Hello everyone! My name is Michelle and I am a New Bedford campus intern with a concentration in culinary! Recently, I had the opportunity to spend a week with the supermarket RD’s at a grocery store chain, called Big Y. Before I realized this was part of the culinary requirements, I wanted to dabble in this kind of setting anyway. I think having RDs in grocery stores just makes sense. Many people only go to the doctor’s office once a year, but go to the grocery store every week! With so many commercials and food marketers targeting various audiences, it is really difficult to filter through the marketing ploys. If I, as a student of nutrition, have a hard time keeping up with all these new food items, imagine how the average consumer must feel!
During my time with them I learned how much work goes into this job. They have so many hats to wear, on any given day. I learned that a large portion of their job is to write short consumer education marketing pieces. I took on many projects like this when I wrote a short article highlighting fresh fall produce, writing for the newspaper, their newsletter and their website, and developing a small recipe card with diabetes management tips on the back. At Big Y, they have two corporate RDs and 3 store RDs. Their store RDs are the ones who conduct supermarket tours and other small community presentation events. They only work 10 hours a week and rotate between different stores, since the demand isn’t as high in this geographical area. I’d really like to see these services become more popular and widespread as this job market expands and people see the value in having a supermarket RD.
The corporate RDs work with retailors and brands to decide what products to highlight in their newsletter and which ones to market in the store. They write for the newspaper, maintain their social media platforms, answer consumer questions on their website, and they film food demonstrations for live TV! I got to see so much, and I was given such a variety of tasks that I really grew even more fond of this field. A lot of this job is community driven. If there can be someone physically in the store to recommend healthier options, educate about label reading and food packaging for special diets or allergies, and just be there as a source of abundant knowledge, I think more people would appreciate the role RDs have. Having an RD in store provides a resource that can be trusted for evidence-based and reliable answers.
During my time with them I learned how much work goes into this job. They have so many hats to wear, on any given day. I learned that a large portion of their job is to write short consumer education marketing pieces. I took on many projects like this when I wrote a short article highlighting fresh fall produce, writing for the newspaper, their newsletter and their website, and developing a small recipe card with diabetes management tips on the back. At Big Y, they have two corporate RDs and 3 store RDs. Their store RDs are the ones who conduct supermarket tours and other small community presentation events. They only work 10 hours a week and rotate between different stores, since the demand isn’t as high in this geographical area. I’d really like to see these services become more popular and widespread as this job market expands and people see the value in having a supermarket RD.
The corporate RDs work with retailors and brands to decide what products to highlight in their newsletter and which ones to market in the store. They write for the newspaper, maintain their social media platforms, answer consumer questions on their website, and they film food demonstrations for live TV! I got to see so much, and I was given such a variety of tasks that I really grew even more fond of this field. A lot of this job is community driven. If there can be someone physically in the store to recommend healthier options, educate about label reading and food packaging for special diets or allergies, and just be there as a source of abundant knowledge, I think more people would appreciate the role RDs have. Having an RD in store provides a resource that can be trusted for evidence-based and reliable answers.
