Health Fairs on a Budget

Today, it’s storytime.

$50 DisplayThe story to follow is all about how one reader put together a health fair display booth on a tight deadline with an even tighter budget. I want to share her success with you! Maybe this information helps you save money on your next program. Maybe it inspires you to create your own great resources. Maybe it’s just a fun blog post to read before you get back to your next agenda item. Whatever the case may be, I thought that this story was too awesome not to share.

So let’s get to it.

A few weeks ago, a long-time reader at a food bank called me up and asked about putting together a health fair package on a budget. She had $50, tons of great plans, and one week to pull everything off.

Let’s start with the health fair tools we picked. The budget display kit was made up of…

The first thing to go into this display kit was the 100-Calorie Snack poster. It comes with a free handout, so our intrepid reader had two tools in her arsenal right off the bat. She also has an easel to help show off the poster at her booth. This eye-catching poster came to her attention through the Displays by Design program, which she loved. You can use this feature to look through products by design rather than subject matter, which in turn can help you select resources that look good together.

Next up were stickers and bookmarks. The Fruit and Veggie stickers were too eye-catching to miss, and who could say no to amazing bookmarks?

The next part of her display were free handouts. The Free Handout Program was a good place to start, and the weekly free handouts that are part of the Email Program could also be used to round out a health fair display. Handouts are great for building visual appeal and for offering “take-home” reminders of key health lessons. They’re perfect for a wide variety of audiences, and can be just the inspiration your clients need to make a change in their lives.

Oh, and speaking of free resources, the health-fair planner couldn’t pass up the myriad recipes in the Food and Health Free Recipe Archive. These also made great handouts. They could also be used in a cooking demo or to make tasty samples to draw more traffic to a health fair booth.

But wait, there’s more! Although we’ve now covered all the items on the budget health fair booth list above, our intrepid reader had a few last tools up her sleeve. She kept the booth on budget by taking advantage of the free shipping I offered, and she also found the discount code link lurking at the bottom of the store page. This code saved her 10% off the entire order!

When we finished talking about the program, she laughed with relief and told me that all her stress was gone for the first time since she heard about the project. Now she had everything she needed.

What a great day!

By Judy Doherty, PC II

Displays are key to fun health fairs, and there are tons of great resources in the Nutrition Education Store! Which one will make your life easier?

Change It Up Poster

Wellness Fair Kit

MyPlate Stickers

Food Safety Poster