WHAT ARE “ENVIRONMENTAL SUPPORTS?”

Both the physical and social environments at a workplace can have an effect on an employee’s health. Considering that many employees spend almost 60% of their waking hours at work, the factors and conditions of an employee’s work life have a great impact upon their overall health and well-being. Increasing knowledge and helping employees build skills are necessary steps in promoting health. Supportive environments that facilitate and encourage living well at work help employees sustain or keep those healthy behaviours. 

Physical Environment

There are obvious ways that the physical environment can affect health. For instance, noise level, lighting, air quality and workstation design. The physical environment can also include tangible services that are made available to employees such as healthy food choices in vending machines or the cafeteria. The presence or absence of these types of tangible services may have a positive or negative effect on an employee’s health and well-being.

Social Environment

There are many ways that the social environment may impact employees health: work schedules, balancing work and home responsibilities, work organization, the quality of interpersonal relationships at work and the availability of training and support. Also, how an employee perceives the quality of their social environment at work can have either a positive or negative effect on their health.

Benefits of Environmental Supports

Having environmental supports demonstrates, in a very tangible way, that the employer is committed to improving employee health and well-being. This also provides employees with the encouragement, reinforcement and support necessary to maintain a healthy lifestyle at work, in addition to a healthy lifestyle at home with family and friends.

Having Environmental Supports help to:

• Motivate employees to start or continue with positive health behaviours.
• Stimulate employees who have not been involved in changing their health to consider adopting positive health behaviours.
• Reduce employee health risk at the workplace by providing a safe working environment.

WHAT DOES “5 to TEN – Yes, you can” MEAN?

The purpose of this initiative is to encourage people to eat more vegetables and fruit. Canada’s Food Guide To Healthy Eating recommends that we eat 5-10 servings every day. However, most Canadians do not eat even the minimum recommended intake of 5 servings a day.

According to a 2003 World Health Organization report, there is a large body of evidence showing that eating adequate amounts of vegetables and fruit on a daily basis plays a significant role in promoting health and preventing several chronic diseases throughout our lives. These include: heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, and some types of cancer. Eating adequate amounts is also key in helping to reach and keep a healthy body weight because they are naturally low in calories and help give a feeling of fullness. This is an important benefit, given the growing and alarming problem of obesity in Canada.

For these reasons, nearly all of us could benefit from eating more vegetables and fruit on a daily basis. The good news is that increasing our intake by even one serving of vegetables or fruit is a step in the right direction.

HOW CAN YOU PROVIDE SUPPORTIVE ENVIRONMENTS THAT PROMOTE VEGETABLE AND FRUIT INTAKE?

The following suggestions of Environmental Supports show several ways that a workplace can encourage and support employees in their efforts to eat more vegetables and fruit while at work. We recognize that all workplaces are unique; therefore not all suggestions will apply to every workplace. Consider these suggestions and investigate those that may be suitable for your workplace environment. Or, explore others that we have not listed that might be relevant to your employees.

Healthy Food Policy

Develop a healthy eating policy for your workplace that identifies healthy foods to include in the cafeteria, in vending machines, and for catered meetings and events. Start with a policy to increase fruit and vegetable options at workplace sponsored events (e.g. meetings, catered lunches). For example, 100% fruit juice could be included as an option in addition to the other beverages offered at meetings. The policy could then be expanded to include other healthy food choices. Consider how criteria for healthy food choices can be incorporated into the tendering process for choosing cafeteria operators and caterers for business events. Sample policies are available from the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit, including a Healthy Meetings Policy and a User’s Practical Guide for choosing heart healthy foods and beverages, along with selecting a smoke-free venue and providing “active” breaks for workplace meetings or related events.

Food Storage and Preparation Equipment

To support employees in their efforts to increase their daily consumption of fruits and vegetables, ensure that staff has access to a refrigerator, a microwave and a toaster in break areas. For example, the refrigerator could be used to keep fruit juice cold as well as to store cup up vegetables for snacking and low fat vegetable dips.
 

Cafeteria and Vending Machine Options

To support and encourage employees to choose healthy food items for their meals and snacks while at work, consider offering employees healthier food and beverage options in the cafeteria and/or vending machines that are priced competitively with, or similar to, other foods and beverages offered.

Cafeterias

• Sell a serving of cut vegetables and low fat dip at the same price as a serving of French fries. 
• Sell a single serving of 100% fruit juice at the same price as soft drinks.
• Sell a sandwich and soup or salad combo (e.g. a sandwich made with whole grain bread, roast beef and mustard/low-fat sandwich dressing, sliced tomato and lettuce, with a low-fat, stock soup or a tossed green salad of spinach, tomato and red pepper with low-fat dressing on the side) at the same price as the daily lunch special. For more information and suggestions on this strategy, contact the Health Unit.
• Feature a weekly fruit based desert (e.g. fresh fruit salad, fruit yogourt parfait).
• Consider offering a weekly feature in the cafeteria to highlight meals that include vegetables or fruit.

Vending Machines

If your workplace is considering installing vending machines, investigate a refrigerated machine that will allow for a greater variety of food, including fruits and vegetables.

• Sell single servings of baby carrots and low fat dip.
• Sell single servings of apple sauce, fruit cocktail or other varieties of canned fruit.
• Sell single servings of dried fruit (e.g. apricots, raisins) and single servings of trail mixes that include dried fruit.
• Sell servings (300 mL or less) of 100% fruit juice or vegetable juice.

Bottomless Fruit Basket

Support and promote a “potluck” fruit basket in various work areas or departments. Provide support for this initiative by matching the funds collected by employees to replenish the fruit. Other ways of supporting this project could include providing a seed grant to start the basket, with employees taking over and taking turns refilling the basket on a regular basis with “nutrient-dense” fresh fruit (or fruit that is dark orange or green in colour like red grapes, oranges, apples, bananas). To add variety, plan special days where the fruit basket contains other types of fruit that require more preparation like slices of canteloupe, chunks of pineapple, and fresh berries.

Information Displays

Post information in the cafeteria and break rooms about ways employees can increase the amount of fruits they bring to work, or eat while at work, either in a bag lunch, as a snack or as part of a meal.

Vegetable Gardens at Work

Consider converting any available green space at your workplace into a vegetable garden. Employees can volunteer to plant and care for a garden. The vegetables can be shared among the staff. If a garden plot is not available, consider other options like container gardening. Some vegetables, like tomatoes, grow well in containers.