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Government Relations: GROW - Government Advocacy

PMA Grassroots Employer Toolkit - Site Visits

Successful advocates find opportunities to bring elected officials or their staff to their facility, office or other business-related space. These are called site visits, and they are essential to delivering the produce marketing policy message. Policy makers need to see first hand how their decisions will positively (or negatively) impact their constituents.

Following are some ideas to consider when putting together a site visit:

• Great ideas for site visits.
• Step-by-Step Timeline for organizing the visit.
• Template outreach letter / e-mail to employees about being involved (all employees and key players).
• Flyers for posting in employee areas.

Great ideas for site visits

1. Bring an elected official to your facility to demonstrate how fruits and vegetables are processed.
2. Invite an elected official to participate in an essential activity that they might never otherwise undertake, such as harvesting.
3. Have an elected official meet with some of your transportation and packaging staff to learn more about product safety.
4. Pull together an "all employee" meeting and ask elected officials to join in. Pick a positive topic to focus on, like your company's efforts to reduce obesity or improve healthy eating habits in students.
5. Have your local elected officials participate in a "day in the life of produce," where they follow a product from harvest to packaging to delivery.
6. Show an elected official a behind the scenes view of produce in the grocery or restaurant environment.
7. Put together a meeting with representatives from all aspects of the produce industry to discuss the many steps between harvest and delivery to the end user.
8. Have an elected official spend some time in the backend of your office learning about sales, marketing and promotion efforts.
9. Ask elected officials in your area to participate in a "celebrity cook-off" using their favorite fruits and vegetables.
10. Partner with groups in your community that you support, such as schools, and develop a visit that shows elected officials the benefits of certain programs, like getting more fruits and vegetables in the schools.