5 Ways to Brighten Up Your Space

Look around your office, classroom, or cafeteria … do you see drab walls with outdated posters? Or do you see vibrant colors and positive messages? 

It might be time to brighten up your space. We have everything you need, and posters are just the beginning!

  1. Floor decals are a unique way to add some color and nutrition messages where people will be surprised to see them. 
  2. Walloons are balloon-shaped wall decals and they come in sets. 
  3. Salad bar and table top signs are appropriate for school and workplace cafeterias, plus they’re portable so you can take them to health fairs as well.
  4. Bulletin board kits give you a big bang for your buck. Posters, photos, and handouts make beautiful bulletin board displays with little work on your part.
    • With the Four Seasons poster value set, all you have to do is change the display every season and use the accompanying handouts, which include recipes, seasonal shopping lists, and seasonal fitness activities.
    • Or promote MyPlate with kits for adults and kids. Both kits come with beautiful color photos of healthy foods. 
  5. Posters are tried and true. And our posters are NOT boring. A few favorites:

Happy decorating!

Hollis Bass, MEd, RD, LD

 

Picture Healthy Eating

We’re seven months into the COVID-19 pandemic. People have been stressed out since March and now face a winter warning of coronavirus and flu.

Our clients, students, and employees are probably tired of being told what to do and what not to do. Do they have the capacity to follow a new diet or make big dietary changes? Maybe not.

That means we need to be creative and sneak in our message where we can. Instead of ramming diet restrictions down their throats, think about being more subtle.

How about using beautiful photographs of real food to convey the healthy eating message? Check out these items:

  • What’s on Your Fork? According to this poster, it’s mouth-watering bites of fresh, nutrient-dense foods.
  • Fork Photo Walloons. These wall decals shaped like balloons feature eye-catching photos of asparagus, cherry tomatoes, lettuce, whole wheat pasta, salmon, and a strawberry. When a picture says it all, no words are necessary!
  • Fork Stickers. Let people take home a little reminder of what healthy food looks like. Again, no words needed.
  • Choose Wisely Poster. More beautiful color photos of fruits and veggies, with the message: “You need fuel. Choose wisely.”

Everyday, people see pictures of fake food on billboards, online, and on TV. Let’s fight back by posting beautiful photos of healthy food on the walls of our offices, hallways, and cafeterias, on our social media pages, and in our classrooms.

These positive, subliminal messages might be the gentle reminder everyone needs to get back on track with healthy eating.

Hollis Bass, MEd, RD, LD

What’s on Your Fork?

Are you looking for an easy (and educational) way to brighten up a classroom, hallway, office, or cafeteria? Check out our What’s On Your Fork poster, bulletin board banner, and wall decals. They feature beautiful, professional photographs of real, healthy food on a black background – these really stand out!

There are so many fun things you can do with the What’s on Your Fork theme. Here are just a few ideas:

  1. What’s on Your Fork display: Start with our banner or poster, or make your own visual materials with pictures of fruits, vegetables, healthy protein sources, and whole grains. Leave space for people to add pictures of what’s on their own forks.
    • Kids can cut out pictures of healthy food from magazines or supermarket flyers, tape them to plastic forks, and create their own display.
  2. What’s on Your Fork selfies: Encourage people to snap a picture when they’re eating healthy food (if it’s on a fork, that’s fun; if not, that’s fine too!). They can share it on social media (#WhatsOnYourFork), share it with a friend, or keep it private.
  3. What’s on Your Fork with food groups: Let clients decide which food group they want to focus on and have them take pictures of what’s on their fork for one day, three days, or a week. Someone who needs to eat more vegetables would take a picture whenever there’s a veggie on their fork (or spoon, or plate, or bowl!). Do the same for fruits, whole grains, and lean protein.
  4. What’s on Your Fork sugar control: People might say they’re going to limit themselves to 1-2 treats a week, but “forget” when they walk by a candy dish or are offered a piece of birthday cake. Have them snap a picture when they eat a sweet treat (on or off a fork!) and keep it on their phone. Then every time they’re tempted by something sugary, they check their phone to see the last time they had one.

Resource Spotlight: Walloons

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Here are some new educational resources that just happen to be both creative and engaging.

Walloons!

What are walloons, you ask?

They’re wall decals shaped like balloons. You can use them as decorations and teaching tools.

These wall decals come in handy when you want to add a little pizzazz to your walls. They’re great anywhere that you might want to fill in the space between posters, and they are spectacular in cafeterias, exam rooms, classrooms, offices, and more! I created them after I got a request from our dietitian customer Sonya Angelone, MS, RD, who wanted to perk up her children’s school cafeteria. They have been hanging on the walls there ever since. Sonya said the walls looked bare and she wanted to have some fun and positive decals that matched our fruit and vegetable balloons. We had these drawn up by our artist and Sonya fell in love with them so we made a special order of these wall decals for her. We figured everyone else might want some. They are perfect for walls that cannot hang posters or walls that need sprucing up or small places. You can even stick them on bulletin boards. See below for our directions for how you can make your own, too!

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There are several varieties of walloons to choose from. Which best match your style?

The What’s on Your Fork? Walloons are the newest additions to the Nutrition Education Store and are perfect for National Nutrition Month. After all, the theme is “Put Your Best Fork Forward.”

Of course you can also make your own walloons. Draw a balloon with a black magic marker on a large white piece of paper. Copy it on a copy machine. Allow everyone to cut and paste their favorite food photos on the balloons. Then adhere the balloons to the wall using a 3d removable poster tape. This allows them to stick to the wall but keeps them removable, too. Of course you can also have everyone take pictures of their forks for your social media channel. Be sure to use a hashtag that reflects your name so you can post them with ease.

And, in case you missed it, here’s another Nutrition Month resource: the printable handout that comes with the What’s on Your Fork Bulletin Board Banner

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And here’s a peek at these walloons from the Nutrition Education Store