Food Fighters
Description:
Table top brochures will be placed in a local restaurant over a specific period of time such as a week to one month in March 2019. Display will contain suggestions for kidney friendly menu items and information about kidney disease and organ donation. We will partner with a local design artist to create the brochure. Event may involve more than one restaurant. Promotion of event will take place through social media and local TV network.
Purpose:
We identified a lack of awareness in our community about kidney disease and transplantation and wanted to reach a larger audience with this project. Knoxville has many restaurants attracting patrons from all over the country. Through our partnership with a local vender, we hope to increase knowledge of kidney health while dining out. Our hope is to promote advocacy and early screening among customers concerning their own health, as well as, inspire support for our growing kidney population in East Tennessee.
Conclusion:
The purpose of our project was to educate the local community on nutrition and kidney health by partnering with a local restaurant. We collaborated with the owners of 3 area locations of Moe’s Southwest Grill for the month of March, as it was National Kidney and National Nutrition Month.
Our local Moe’s has been a longtime supporter of kidney dialysis patients. They promoted and raised money for one of our former patients to receive a transplant. He was transplanted about 4 years ago and continues to work with them as a manager. They are also dedicated to providing healthier menu options and constantly evaluating what they offer to accommodate that initiative.
The project duration was throughout the month of March. We hung posters at the 3 area locations that included suggestions for lower sodium menu items and kidney education. Table tents with trivia questions and statistics were placed at each site. In honor of World Kidney Day, March 14th, DCI staff was at 2 of the locations to connect with and educate the community. Our flyers were included in the runner’s packets at the Lucky Kidney Fun Run on March 16th sponsored by the East TN Kidney Foundation.
We feel the impact on our community was significant. Our event was advertised daily on social media outlets by DCI and Moe’s throughout the month. Reports show 22,941 people saw the ad and it was displayed 53,757 times. Overall, it is estimated 3,330 people will remember the ad if asked about it. We promoted our event March 8th through a live TV interview with our local station WBIR, the largest news outlet in East Tennessee. There were 300 participants in the Fun Run and Moe’s reported an estimate of 15,000-18,000 patrons throughout the month of March.
