The purpose of our new summer initiative, Eating well your way, is to introduce the recently revised Canada’s Food Guide, which helps all of us achieve overall health and vitality.  Topics covered include: whole grains, losing weight with the Food Guide, healthy snacking, tips on eating out, and healthy fats.

Planning a theme-related event is a great way to let employees know about upcoming activities, contests, resources, and information available to them. By doing this, you will help employees make the connection between the event or activity and the other components of your campaign for this initiative. Below are a variety of ideas that can be organized as stand alone events or integrated into upcoming at-work activities.

Food Co-operative

A food co-operative or food buying club is a great way to purchase locally produced, healthy food at a low cost. A food buying club is a group of individuals who get together to buy directly from the wholesaler. Consider promoting a food buying club at the workplace by organizing a group of employees to either join an existing buying club in your area, or start your own club. To find more information about food co-operatives in Ontario, email the Ontario Natural Food Co-op at buyclub@onfc.on.ca or call 416 503-3663 ext. 228. To search for co-ops in your area visit www.cooperativegrocer.coop/coops and find your province listed under the State search.

Workplace Garden

Convert any available green space at your workplace into a vegetable garden. Employees can bring their families after work hours to help prepare the lot, plant the seeds, weed, and then harvest the bounty. Gardening is a great way to connect with people, get some fun physical activity, and relieve stress.

Passport to Vegetables and Fruit

Create stations throughout your workplace where employees can sample vegetables and fruit that may be new to them. At each station have an activity for employees to complete that will educate them about the food they are sampling. After completing the activity, stamp a passport that you have developed for the event (Sample passport available from the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit). Once employees successfully complete all of the activities, they can submit their completed passport for a chance to

win prizes.  

Eating Well Your Way Fair

Organize a Health Fair at your workplace. Invite organizations to provide a display and/or handouts that introduce employees to the issues related to healthy eating. Health professionals to invite include Registered Dietitians, and food safety educators. Organizations for the Fair can include your local Health Unit, Heart and Stroke Foundation, Dairy Farmers of Canada, Beef Information Centre, or the Canadian Diabetes Association.

Walk Across Canada

Encourage friendly competition in your workplace by organizing a “Walk Across Canada” or “Physical Activity Challenge”. Employees can compete individually or form teams to accumulate enough kilometers to travel across the city, region, or country. Teams can be made up of employees from different floors, departments, or other groups found in your workplace. To make it easier for participants to complete the challenge, use a formula to calculate how much distance each minute of exercise equals (e.g. 1 minute of activity = 2 kilometers). Team members must track the number of kilometers they cover, and group leaders gather and report the total distance for the team. Set a reasonable time limit for the challenge (e.g. 2 weeks to 2 months). Provide individual participants or team captains with a list of rules/guidelines that help to define the types of physical activity that can be included in the contest. Alternatively, a pedometer can be used to count the number of steps taken by each participant. This can encourage employees to include walking in their day, which is a great part of an active lifestyle.

Post a large map for the teams to see and mark the kilometers or steps as they are completed each week.  Participants can exercise during their breaks or after work.The team that has travelled the furthest distance at the end of the challenge will be the winner.   

Focus on the Food Guide Cooking Demo

Invite in a Registered Dietitian and/or a local chef to do a cooking demonstration. Ask to have a cooking style (e.g., Thai, Indian) or a themed meal (e.g., Summer Celebration, Sizzlin’ Siesta, Garden Party, or Beach Lunch) demonstrated. Or have a dietitian demonstrate some simple and tasty ways to prepare meals with food from the four food groups. Recipes from Dietitians of Canada’s new cookbook, Simply Great Food, can also be highlighted (To find out how you can obtain this resource, contact the Windsor Essex Health Unit at 519-258-2146 ext. 3100).

Lunch and Learn

Host a presentation by a Registered Dietitian who works with the new Canada’s Food Guide. The Heart and Stroke Foundation, Dairy Farmers of Canada, Beef Information Centre, local Health Unit or the Canadian Diabetes Association often have Registered Dietitians that do this. Possible topics could include a general presentation on healthy eating and Canada’s Food Guide, food labelling, healthy lunches, food safety, or healthy weights.

Cafeteria Promotions

Look at ways to provide healthier eating options in the cafeteria, at work functions, and meetings. Host a special promotion in the cafeteria by highlighting a healthier menu item. Highlight healthier choices by rewarding people who make those healthier choices. For example, discuss having healthier choice frequency cards with the cafeteria managers, where the employees receive free selections or prize items after purchasing healthier options.

Bottomless Fruit Basket

Promote a potluck fruit basket in various work areas or departments. Suggest that employees take turns refilling the basket on a regular basis with fresh fruit and recommend that everyone tries to include some less common fruit choices such as mangos, papayas, apricots, kiwifruit, or prickly pears.

Supermarket Tours

A hands-on supermarket tour is a great way to learn about healthy eating and how to make healthier choices for you and your. Tours are available through some supermarkets and also available through most health units.

Cooking Up a Storm

Provide employees with the opportunity to fill up their freezers by organizing a “batch” cooking session at a local grocery store with a community kitchen or other location with cooking facilities. Interested employees can develop menus and shopping lists and prepare large batches of food that can then be divided and shared.  Having healthy, ready-to-eat food in the freezer will help reduce meal time stress at home.

Healthy Weights Challenge

Offer a healthy weight loss program with a twist. This activity is best done in an environment where a large freight scale is available. The freight scale is useful in any weight-control activity involving teams or departments. At a scheduled time, such as break or lunch, gather teams at the freight scale. Have one team or department step on the scale together. Competing teams or departments witness the weight of the entire group. Repeat with all teams.

This activity is one way of incorporating everyone into a fun event. Even those who don’t need to lose weight can support those who do by maintaining their weight. Participants who would benefit from losing a few pounds, but are not sufficiently motivated to do it on their own can contribute to the group effort. The fact that other teams witness the weigh-in adds to the sense of commitment to the group goal. Be careful to structure the event to foster healthy weight loss (no more than 1-2 lbs or 1 kg per person per week) rather than a competitive frenzy that could lead to rapid or extensive weight loss by highly competitive individuals. One way to do this is to reward the team that is closest to their group goal rather than the team that loses the most weight.

Employee Day Picnic       

Organize an “Employee Day Picnic” for employees. Include friendly competitions between employee teams. Hold events and games that feature fitness and food in fun and interactive ways. Here are some suggestions:

1) Hold a contest to make the most original (and tasty) snack using ingredients brought from home. Have a panel of judges decide on the winning entry.

2) Offer a variety of active games like Frisbee golf, soccer, slow pitch, or ball games.

3) Organize a “healthy snack food station” where employees can choose from a selection of food items to create a healthy snack such as fruit kabobs using cut-up fruit (e.g., pineapple, cantaloupe, strawberries, oranges, or grapes).

4) Feature healthier foods including lower-fat grilling items (e.g., veggie dogs, chicken breasts, 3-4 ounce lean burgers), a variety of veggies (e.g., corn, salads with lots of veggies), and a variety of seasonal fruits (e.g., watermelon, fruit salad, fruit kabobs as described above).  Also, include lots of bottled water and 100% fruit juice.

5) Hold a best lunch contest. Employees prepare and pack a lunch box to bring to the picnic. The lunch boxes are judged, using criteria such as containing at least 3 of the 4 food groups of Canada’s Food Guide, is environmentally friendly, and includes food-safe practices (e.g. an ice pack is used).