Nutrition Is Our Tradition: A Youth-Led Marketing Campaign to Improve Health in San Francisco

Youth Leadership Institute (YLI) partnered with the San Francisco Department of Public Health’s Community Transformation Initiative to work on a youth-led marketing campaign with the goal to build the demand for healthy food in the Bayview/Hunters Point community of San Francisco. Five youth leaders, calling themselves the Nutrition Soldiers, went through a ten-week long food justice curriculum to learn about food and nutrition disparities in their community compared to other San Francisco communities. Youth conducted surveys among community members to learn about their eating habits, what they felt was nutritious, and the types of messages they would like to see in their community. Youth then developed messages to test in the community to determine what resonated with their community. The messages were tested among individuals in the community. Based on community feedback, youth then created posters with the message, a tagline for the message, and images that resonated with other youth. Three poster templates were created and sent to partner groups for feedback. After finalizing the poster design in September 2013, the messages went up on 100 MUNI buses, 4 bus shelters, 30 MUNI light rail vehicles, 13 billboards in Bayview, and 3 community murals. The campaign’s goal to change behavior intentions was met, along with more than 5 million views of the campaign message. Campaign material dissemination and evaluation show that youth-led messages affect youth behavior intentions to eat healthier.