Worksites can play an important role in promoting healthy eating and making sure healthy food options are available to employees.

 

Recommended Strategies

Education and Awareness

  • Provide information about food resources in your community.

  • Offer healthy food options at events.

  • Provide incentives for participating in nutrition activities.

  • Include employees’ family members in campaigns that promote healthy nutrition.

On-Site Support

  • Start an employee vegetable garden or become a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) drop-off site.

  • Host an on-site nutrition education opportunity such as a free My Healthy VT Workshop.

  • Provide refrigerators, microwaves and break areas.

  • Provide access to free water available throughout the day.

  • Support local food initiatives on-site by:

    • Offering an on-site Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program (discounting the cost of a CSA program can make this strategy more effective).

    • Organizing a worksite garden - consider accessibility issues to make sure the garden can be accessed by individuals with disabilities.

    • Providing local food in the cafeteria.

    • Exploring opportunities with local farms for a mobile or on-site farmers’ market.

Policy Change

  • Create healthy food guidelines for cafes and vending machines.

  • Support break time policies by encouraging a culture where staff regularly take their lunch break.

  • Support healthy choices from vending machines and cafeterias by:

    • Using competitive pricing to make healthier choices more economical in vending machines or cafeterias.

    • Implementing healthy vending machine and cafeteria standards to increase the percentage of healthy options that are available.

    • Using signs or symbols to make healthy choices stand out, and make nutrition information available for foods and beverages.

Breastfeeding Friendly Employer

 

Related Resources

 

For more information, download the healthy food choices section of the Worksite Wellness Toolkit!