Baker Harrell, founder of the non-profit organization, ACTIVE Life (AL), and its leading initiative: IT’S TIME TEXAS (ITT), believes that the fresh produce industry has a rare opportunity to both directly benefit and advance the movement to make healthy the norm.

Over the last 50 years, unhealthy has become the new normal in America. We are reminded of this reality as we drop our kids off at school and realize that physical education has all but been eliminated, every time we go through our long workday and realize we have hardly moved from our office chairs, and every time we use the drive-thru to pick up calorie and fat-laden highly-processed meals.

When addressing this situation, the press often reduces these myriad societal changes into a one-word headline: “obesity.” But the rising rates of obesity in America are merely one symptom of these changes, not the cause. While obesity is a serious issue for our country and its people, we must move beyond our narrow focus on disease and single behaviors to think about and address the root problem—our unhealthy norm.

I founded the non-profit ACTIVE Life in 2009 with a small team of individuals, who, like me, believed that our unhealthy norm crisis demanded a social change solution. We knew that in America, the most successful, pro-social change vehicles have always been social movements, so we created ACTIVE Life to serve as an “organizational incubator” for a first-of-its-kind movement to make healthy the norm. Over the last three years, we have worked tirelessly with a powerful team of advisors and partners, including H-E-B, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas, and DMA Solutions to develop this movement and give it a name.

We call this movement IT’S TIME TEXAS. Our mission is wide-sweeping, yet simple: motivate and mobilize people to make healthy the norm where they live, learn, work, worship, and shop. Our goal is to build this movement in the Lone Star State and have it quickly expand to other states.

In order to be successful, we realize that we must achieve two, critical, social change benchmarks:

1. We have to inspire and empower all people to demand healthy by becoming health-conscious consumers.

2.  We must work with and celebrate those industries and companies that are leading the charge and increasingly demonstrate the business case for a healthy norm.

Of all industries, the fresh produce industry is uniquely positioned to not only capitalize on this movement, but to help lead it. There are two core reasons that make this the case: one, its products (fresh fruits and vegetables) are literally prescribed by the government as key to a healthy lifestyle, and two, the success of the industry is directly related to the movement to make healthy the norm and a key measure of the movement’s success.

To take advantage of this rare opportunity, the industry, including the farms and proud families that comprise it, must do the following three things::

1. Partner with the Cause

For the healthy norm cause to be successful, it must partner with those industries that share its values and goals. The fresh produce industry has the unique opportunity to be a founding partner with the cause to help shape and propel it so that it produces maximum value for the industry and so that the partnership can inspire and serve as a model for other industries.

2. Reinvent Cause Marketing 

In most cause marketing programs, there is typically a direct financial link between a product and a cause’s mission, but rarely does the sale/consumption of that product actually directly advance that cause’s mission. For example, the sale of a pink shirt may benefit the Komen organization but the wearing of that shirt does not directly reduce the likelihood that its wearer will develop breast cancer. The fresh produce industry, on the other hand, has the rare opportunity to both directly benefit and advance the healthy norm cause, and this creates innumerable opportunities for the cause and industry to innovate and elevate the practice of cause marketing.

3. Engage the School Sector

The industry, especially its farms and farmers, must seek out opportunities to educate teachers, students and families and help equip schools and school leaders to better serve their products to students. Thanks to the efforts of groups like the National Farm to School Network and dedicated, progressive physical educators and food service professionals, there has never been a better opportunity for the industry to connect with the school community.

We created IT’S TIME TEXAS to help industry play a key role in the cause to make healthy the norm, and we are honored to have recently partnered with DMA Solutions to help guide and facilitate our strong focus on partnership with the fresh produce industry. As an example of our commitment to the fresh produce industry and our work with DMA, IT’S TIME TEXAS recently produced the 3^rd annual IT’S TIME TEXAS Summit in partnership with Frontera Produce and Crescent Fruit and Vegetable. The Summit brought together hundreds of key influencers and champions for health from the school, governmental, and corporate sectors in Texas, and while the Summit was a first, small step, we could not be more excited to continue to build upon our partnership with our friends at Frontera and Crescent and engage the broader industry.

More than one third of all U.S. children born in 2000 are projected to develop type 2 diabetes in their lifetime. It’s time to make sure that does not happen. It’s time to take a social change approach. It’s time for the business community to get deeply involved. It’s time to work together.

The movement to make healthy the norm is just getting started. We hope you will join us!

Posted by: Guest Writer Baker Harrell (Founder of ACTIVE Life and IT’S TIME TEXAS)