IDEAS for NATIONAL
FOOD SAFETY EDUCATION MONTH^TM
ACTIVITIES

The purpose of National Food Safety Education Month^TM (NFSEM) is to focus public attention on foodborne illness and the safe food handling practices consumers can follow to stay healthy. You may already be involved in similar or related education and information activities that are ongoing throughout the year, but we hope you will take advantage of this timely opportunity to extend your programs to embrace NFSEM and this year's theme, Keep It Clean. The message for this year is: Wash hands, utensils and kitchen surfaces often to prevent foodborne illness.

Listed below are some NFSEM campaign suggestions that we hope will be helpful. We have included in this Planning Guide some reproducible tools to help you bring the NFSEM message to your community: media materials and food safety information, activity materials, logos and art work. All of these tools are also available on the Internet at <www.foodsafety.gov/september.html>. Of course, you know your own areas best so don't be afraid to try out your own ideas. Also, think about extending your reach by partnering with other food safety educators in your community. In any case, please let us know what you do by completing and sending us the feedback form in this guide. Successful new ideas and new wrinkles to old ones will be featured in the Planning Guide for NFSEM '99.

Shopping malls, supermarkets, senior and community centers, schools and libraries, day care centers, health fairs, community and youth organizations, recreational events, hospitals and HMO's are good places for disseminating NFSEM information.

1. Set up an NFSEM exhibit in a shopping mall, a supermarket, a community center, or a health fair. Partner with a youth, student or community organization to staff the exhibit and distribute the copies of the FIGHT BAC! leaflet, the Rate Your Kitchen for Food Safety Checklist, the food safety quiz and the coloring materials you'll find in this Planning Guide. Ask a computer retailer to lend equipment to demonstrate how to access NFSEM and other food safety information on the Internet.
2. Partner with schools and libraries, senior and community centers to display and distribute copies of the NFSEM materials in this Guide. Where possible, incorporate a demonstration of computer access to the materials.
3. Speak to senior groups about the special importance of food safety for older persons because of their heightened susceptibility to severe foodborne illness as a result of age or underlying chronic conditions.
4. Partner with schools in your community to hold coloring contests (copy the coloring pages in this Guide or have students pull the pages down from the Internet at <www:cfsan.fda.gov>) with BAC FIGHTER certificates for all participants and plaques or ribbons donated by local businesses for the winners.
5. Arrange for an NFSEM exhibit at health-related local races/walks/bike rides during the month.
6. Mail NFSEM materials to day care center directors and encourage them to reproduce and distribute these materials to parents or use the information in center newsletters.
7. Encourage day care center directors to Hold a "Kids' Clean Hands Awareness Day." Alternatively, partner with the health department, university, etc., to hold a "Kids' Clean Hands Awareness Day" and invite day care center directors to bring children to it. Attractions could include coloring books, color BAC contests, etc.
8. Encourage local elementary schools to hold a food safety/handwashing day featuring stories for children about the importance of cleanliness/handwashing, coloring materials, and poster and essay contests on the theme, Clean -- Wash hands and surfaces often to prevent foodborne illness.
9. Send the NFSEM press release to school nurses, encouraging reproduction and distribution to students as an attachment to September breakfast/lunch menus.
10. Partner with local Girl Scout/Boy Scout troops to offer a special ribbon, medal or certificate to scouts involved in activities promoting the NFSEM theme.
11. Hold a library day featuring stories to read to children about the importance of cleanliness/handwashing, or offering food safety education seminars for kids using BAC displays, buttons, coloring books, and game pages. Also, NFSEM materials and articles could be distributed to libraries to display and use in newsletters.

Television, radio and print media are the most efficient way of getting food safety information before large numbers of people. Typically, local media want to be involved with the communities they serve, especially regarding health issues. Many food-related businesses -- e.g., food retailers and restaurants -- are already actively involved in NFSEM and are potential sponsors for media initiatives.

1. Distribute the public service announcements in this Guide to radio stations in your community and ask that be they broadcast at various times of day during NFSEM.
2. Encourage local television stations to make slides of the FIGHT BAC! and NSFEM logos in this Guide or of the visuals available at our Internet address and broadcast them during NFSEM, using the public service announcements as scripts for voice-overs.
3. Send the press release and the reproducible NFSEM art work in this guide to local newspapers, journals and magazines with a request that they cover NFSEM. Inquire about a special newspaper insert or supplement for NFSEM. Some papers will print one supplement free per month for various causes, while others will sell ad space in the supplement to offset printing costs.
4. Advertise NFSEM on the Weather Channel, by having the "crawler" (words moving across the bottom of the screen) include messages about food safety and, especially, handwashing. Local food retailers or restaurants may be interested in sponsoring the messages. This will require about three months' lead-time to contact the local cable TV company's advertising staff, negotiate a rate, create the text, and submit to the station.
5. Partner with local media and businesses to cosponsor: spelling contests for elementary and middle school students using words relating to food safety and foodborne diseases; poster contests, with entries exhibited in the cafeteria or homerooms; or essay contests on the theme, Keep It Clean -- Wash hands and surfaces often to prevent foodborne illness. All participants could get recognition favors, such as FIGHT BAC! pencils or erasers to "rub out BAC," with winners receiving media recognition, certificates or plaques and prizes donated by the sponsors
6. In partnership with a local newspaper and a local restaurant, run a coloring contest picture of BAC for children to color and enter, either by submitting to the restaurant or the newspaper. Entries could be displayed in the restaurant, with prizes for the winners.
7. Many newspapers have sections targeted to children. Work with dailies or weeklies in your area to feature NFSEM and the children's food safety materials in this guide in their Kid's Pages.

^TM International Food Safety Council

^* Distributed July 1998 for use in September 1998 as part of the International Food Safety Council's National Food Safety Education Month.