FoodWIse has a new partnership with WIC and Festival Foods, conducting grocery store tours to the WIC Fit Families participants. Melanie Phillips, FoodWIse Nutrition Educator, conducted two grocery store tours at the Fond du Lac Festival Foods, in which 7 participants attended. Phillips took participants around the store and highlighted key shopping tips, such as reading food labels, comparing unit prices, finding whole grains, and different ways to purchase produce to save money.

At the end of the tour, participants completed the $10 challenge, in which they had to find one item from each of the five food groups using the tips they just learned. They purchased their items with a $10 gift card Festival Foods donated to the program.

Evaluations found that 86% of participants felt “very confident” or “completely confident” to make the most of their WIC fruit and vegetable vouchers after taking the tour. 100% of participants felt “very confident” or “completely confident” to identify WIC foods at the grocery store after taking this tour. Overall, 29% indicated “I liked this tour,” and 71% indicated “I REALLY liked this tour.”

As facilitator of the grocery store tours, Melanie Phillips has been trained through the Cooking Matters at the Store online training.