Saludable Green is Go

Share On Social!

Saludable Omaha, a Latino Health Movement created by youth activists, began to see the affects that obesity was having within South High School. In the 2011-2012 school year student leaders from the Saludable Omaha Movement decided to address the issue of the lack of nutrition knowledge that affected student’s ability to make healthy choices at lunchtime.

In order to educate students about foods being served, Saludable Omaha students began a Green is Go marketing campaign. This campaign highlights the healthy foods, while also drawing attention to foods that have less nutritional value, that can be found in their cafeteria.

Saludable Omaha students brought in a nutritionist to assist them in finding accurate facts and information about the food being served in the school cafeteria. They used her expertise to finalize all their interesting facts about foods or ingredients that were featured in different meals, utilizing facts and tips from the Center for Disease Control website as well, and put them onto different colored (green, yellow, or red) signs when that food was being served for lunch. Foods are labeled with a green Go sign, a yellow Slow sign, or a red Whoa sign.

The youth posted the explanatory marketing posters throughout South High in the hallways, near lockers, and where students would see them the most. With the help of the cafeteria staff, the youth began to put up the P.O.S signs in the lunch line each day, with the food or ingredient on the sign corresponding to the meal being served. The P.O.S. signs were implemented gradually, putting out the Green Go signs the first, the yellow Slow signs second, and posting all the signs including the red Whoa signs last.  In order to make sure the student body could best be affected by the marketing campaign, Saludable Omaha and CIA students made sure that their posters and marketing materials were easy to see, visually appealing, and memorable.

The students drove this marketing campaign from development through implementation, collaborating with others from the school, to make a positive, healthy change in their cafeteria.