Whole Grains Month is September, and Whole Grain Sampling Day is the first Wednesday in April. Both these occasions are the perfect time for supermarkets to open their customers’ eyes to the health benefits of whole grains, while making them aware of the many whole grain choices available in almost every aisle.

We’ve created a versatile education program, designed especially for supermarkets and for Whole Grains Month: our Whole Grains Store Tour, available in English and Spanish.

To be honest, though, our Store Tour is also a great resource for RDs and other community health professionals too – and it’s perfect for any month of the year. So go ahead and take advantage of it, even if you don’t work at a grocery store, and even in June or July!

What’s in the Free Kit?

This Whole Grains Store Tour kit includes everything you need to plan and carry out a successful Whole Grains Store Tour event to celebrate Whole Grains Month, including:

  • A Leader’s Guide with suggested tips, ideas and scripts for your event

  • In-store signage you can customize, print, and post in your store (English & Spanish)

  • A Signup Sheet, so you’ll know who plans to take part (English & Spanish)

  • A sample community notice / press release template, also customizable (English & Spanish)

  • A Permission Letter, for outside health professionals to use in approaching a local supermarket about offering a tour with their own group.

  • Whole Grains 101 Powerpoint presentation with background notes (English & Spanish)

  • A Reference to Reading Labels on whole grain products (English & Spanish)

  • An aisle-by-aisle Shopping List, which doubles as your tour itinerary (English & Spanish)

  • Ideas for in-store sampling and tasting of whole grains

  • “Whole Grains Made Easy” Fact Sheet (English & Spanish)

  • Recipe Pack of a dozen easy, family-friendly whole grain recipes (English & Spanish)

How to get your Whole Grains Store Tour kit

The Whole Grains Store Tour kit is free, and can be downloaded immediately right here. The master PDF file contains printouts of everything, and there are separate downloadable files of the three customizable dcuments (the In-store signage, Permission Letter, and Press Release Template as MS Word .doc files, and the Whole Grains 101 as a PowerPoint .ppt file).

Whole Grains Store Tour Master File (PDF of all of the above)
In English (10.7MB PDF) download English now in Spanish (10.6MB PDF) download Spanish now

Whole Grains 101 Powerpoint
In English (5.1MB PPT) download English now
In Spanish (1.8MB PPT) download Spanish now

In-store Signage
In English (279K DOC) download English nowIn Spanish (284K DOC) download Spanish now

Store Permission Letter
In English (118K DOC) download English now

Press Release Template
In English (462K DOC) download English nowIn Spanish (396K DOC) download Spanish now

If for any reason you would prefer to have the Whole Grains Store Tour on a CD, email Kelly Toups, RD, with your name and address and we’ll send you one that includes both the English and Spanish. (That said, it’s great if you can download it, so we can use our time and money to get going on our next fun whole grains project.)

Other Resources for Healthy Shopping

If you enjoy this Whole Grains Store Tour, you may also enjoy other resources from Oldways, the parent organization of the Whole Grains Council.

Oldways Mediterranean Resources
Oldways has been promoting the Mediterranean Diet since 1990. Check out the Mediterranean resources for health professionals on our website, or contact Sara Baer-Sinnott (617-896-4848), to learn more about our resources and programs for supermarkets and RDs.

Oldways Latino Nutrition Collection
You can access a wealth of Spanish resources on the Oldways website as part of our Latino Nutrition Collection.  These resources include Camino Mágico, a bilingual Spanish/English shopping guide that illustrates how a return to delicious traditional foods (adapted to today’s lifestyles) can help Latinos enjoy better health.