At a glance
Once you have built your foundation, decide which strategies to implement and act upon those strategies. Communication is important for success.
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Strategies
There are many strategies for implementing food service guidelines. Below are a few that can contribute to the success of your food service guidelines initiative.
- Put food service guideline standards in:
- Organizational policies.
- Requests for funding proposals.
- Vendor contracts.
- Organizational policies.
- Apply behavioral design strategies to encourage customers to select healthier foods.
- Work with vendors to:
- Procure healthier food offerings.
- Modify menus and recipes.
- Train staff.
- Procure healthier food offerings.
- Consider cultural food preferences.
- Collaborate with worksite wellness staff to champion food service guidelines.
- Incentivize food service guidelines using recognition programs.
Communication
As you implement your strategies, remember that communicating with all involved parties is important. These parties may include leaders, partners, vendors, and customers. Use communication channels such as newsletters, social media, webinars, meetings, and fact sheets. Messaging and communication channels should be tailored to the audience's unique needs. For example:
Some leaders, partners, and organizations work independently to ensure people have access healthier foods and beverages. You can meet with these individuals and organizations to describe how collaborating and pooling resources can have a more significant impact than working separately. Memorandums of Understanding help communicate roles and responsibilities between you and a partnering organization.
Many vendors are willing to implement food service guidelines but are concerned they could lose sales. Supply them with success stories of how vendors maintained or increased profits after offering healthier food and beverage items.
Customers may be interested in supporting local agriculture. Encourage vendors to use signs or displays that communicate which menu offerings contain locally grown foods. Alternatively, you can supply signs or displays to encourage purchasing menu offerings that support local agriculture.