Marketing and Visibility

The second year VISTA took on the role of creating handouts, flyers and posters through Microsoft Office for the classes and demonstrations that were offered by the Community Food department. The templates for all these advertisements were saved to the host site’s server so that they can be replicated and reused for future programs. Keeping a consistency design for each program also provided a sense of clarity for the message and the intention of the programs. A photo folder on the server at the host site was added to throughout the year one and year two VISTA terms. Keeping this folder updated with photos from the project taken by the VISTA or other participants was a great way to document the progress and results of the project throughout the year. It is to be noted that all participants were asked verbal permission before taking and sharing photos taken during program events.

Social media postings worked particularly well in advertising for Community Food events and the events were shared through the Community Action Center’s Facebook account. Tagging other contributing organizations who were involved with community events to a post and publicly thanking them also maintained good communication and built up a relationship with that organization. Some of the key contributing organizations in and around Pullman were the Moscow Food COOP, WSU Organic Farm, Pullman Chamber of Commerce and Lion’s Club, the Center for Civic Engagement at WSU, Dissmore’s IGA, and the Pullman Public School District. 

The Community Food department developed their relationships with other like-minded organizations in the community by using events and projects as an opportunity to collaborate with different organizations to achieve a goal. Recognizing shared successes after a project goes well fortifies the department’s relationships with these organizations and displaying collaboration and teamwork among nonprofits that serve the community has been received well by the community members whom we serve.

Tabling was another method used to invite people to events and to gather information about community needs and feedback about past events. Tabling was also conducted to gather information at Farmers Markets and to distribute information at student fairs, county fairs, and regional food coalition events.