FALL 2022

FULL ON MARKETING WITH FULLTILT

The Commission attended the 9 th Annual T oday’s Dietitian Spring Symposium . This continuing education event for dietitians and nutrition professionals offered a trade show, breakout sessions and networking events, which gave our team ample opportunities to educate eventgoers on the many benefits of sweetpotatoes. These nutrition professionals are then able to take everything they learned about sweetpotatoes back to their private practices and employers (many of the attendees were retail dietitians who can then speak to their clients, which are our consumers!). At our booth, we had the added bonus of having Sarah Schlichter, our registered dietitian of record to interact with those who stopped by our booth and talk to them about our wonderful retail/registered dietitian toolkit where they can access recipes, tips and information about our favorite vegetable. The symposium was a success, and we came back with many new contacts and ideas of how to better promote North Carolina sweetpotatoes to the nutrition professional audience as well as a long list of signups for our RD Ambassador program ! In early June, we attended the International Fresh Produce Association Retail Conference in Schaumburg, Illinois. The Commission was able to connect with members of the retail world in meet and greet settings which helped begin and cultivate relationships with key retailers and other members of the produce industry. The Commission secured a lunch sponsorship where our baked sweetpotato wedges were featured and loved. Additionally, we attended breakout sessions where we discussed ideas to increase consumption of plant-based foods. We were not only able to learn from our peers but also impressed them with our deep knowledge of increasing consumption through the education sector. This quarter, we also created a series of EDUtainment videos for Elected NC Officials of the Agriculture & Rural Caucus . As part

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