APR 419 Group Project: Mini Com Plan Specifics Group Members: Downing Huffstutler, Kevin Lake, Susan

LaMoreaux, Katie OLaughlin, Trip Pruitt Description The purpose Secret Meals is to reduce the number of hungry children in Alabama. Secret Meals discretely puts prepackaged meals in underprivileged childrens backpacks while they are having recess. This food is meant to provide these children with the nutritional value they need for weekends. Secret Meals was founded five years ago when West Alabama teachers noticed a need for the program. The West Alabama Food Bank and Alabama Credit Union quickly joined forces with Secret Meals. When the program started Secret Meals served 18 students. Now it serves 901 students in Alabama, including 654 students in the Tuscaloosa area. Key Facts Nutritionally healthy children learn better, feel better and have greater selfesteem. Without proper nutrition, children may suffer physical and developmental setbacks. Secret Meals is modeled after Feeding America, a national program. Alabama has one of the highest poverty rates in the country. More than 20 percent of children from Alabama live under the poverty level. Teachers look for telltale signs that a child is not receiving proper nutritional value at home. Clues include eating everything that is available, particularly early in the week, and hoarding food as the weekend approaches. Secret Meals contacts schools in advance to make sure they bring enough food packs for children in need. Meals provided are nutritionally sound, easy for kids to prepare and lightweight so children can easily carry their backpacks. School counselors reported that children look forward to receiving the food packs. Parents are not made aware of the meals to avoid food being taken away by and adult or older child. Secret Meals has 10 total employees. Secret Meals is an expanding program. 100 percent of donations go directly to Secret Meals and are tax deductible.

Target Publics Internal Publics

Cashiers who are selling the backpacks Managers at all of the Piggly Wiggly Grocery Stores

External Publics Grocery Store Customers A. Middle Class Families B. Large Hispanic & African American customer base C. Large elderly customer base D. Local restaurant owners buying for their business E. Customers shopping for Thanksgiving College Students Citizens of the city of Tuscaloosa

Objectives/Messages/Strategies/Tactics Objectives 1: Produce funds Message 1: This Thanksgiving grant a childs wish donate a dollar to Secret Meals at the checkout counter. Message 2: 20% of Alabamas children live below the poverty line. Strategy: Work with local Piggly Wiggly stores to help reach their consumers Tactic 1: Sell paper backpacks to consumers for $1 at the stores registers Tactic 2: Advertise by hanging posters on the front entrance and placing flyers on each register Tactic 3: Run press release on local media outlets and run PSA on WVUA-FM Objective 2: Gain awareness Message: Thanksgiving comes once a year these kids are hungry everyday. Strategy 1: Hang posters throughout Reese Phifer and various places around campus Strategy 2: Work with cashiers at each of the stores to help get the message across about what Secret Meals is Tactic 1: Educate cashiers about Secret Meals Tactic 2: Offer an incentive to the cashiers to sell the most Tactic 3: Place scripts at each of the registers for cashiers to read off to customers who are curious about the program Timeline October 20, 2011- Have all promotion pieces completed and ready to send to the printers

October 25, 2011- Turn in at least 5 fully developed promotion pieces in class October 28, 2011- Meeting with Jay Welborn (Owner of Piggly Wiggly) to discuss our plans and goals October 28, 2011- Travel to all of the Piggly Wiggly Stores to meet with store managers and cashiers to explain what the Secret Meals for Hungry Children organization is and why it is important to raise money. October 28, 2011- Meet With Crimson White journalist to discuss our fundraiser October 31, 2011 - Deliver all promotion pieces to Piggly Wiggly stores November 1, 2011- Fundraiser Begins November 1, 2011- Take pictures of event beginning and video footage of cashiers selling the paper backpacks November 3, 2011- Visit the Piggly Wiggly stores to check on the progress of the fundraiser November 5, 2011- Visit the Piggly Wiggly stores to check on the progress of the fundraiser November 5, 2011- Take more pictures of event and more video footage November 7, 2011- Visit the Piggly Wiggly stores to check on the progress of the fundraiser and make one final push for the cashiers to sell as many paper backpacks as they can on the final day November 8- Last day of fundraiser November 9, 2011- Visit the Piggly Wiggly Stores to clean up our advertisements and collect money November 9, 2011- Present the cashier who sold the most paper backpacks with their reward November 9, 2011- Have completed video commercial for client November 9, 2011- Have presentation completed and ready to present to client November 10, 2011- Rehearsal for presentation and PowerPoint file November 15, 2011- Present to Client November 18, 2011- Evaluation completed Evaluation Ideas

Financial indicators: increase or decrease in sales/donations. Did working with the grocery store increase the monetary gain? Before-and-after comparisons: measuring changes in awareness, attitudes, and behaviors. Did awareness for Secret Meals improve? Did our event change the publics attitude and behaviors towards Secret Meals? It relates to the financial indicators. We can measure the increase in awareness, change in attitude, and change in behavior by looking at the increase or decrease in sales/donations. Did we increase awareness by giving the cashiers an incentive to sell the paper backpacks? Did we increase awareness, attitudes, and behaviors through our advertising? This can be measured by the number of people who claim they came to the store just so that they could donate. Social media/ Analysis of media coverage: monitor blogs, social networking sites, and forums to see what customers are saying about Secret Meals. Know the listening area for the public service announcement, so we can measure its effectiveness. How many people did we reach, and were they a part of our key audience?