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Policy Suggestions and Environmental Supports for Eating Well Your Way
What are Environmental Supports?
Both physical and social environments at a workplace can have an effect on an employee’s health. Considering that many employees spend a significant number of their waking hours at work, the factors and conditions of an employee’s work life have a great impact on 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 healthy living at work help employees sustain 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
- Motivate employees to start or continue with positive health behaviour
- Stimulate employees who have not been involved in changing their health to consider adopting positive health behaviour
- Reduce employee health risk at the workplace by providing a safe working environment
What Does “Eating Well Your Way” Mean?
Healthy eating can be interpreted in many different ways. A key to developing a healthy eating pattern is to take small steps towards making healthier choices throughout each day. Every day is filled with many decisions related to eating, such as when we will eat, how much we will eat, and what we will eat. These decisions all play a role in determining how healthy our eating patterns are. There is not just one prescription for a healthy eating pattern. Eating Well Your Way suggests that each person can take the recommendations in Canada’s Food Guide and adapt them to his or her needs and lifestyle.
Supportive Environments that Promote and Support Eating Well
The following suggestions show how a workplace can support employees in their efforts to improve their eating habits. We recognize that all workplaces are unique and that not all suggestions will apply. Consider those that may be suitable to your workplace environment.
Healthy Eating Supports
Healthy Food Policy
Develop a healthy eating policy for your workplace that identifies healthier foods to include in the cafeteria, in vending machines, and for catered meetings and events. Start with a single policy, for example, to increase fruit and vegetable options at workplace sponsored events (e.g., meetings, catered lunches). One hundred percent fruit juice could be an option in addition to the other beverages offered at meetings. The policy could then be expanded to include other healthier food choices. Consider how criteria for healthier 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, selecting a smoke-free venue, and providing “active” breaks for workplace meetings or related events.
Food Storage and Prepation Equipment
To support employees in their efforts to increase their consumption of healthier foods, ensure that staff have access to a refrigerator, a microwave, and a toaster in break areas. Lunches brought from home are typically lower in fat, salt/sodium, and calories than lunches purchased at restaurants, cafeterias, or from vending machines. For example, the refrigerator could be used to keep milk, sandwiches, vegetables and low-fat dip, or yogurt cold.
Food Safety
Ensure that employees have access to all of the tools to ensure safe food practices are maintained at work. These may include having hand-washing facilities available, a refrigerator for food storage, and a clean area for staff to eat their meals and snacks.
At Work Vegetbale Garden
Consider converting any available green space at your workplace into a vegetable garden. Employees can volunteer to plant and care for the 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, herbs, and peppers grow well in containers.
Healthy Eating Point of Purchase Messaging
Post nutrition information for products available in the cafeteria and include signage indicating healthier choices and messaging. The messaging can be taken from Canada’s Food Guide. Contact the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit at 519-258-2146 ext. 3100 for resources to help with this.
Healthier Vending Machine Selections Program
Identify healthier vending machine selections with the use of stickers on healthier products or labels on the product rows that indicate to employees what the healthier choices are. It is also possible to have rows or columns in vending machines identified as healthier selection areas.
Nutrition Information Kiosk
In the staff eating area, keep nutrition information (e.g., brochures and booklets) handy for all employees to look at during their lunch or breaks. Also consider having a cookbook share where employees are invited to bring in their cookbooks from home with some of their favourite recipes highlighted to share with their co-workers. A workplace library of cookbooks with healthier recipes can also be made available for employees to sign out. The worksite could highlight Dietitians of Canada’s new Simply Great Food cookbook.
Cafeteria and Vending Machine Options
- Sell a serving of cut vegetables and low-fat dip or a salad at the same price as a serving of French fries.
- Sell water, skim or 1% milk, and juice at the same price or lower than soft drinks.
- Sell a sandwich and soup (lower fat, non-creamy) or salad combo at the same price as the daily lunch special. You may also develop healthy combo frequency cards. For example, employees who purchase 9 healthier combos recieve the 10th free. For more information and suggestions on this strategy, contact the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit at 519-258-2146 ext. 3100.
- Feature fresh fruit or a fruit-based dessert (e.g. fresh fruit salad, fruit yogurt parfait).
- Consider offering a weekly feature in the cafeteria to highlight meals that include vegetables or fruit (especially dark green and orange vegetables).
- Offer whole grain breads for sandwiches, whole grain pastas, or brown rice in entrees.
- Offer low-fat, single servings of yogurt or cheese.
If your workplace is considering installing vending machines, investigate a refrigerated machine that will allow for a greater vareity of food. Below are some healthier vending options that are currently available in some schools and workplaces. Contact your vendor for other options.
- Single servings of baby carrots and low-fat dip
- Single servings of apple sauce, fruit cocktail, or other varieties of canned fruit
- Single servings of dried fruit (e.g., apricots, raisins)
- Single servings of trail mixes (mixtures of nuts and dried fruit)
- Cereal bars
- Low-fat granola bars
- Single servings of nuts
- Single servings of yougurt
- Low-fat chips, pretzels, crackers
- Servings (300 mL or less) of 100% fruit or vegetable juice or low-fat milk