Kowalski's to Launch Nutrition Program

ROSEANNE HARPER

ST. PAUL, Minn. — Kowalski's Markets here is set to launch a different kind of nutrition program, company officials told SN.

The chainwide program will put a focus each quarter on a particular aspect of health maintenance, such as keeping bones strong, preventing heart disease or building a strong immune system. Product tags with a colorful logo will draw customers to items known to provide the nutrients that help do these specific jobs.

“We want people to know what particular foods can do for them, and we want to send the positive message that we're celebrating food — its quality, its taste and its health benefits,” said Susan Moores, a registered dietitian and consultant who helped Kowalski's develop the program.

“There are a lot of programs out there, but I believe ours takes a step up.”

Called “Good Foods for Good Health — A Celebration of Eating Well,” the venture is designed to send this message: Great-tasting, high-quality foods can provide excellent — and specific — health benefits.

The program gets its official send-off on April 12. That morning, Moores will be interviewed on a local NBC-TV affiliate's morning show.

”We'll explain how the program works, and I suspect we'll surprise people with how enjoyable it can be to eat for good health. For this particular segment, we'll focus on how to enjoy the great taste of good foods for strong bones,” Moores told SN last week. ‘We'll compare our program to others and explain what makes ours special.”

Stores will be decked out with colorful banners sporting the program's logo. Informative brochures will be handed out, and associates will be ready to talk to customers about the program. Tags on products, too, will call attention to items particularly beneficial to bone health.

“We think people will be happy to find that some of the foods they've already been eating provide health benefits that they'd want,” Moores said.

The focus on bone strength during the program's rollout is fitting, she said, because it will build the structure, or the foundation — much as the skeleton does for the body — for an ongoing program with a new theme every three months.

“Also, there has been a lot of interest recently in bone health,” Moores said, “with research and a lot written about it. So starting off, it was easier, because we didn't have to dig very deep for solid information [to share with customers].”

She emphasized that the program will make its messages relevant to all of Kowalski's shoppers, cutting across age groups.

For instance, while young people may take bone strength for granted and feel the program doesn't apply to them, it most certainly does, and that will be brought to their attention via posters, brochures, conversations generated by associates, and interactive features on the company's website.

“In fact, 75% of bone structure in the human body is built between the ages of 12 and 18. It's important for people to know that,” Moores said.

Partnering with a university to have nutrition education students join the Kowalski's team, at least on a temporary basis, has been discussed as one way the company may reach out to teens and young adults.

Regular store demos are planned. Associates, for instance, may show customers how easy it is to prepare Swiss chard, a vegetable they may not be familiar with, but one that is rich in minerals and vitamins that promote bone strength.

“Also, our chefs right now are working on recipes that contain nutrients especially beneficial to bone health,” Moores said.

“Everybody thinks of calcium when they think of building bones, and then their next thought is of dairy, but they'll see lots of prepared foods and produce items flagged,” Moores said.

“And calcium is not alone in benefiting bone health. Vitamin D is critical. Some other elements beneficial to healthy bones include potassium, copper, magnesium, manganese, zinc, and vitamins K and C.”

Certainly dairy products and fruits and vegetables play a huge role — even iceberg lettuce is a bone benefactor — but so do nuts, legumes, whole grains, meat and some fish. Numerous items in the grocery aisle qualify as well.

Moores said the chain's owners, Jim and Mary Anne Kowalski, and their daughter Kris Kowalski-Christiansen have been focused for a long time on planning the launch of a nutrition program, but they wanted it to be significantly different from others.

Moores added that other nutrition programs often focus on what foods do not contain. For example, certain foods are indicated to be low in, or free of, sodium, fat or cholesterol. “We will be emphasizing the positives.”

The whole team is involved, including managers and store-level associates at the eight-unit independent.

“They're excited about the program. Our corporate chef has called me several times to suggest menu items he believes will fit into the program,” Moores said.

Someone at each store has been designated as the go-to person. If an associate can't answer a customer's question regarding nutrition or about the program itself, for instance, he or she will see that the question gets answered quickly.

The next quarter's theme will be brain health.

“That'll be timely, because by July people will have begun thinking about back-to-school,” Moores said.

From a consumer's perspective, the program should seem simple.

Often, nutrition-education endeavors provide too much information in a fashion that's difficult to follow, and therefore they overwhelm, rather than educate, customers. Kowalski's officials say they expect that a new theme each quarter with a tight focus will be effective in keeping people's attention.

The Kowalski's culture, which directly involves associates as well as managers in project planning, helps cultivate a solid connection between the company's staff and its customers. This program is expected to strengthen that bond.

“People are looking for information, and fun ways to find it,” Moores said. “We want to give them that experience.”