Convenience Retailers Impact Healthy Choices Movement

Since 2014, NACS members have engaged with the Partnership for a Healthier America to drive change and innovation with healthy options.

April 27, 2018

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – In May 2017, NACS became the first retail association to partner with the Partnership for a Healthier America (PHA)—a culmination of several years of commitments made by convenience retailers, suppliers and distributors to bring healthier choices to their communities.

But before NACS, a handful of convenience retailers were doing their part to bring healthier choices to their stores, employees and customers. For example, at PHA’s Building a Healthier Future Summit in March 2014, Kwik Trip (La Crosse, Wisconsin) became the first convenience store chain to make a commitment to work with PHA and ensure healthier choices are more accessible and affordable.

Today, eight PHA convenience store partners, representing more than 2,000 locations, and five distribution companies that service 75,000-plus locations, are bringing healthier choices to consumers across the United States—and a sizable percentage of those c-stores are located in food-scarce communities.

And as part of our commitment, NACS is making available resources for convenience retailers that can help them determine how to carry additional healthier choices, as well as providing promotional materials related to PHA’s Drink Up initiative. NACS also isproviding healthier catering options at its events, including the NACS Show.

Specifically, NACS is:

  • Disseminating a web-based nutrition resource that could help convenience stores identify products as being healthier options and assist them in defining their better-for-you sets.
  • Continuing to engage small format stores, specifically corner stores, that are often the only food source for residents in highly rural or urban settings.
  • Developing and disseminating Drink Up marketing materials that encourage convenience store customers to stay hydrated.
  • Emphasizing wellness at the NACS office and at its industry-specific events

On May 2-4, NACS again will be participating PHA’s Innovating a Healthier Future Summit in Washington, D.C., where content and keynote speakers will share solutions to some of the toughest challenges facing the industry today. For example, The Happy Meal: Driving Innovation and Impact Image session will focus on how one of the nation’s leading child health organizations (Alliance for a Healthier Generation) and the world’s largest restaurant company (McDonald’s) came together to drive innovation and impact kids’ well-being. And the Future of Food session will provide an overview of some innovations and trends disrupting the U.S. food system.

“We’re attending this year’s PHA Summit to find innovative ideas to share with members and to make new connections in the nutrition community,” said NACS Vice President of Strategic Industry Initiatives Jeff Lenard.

For more information on how NACS, convenience retailers and their distributor partners are engaged with PHA and providing healthy choices to their customers and communities, visit convenience.org/refresh.

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