Apples4Ed
The U.S. Apple Association’s Apples4Ed campaign is a grant that awards 5 public schools across the country $4,000 each to implement an educational snacking program that promotes healthy eating. Mekanic developed a new creative direction for the 2018-2019 Apples4Ed campaign that emphasized the critical role that healthy eating plays in ensuring students can have a healthy future. Not only does a healthy snacking grant offer schools the opportunity to provide supplemental nutrition that is essential for so many students across the country, but adding an educational component that teaches students how to make healthy snacking choices benefits them after the school year ends. Mekanic brought this concept to life with photography of students seated at desks with an apple snack, daydreaming about their futures. The photos were overlaid with illustrations about what they might be when they grow up—engineers, designers, teachers, scientists, writers. Paired with the tagline “When I Grow Up, I Want to Be… Healthy,” this creative direction shows how healthy eating is a critical component of being able to pursue one’s dreams as an adult. School nutritionists, administrators, teachers, and staff were engaged through social media campaigns, email campaigns, and through partnerships with the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture and the School Nutrition Association. Applicants used a microsite with an online form developed by Mekanic to submit their applications.
