Partnership for a Healthier America

The Partnership for a Healthier America (PHA) is a nonpartisan nonprofit organization that is led by some of the nation's most respected health and childhood obesity experts. PHA brings together public, private and nonprofit leaders to broker meaningful commitments and develop strategies to end childhood obesity.

NACS is the first retail association to make a commitment with the Partnership for a Healthier America, as announced at PHA’s 2017 Building a Healthier Future Summit. Through the 3-year commitment, NACS will rely on PHA’s resources and expertise to help conveniences stores provide more visibility to healthier choices inside their stores.

Making the Healthy Choice, the Convenient Choice

NACS and PHA have developed a number of resources to help members grow their healthier offerings in stores – from packaged foods, to beverages to fresh fruit and vegetable choices.

How does your store measure up with a healthy offer? Here are seven tips that retailers can consider when setting goals to attract more customers to their healthier food and beverage options.

Packaged foods found in convenience stores deliver healthier choices. NACS and PHA developed the Healthier Category Guide and the web-based Healthier Product Calculator to help retailers create better-for-you product sets. Click here to get started.

“Cookie Monster” on a banana and “Elmo” on apple slices are unique marketing tools to grow healthy sales of fresh fruits and vegetables. Join Produce Marketing Association’s eat brighter!™ program to promote fruit and vegetable sales at convenience stores, which allows nine Sesame Street character images to be used directly on packaging, marketing materials, including websites and apps, and signage at various places throughout the store or at the fuel island. Learn more.

Kick off the morning right by highlighting healthy breakfast offers in fresh and packaged items. NACS Magazine offers fresh ideas to help retailers own the morning. Hear more on Convenience Matters podcast episode #208 Rise and Shine with Healthier Breakfast Choices

Impulse purchases can drive sales, especially at the checkout area. Read how Utah State University convenience stores grew sales of healthier items by putting them at the register.

Bottled water has recently been named the top selling bottled beverage in the U.S. Learn from retailer case studies how placement and marketing can boost sales.

Working with PHA and the American Beverage Association (ABA), retailers can highlight ABA’s Balance Calories Initiative materials to increase sales of low- and no-calorie beverages. The combined mission is to reduce sugar and calories consumed from beverages purchased at convenience stores.

NACS and PHA engage with small-format stores, specifically corner stores and bodegas, that are often the only food source for residents in highly rural or urban settings. Through in-person meetings, webinars and online idea-sharing, numerous organizations throughout the U.S. work together to discover ways to make healthier items available and attractive to customers in under-served areas.

Make a Difference – Join Partnership for a Healthier America

Half the U.S. population visits a convenience store every day, so the food in stores shouldn’t just be healthier, it should also be more affordable. PHA works with convenience retail and distributor partners to transform the marketplace, making the healthy choice the easy choice for consumers that visit its locations each day.

Read more at PHA’s website about other that have committed to making the healthy choice the convenient choice. If you are interested in joining PHA, contact Carolyn Schnare, NACS Director of Strategic Initiatives to learn more at cschnare@convenience.org.

The following NACS retail members have joined PHA, each with unique commitments.