The Walton Family Foundation has provided funding to the Seafood Nutrition Partnership (SNP) to support the Eat Seafood America! campaign to help the fishing communities and seafood businesses that have championed sustainable seafood over the past two decades. As COVID-19 has disrupted the seafood supply chain in unprecedented ways, the Walton Family Foundation recognized immediately the tremendous urgency to encourage Americans to try seafood at home now that more people are cooking for themselves.
“The Eat Seafood America! campaign reminds consumers to support the fishing communities and sustainable seafood companies that have worked to provide us with healthy, sustainable food,” said Teresa Ish, Program Officer, Ocean Initiative at Walton Family Foundation. “The foundation is committed to supporting those partners who have worked alongside us to ensure that we have seafood now and in the future.”
SNP is experienced at conducting public health campaigns utilizing a combination of public relations outreach and advanced digital targeting technologies to reach consumers. Within the past couple weeks, SNP has organized a rapid-response, consumer-facing campaign and formed the Seafood4Health Action Coalition with 33 key organizations that support the seafood industry to collaborate in getting the campaign message out to the American consumer. To see a list of all organizations in the coalition, visit EatSeafoodAmerica.com.
“We sincerely appreciate this critical grant from the Walton Family Foundation in support of the Eat Seafood America! campaign. I am thankful for the organizations that have come together at this time with their unique talents to support our fishing communities to collectively encourage Americans to eat seafood and buy seafood,” said Linda Cornish, President of Seafood Nutrition Partnership. “We need to act quickly to protect our seafood industry from the economic challenges caused by COVID-19 and make sure healthy seafood is available for Americans now and after we come out of this crisis.”
On social channels, the #EatSeafoodAmerica hashtag, launched April 6, has quickly been adopted broadly by the U.S. seafood community, generating more than 1,000 social posts and 5.5 million impressions in the first two weeks.
For the campaign messages to go beyond the seafood community and reach more consumers, SNP will utilize the Walton Family Foundation grant to fund public relations outreach and digital media to encourage U.S. consumers to buy seafood from local fishermen and water farmers, restaurants for take-out, online and grocery stores.
This cornerstone gift from the Walton Family Foundation provides a portion of the project budget needed to get this message out to as many Americans as possible.
“We all need to work together to help save the sustainable seafood community in this critical time,” Ish said. “We encourage other foundations, companies, and individuals to support this campaign.”
ABOUT THE WALTON FAMILY FOUNDATION
The Walton Family Foundation is, at its core, a family-led foundation. The children and grandchildren of our founders, Sam and Helen Walton, lead the foundation and create access to opportunity for people and communities. We work in three areas: improving K-12 education, protecting rivers and oceans and the communities they support, and investing in our home region of Northwest Arkansas and the Arkansas-Mississippi Delta. To learn more, visit waltonfamilyfoundation.org.
ABOUT SEAFOOD NUTRITION PARTNERSHIP
Seafood Nutrition Partnership (SNP) is a national non-profit with a mission to inspire a healthier America by empowering seafood consumption as part of a balanced diet. SNP is addressing the country’s public health crisis through education programs that inspire Americans to incorporate more seafood and omega-3s into their diets for improved health as per USDA/HHS Dietary Guidelines for Americans, the American Heart Association, and many other leading health organizations. For more information, visit seafoodnutrition.org or follow @Seafood4Health and #Seafood2xWk on social media.
