Healthy Eating at Work

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Empower your employees to eat healthier

By championing a food policy for your organization, you’ll build an environment that encourages wellness in the workplace. Most employees eat at least one meal during work, which puts you in a position to advocate healthy, nutritious options every day.

DID YOU KNOW

Your employees’ unhealthy diet can contribute to lower productivity and higher health care expenses.

— McCurley et al., American Journal of Preventive Medicine, May 2019.

Create a culture of health with our food policy toolkit

A wellness strategy takes more than just a remodeled menu — it’s about inspiring your employees to discover and stick with healthy choices. With our food policy toolkit, you can take a fresh approach to healthy eating at work and improve your team’s well-being.

Look below for a preview of what you’ll find, or download the full interactive toolkit now.

Due to the pandemic, some of the tips and tools provided in this kit may not align with CDC-recommended safety guidelines for COVID-19 prevention. For additional information, please visit cdc.gov.

Identify opportunities for healthy changes

What to do

Get commitment from leadership.
- Present the business case for a food policy to your organization’s leadership team.
Gather baseline data for later comparison.
- Identify targets and opportunities for change, including:
  - vending machines
  - dining facilities
  - catering services
- Survey whether employees are interested.
Form your wellness committee.
- Recruit employees and form a wellness committee that will oversee your food policy.

Tools and resources

Build a case for workforce health.
Employee survey
Easy worksite survey or the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) scorecard external link (Nutrition section, page 19)
Wellness committee toolkit

Tip

Include team members from across the organization on your wellness committee.

Design an environment that supports your new food policy

What to do

Define your food policy, set your goals, and agree on clear definitions of success.
- Determine what your organization wants to achieve and set benchmarks.
- Write your food policy statement.
- Set a kickoff date for your policy implementation.
Have leadership announce your policy.
- Send communications from the CEO, managers, supervisors, and labor-management representatives announcing your food policy.
- Announce kickoff date to employees.
Design an environment that supports your new food policy.
- Learn how to make smarter food choices.
- Establish simple, straightforward goals, such as:
  - Post calorie information in cafeterias
  - Add healthy snacks to vending machines
  - Serve healthier food at catered events

Tools and resources

Goal-setting worksheet
CDC healthy food service guidelines external link at public facilities and government worksites.
Healthy eating guidelines
Healthy meetings guide
Benefits of posting calorie information external link
Healthy plate website external link, Build Your Meal book, and Build a Meal Interactive guide
Food ordering tips

Tips

Let employees know you’ll be supporting their efforts to eat healthier.
Involve your legal team, purchasing/contracts department, and any union or employee representatives early in the planning process.

Involve your employees in the process

What to do

Launch and promote your new food policy.
- Announce policy start.
- Post flyers and posters for employees.
Get creative to engage employees in the policy.
- Host healthy eating parties, activities, and events.
Get creative to engage employees in the policy.
- Encourage participation in wellness programs.
Keep the momentum going.
- Continue your food policy communications.
- Provide nutrition resources that help employees stick to your food policy guidelines.

Tips

Share details about your policy, the phasing out of certain foods and drinks, and healthy eating resources.
Create your own personalized communications that include positive, supportive messages about workplace wellness.
Host a lunch ‘n’ learn about nutrition and invite local community health organizations to participate.
Conduct taste tests of new beverage and snack options to get employees involved with the process.

Tools and resources

Promotional materials, including:
- Emails
- Flyers and posters promoting healthy celebrations and healthy food choices
- Sign-up/pledge sheet
Healthy lifestyle programs external link give your employees simple activities to help form healthy eating habits.¹
Wellness Coaching by Phone external link gives your employees who are Kaiser Permanente members individualized support and step-by-step action plans to eat healthier.² Promote it with this flyer.
Flyers and posters rotated to various areas of your workplace
Reminder template emails from leadership
Employee support:
- Healthy recipe ideas external link
- Classes external link that support their health goals

Evaluate your policy’s success

What to do

Evaluate your policy’s short-term success.
- Gather data to compare to the baseline data you recorded at the beginning of your policy.
- Send a thank-you communication from top-level management to employees acknowledging their role in your policy’s success.
Evaluate employee interest and satisfaction with your policy.
- Get employee feedback with a follow-up survey.
- Track progress, participation, and interest in your policy by filling out the worksite health and employee interest surveys again. Evaluate your policy’s success based on before-and-after results.
Evaluate your policy’s long-term success.
- Gather data to compare to the baseline data you recorded at the beginning of your program and the data you collected 3 or 6 months after your kickoff.
- Create an evaluation process for your organization. Sample questions can include:
  - Did we accomplish the policy goals?
  - Did we reach the target audience?
  - Did we provide the necessary resources to meet our goals?
- Send another thank-you communication to employees from top-level management.

Tools and resources

Revisit your saved goal-setting worksheet.
Free surveys with SurveyMonkey external link or Google external link
Worksite health survey
Employee interest survey
Workplace health model external link

Tip

In addition to asking about the new policy, ask for evaluations of resources and classes, as well as any personal success stories.

Get started with Healthy Eating at Work Food Policy Toolkit

Download the toolkit

Additional resources

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Healthy Eating at Work

Empower your employees to eat healthier

DID YOU KNOW

Create a culture of health with our food policy toolkit

Identify opportunities for healthy changes

Design an environment that supports your new food policy

Involve your employees in the process

Evaluate your policy’s success

Get started with Healthy Eating at Work Food Policy Toolkit

Additional resources

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