|
Hello to all State Nutrition Office employees!
We may have already worked together in the past, or you may have seen me speak at a national or state conference, or you may have never heard of me before. I'm John Bennett, and since 1992, I've been working with Child Nutrition Professionals at the state, local, and national level as a marketing, community outreach, public relations, market research, and strategic communications consultant (you can see a more detailed bio here). Over the years, my work in the Child Nutrition field has entailed a number of projects with state offices throughout the country.
Recently, I've been working closely with the Child Nutrition office at the Florida Department of Education (FLDOE) on several projects that I'd like to share with you. I'll mention each briefly below, and you can find more detail at the links I've included or by calling or emailing. (By the way, I'm based in Maryland, but these days distance doesn't make a whole lot of difference in where or with whom I can work!).
Director training During the spring of 2009, I provided small group training for directors at 8 locations around the state of Florida. The session was "Talk the Talk: Reputation Management For Child Nutrition Programs." I can also provide many other intensive sessions for directors at regional or statewide conferences that you might sponsor.
Training for State Staff I also created a brand new program that I presented over two days last December to the FLDOE state field staff to help them develop and refine their own presentation skills, entitled "Making Your Case: Essential Presenting Skills for State Office Staff."
Menu Magic (A.K.A, the best technical assistance money you will ever spend!) FLDOE has also purchased a statewide license for our Menu Magic, which enables all of Florida's local districts (and all of the state's other sponsors, too) to use the product for free. Menu Magic is a menu design and clipart service that also includes significant PR and Wellness support, as well as free posting of menus on-line. The full cost for a year-long subscription is $495 per district (after an introductory offer of $199 for their first year), so this is a substantial savings for the local agencies, and (based on how grateful your districts will be) it is perhaps the best technical assistance money you will ever spend! Learn more about our on-going Wellness campaign -- free for all Menu Magic subscribers The cost will vary by state, depending on number of districts and number of students statewide. Please call or email if you'd like us to give you a quote for your state. As of April 2010, two-thirds of Florida's districts and several dozen other sponsors have signed up to take advantage of the free Magic -- and every one of them is intensely grateful to the state Child Nutrition office for providing this incomparable marketing tool! About 400 districts nationwide already subscribe to Menu Magic individually; please let me know if you'd like a list of the districts in your state that are current subscribers. And, again, please go here to learn more about Menu Magic. Statewide Breakfast Campaign Right now, I'm working with FLDOE's child nutrition office to create and implement a comprehensive statewide campaign to increase awareness of breakfast and breakfast participation throughout Florida. This project is in process and will be in place this summer for the new school year. I'd be happy to share the campaign components with you when we've finished developing them, if you'd like to see them. Here's the working logo I created for the Florida breakfast campaign:
Sponsoring Sessions at the State SNA conference Florida DOE is sponsoring two sessions that I will be presenting at the FSNA conference in Orlando April 30 and May 1, 2010. I'll speak to directors about the impending breakfast campaign and to front-line employees about customer service. Please take a few moments to look at the links above and check out the rest of our web site, too. We are the only full-service marketing and public relations firm in the U.S. that works strictly in the field of Child Nutrition, and we'd be happy to talk to you about projects like the ones I describe above or any other communications project you might have in mind.
Please feel free to call me with any questions.
Thanks,
John Bennett
President John Bennett Creative Services for Child Nutrition Professionals, Inc. Providers of America's Premiere Training for Child Nutrition Professionals
Creators and Publishers of Menu Magic www.schoolmealsmarketing.com 800-264-4360, code 00 |
(c) 2008 John Bennett Creative Services for Child Nutrition Professionals, Inc. 1-800-264-4360, code 00