Worksite Wellness Programs

Ideas to Incorporate Fruits & Veggies—More Matters® Messaging & More Fruits and Vegetables

Improve Cafeteria Options

o   Have your cafeterias provide healthful, tasty food.  Information on many fruits and vegetables can be found in PBH’s database, http://www.fruitsandveggiesmorematters.org/?page_id=164

o   Change food preparation techniques, menus, and food offerings so employees can choose items that fit into a healthful diet. 

o   Offer and make available helpful and nutritional tips.  The PBH Get Smart tips, located at www.pbhfoundation.org make great, inexpensive hand-outs.  Just click, print, and the tips are ready to give to your employees.  Planning, shopping, and cooking tips can be found throughout the www.fruitsandveggiesmorematters.org site.

o   If you contract-out for food services, work with the food service contractor to develop menus and meals meeting the U.S. Dietary Guidelines.  Menu and meal planning is an easy way to incorporate more fruits and vegetables in your cafeteria offerings.

o   Introduce a new fruit or vegetable through promotions and taste tests.

o   Proudly display Fruits & Veggies—More Matters signage throughout your cafeteria.  Scroll through the PBH online catalog, www.pbhcatalog.org, to find a variety of signs and posters.

Improve Vending Machine Options

o   Provide healthful options in vending machines.  This can be done through work with a local, for-profit vendor, or by buying vending machines for your worksite and stocking them with healthful foods.

o   Beware of “fruit drinks” when you ask for 100% juice to be added to machines.

o   Ensure a wide variety of healthier products in vending-size packaging are available (dried fruit is a great form to include in a vending machine).

o   A refrigerated unit would expand the number of healthful options you could sell (fresh fruit, salads, and low-fat yogurt with fruit added in).

o   Subsidize healthful items such as fruits and vegetables by charging more for less healthful items.

Direct Marketing of Fresh Produce at Worksites

o   Organize a Farmers’ Market at your worksite through local farmers or through your employee base.  Some percentage of employees plant gardens each year, and there is always extra harvest to be sold at your company’s Farmers Market.

o   Hold a kick-off event and conduct ongoing publicity of the market.

o   Provide recipes for items sold at the market, especially for unusual produce.  Great recipes can be found at www.fruitsandveggiesmorematters.org.

o   Proudly display Fruits & Veggies—More Matters signage throughout the market.  Scroll through the PBH online catalog, www.pbhcatalog.org, to find a variety of signs and posters.

Create Food Policies

o   Establish nutrition standards for food served at meeting, banquets, etc.  Policies could address the following: 1) inclusion of a variety of fruits and vegetables, 2) healthful alternatives at all company-sponsored events, 3) offering 100% juice instead of soda, and 4) cafeteria foods that follow the U.S. Dietary Guidelines.

Special Nutrition Promotions

o   Increase awareness about the importance of good nutrition by conducting campaigns around a specific food or group (a specific fruit and vegetable or a group of fruits and vegetables).  The promotions should involve multiple channels (email messages, bulletin boards, posters, etc.) and have a very simple message such as Fruits & Veggies—More Matters.

o   Develop a plan for promoting the food/group.

o   Consider conducting the special promotion during a nationally observed health week/month such as National Nutrition Month in March or National Fruits & Veggies—More Matters Month in September.

Salad Bowl Lunches

o   Instead of ordering out during a working lunch, each participant can bring a salad ingredient (a great way to incorporate a variety of fruits and vegetables) in a serving container.  Arrange the food on a table and have the meeting participants go through the line and build a healthful salad.  This is a great way to introduce your staff to fruits and vegetables that they may not have considered adding to salads, and everyone will have  a healthy, tasty lunch that costs considerably less than ordering out.

Lastly, link your company employee or wellness site to ours!  It’s easy to do, costs nothing, and is a great way to enhance your worksite wellness program.

If you are interested in more information on worksite wellness plan including exercise and nutrition for your company please email to set up appointment.  I can create a program specific to your business and employee's.