A social media campaign encouraging people to enjoy seasonal Tasmanian-grown produce has taken off.
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Eat Well Tasmania champions healthy eating and aims to promote Tasmanian food through online initiatives.
After receiving a Healthy Tasmania Innovation Grant, the organisation launched a targeted social media campaign aimed at connecting Tasmanians with information about seasonal food – including where to eat it, where to buy it and who produces it.
Eat Well Tasmania state manager Leah Galvin said the project was enormously successful, offering recipes, tips and food inspiration as well as sharing the stories of Tasmanian producers.
“We learned an enormous amount and grew our online community significantly,” she said.
“We got our message in front of Tasmanians and people visiting Tasmania over 870,000 times in four months.
“This was achieved with a modest investment, but great partnerships with industry, community organisations and our online community who amplified our messages.
“We have some great partnerships with industry and the peak bodies.”
A not-for-profit organisation, Eat Well was established as part of the state government’s Tasmanian Food and Nutrition Strategy in the mid 90s and became an incorporated organisation in 2007.
Since the 2018 campaign, the organisation experienced a 33 per cent increase in its Facebook community and a 264 per cent increase to its Instagram following.
Now, Eat Well Tasmania has its sight set on increasing the state’s online social marketing towards healthier food consumption.
Ms Galvin said with a focus on prevention, better health outcomes could be more easily obtained.
“We would like to see a big campaign that gets the message to Tasmanians every day that enjoying seasonal food not only helps them to eat well, but supports our local growers, retailers, wholesalers, market stallholder and cafes and restaurants,” she said.
“These types of campaigns have been run interstate and had terrific results.
“The research says that this kind of investment give an excellent return on investment, so we believe should be part of a long term solution to decreasing demand on the Tasmanian health system.
For every dollar invested in prevention, the system could see savings of $14.
“We have never had a comprehensive campaign like this in Tasmania, so it would be exciting to have something that was truly Tasmanian, tells the stories of our amazing food and the people who are part of it and provides lots of useful tips.”
Applications for the Tasmanian Government’s Healthy Tasmania Community Innovation Grants are open until November 2, with funds made available to successful applicants in January.
For more information can be found here.
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Jessica Willard
Being a health reporter to me is about more than just reporting the problems. It's about asking why they are happening in the first place and what needs to change to fix it.
Being a health reporter to me is about more than just reporting the problems. It's about asking why they are happening in the first place and what needs to change to fix it.
