Meijer talks turkey with help from National Turkey Federation

In preparation for Thanksgiving and beyond, Meijer held a Twitter chat on Nov. 16 to talk to customers about turkey preparation.

The chat made use of new retailer resources from the National Turkey Federation as well as recipes and other expertise from Jennie-O.

“I’ve been in the supermarket business quite a while, and every year Thanksgiving rolls around, people have the same questions. How much do I buy? How do I thaw? How do I cook and prepare in different ways?” said Shari Steinbach, Meijer’s health and wellness nutrition manager.

Earlier this month, the National Turkey Federation rolled out a new program called “Today’s Turkey” to help retailers promote the poultry throughout the year. Recipes, fact sheets and other resources are available on a new website, ServeTurkey.org.

Steinbach is also a member of the National Turkey Federation’s Nutrition Advisory Board.

This was Meijer’s third Twitter chat of the year. Steinbach said she was excited to partner with Jennie-O and the National Turkey Federation.

“We have a better reach when we have partners on our Twitter parties. We have the right information that we don’t have to create ourselves,” said Steinbach.

Meijer plans to further make use of the Today’s Turkey resources through its five-member retail dietitian team. To help customers with healthy meal ideas, Steinbach and Meijer’s dietitians use traditional media, social media and the retailer’s digital channels.

The website ahealthieryou.meijer.com features weekly meal plans and blog posts that could incorporate some of the Today’s Turkey fact sheets. Meijer also posts recipes to Pinterest.

Steinbach said turkey fits in well with consumers’ general desire for healthy foods.

“Like I said, we’re trying to eat healthier. Want to eat at home. But we don’t know what to do. And it’s got to be easy. It’s got to be affordable, like I said. Those are my first criteria. And then we show them healthier,” said Steinbach.

In the summer, Steinbach said she might feature a recipe for turkey tenderloin kebabs.

“Well I cut those up into chunks. I thread them on skewers with pineapple, fresh pineapple, and some colorful peppers and throw it on brown rice, and people are like, oh I never thought about the turkey tenderloin,” said Steinbach.

Additionally, the dietitians plan to link their efforts to Meijer’s merchandising and demo teams.

“We’re trying to bring more of that education into the store with our meat department, with our demo company. What demos are going on? How are they answering the questions?” said Steinbach.

At the same time, she added that Meijer’s dietitians lead the way because they are the “food experts”

“So how do we use that information and amplify our message through our in-store team members, to our demo company, and all of those, as well as then traditional media, social media, all of the stuff that we do.”

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