack. In addition to being healthier, the fresh snack typically costs less, too.”

The program assistants have contact with anywhere from 60 people to 400 people during a given day. “After a couple of months, people began to start  recognizing us and will come and ask us questions,” says Carrington.

Although the program is designed to reach participants in the supplemental food-assistance program, all of Walmart’s customers can benefit as well. Additionally, the program assistants often use Walmart brand food products for the samples and demonstrations.

“Being able to work with a large grocery retailer such as Walmart is a big deal, and it allows us to reach many more people than we would otherwise,” says Carrington. Statewide, the Smart Choices grocery store program has reached more than 55,000 people.