Strategic Partnerships To Improve Youth Nutrition
My team is currently engaged by our client, a local granola bar company, to help the company develop, implement, and clearly communicate its Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives. Since its inception, the company has valued quality ingredients and nutritionally beneficial products. Remaining true to its mission and vision, the company has pursued a morning snack program in the Bay Area to educate low-income elementary school children on nutrition and to provide them with healthy snacks. With the program is in its pilot phase, the biggest challenge we face is helping the company to build strategic partnerships for this program to enhance its social impact and promote its brand.
In building strategic partnerships, we are examining the prospective companies and their products to make sure that these partnerships are good fits for our client, the other companies, and the schools. With respect to their products, we are faced with the dilemma as to whether to partner with companies that provide only nutritionally valuable foods or to also partner with those that provide healthier alternatives to junk food. We are trying to delicately balance providing children with healthy snacks with the realization that kids will not eat something that they do not like.
In addressing this issue, we constantly are grounded by our client’s dedication to creating a product that is pure, simple, and nutritious. In screening partners, we are trying to keep this at the forefront of our minds in order to select the best companies that align with our client’s values. By strategically focusing on and partnering with companies that produce nutritionally beneficial snacks, we can better align a collaborative morning snack program with our client’s core business objectives.
While the underlying problem of changing children’s eating behaviors still remains, we are working with our client to address this issue from both a bottom-up and top-down approach. By visiting schools that are enrolled in this program and educating the students on nutrition, we are helping to instill good eating habits from an early age. We are also working with our client to engage with national programs (e.g., letsmove.gov) dedicated to youth nutrition.
—deepa.r
