Healthy Eating

Overview

Food is a basic necessity; our bodies need the nutrients from food and drink in order to perform daily Healthy Eatingfunctions and stay healthy.  No single food or drink can provide all the nutrients that the body needs, which is why it’s important to have a varied and well-balanced, healthy diet for good physical health and positive wellbeing.   

To find out why Healthy Eating is important in your workplace click here

See the following sections for examples of how to address healthy eating using a multi-level approach.

 

 

Organisational Change

Organisational change ensures the workplace’s policies, practices and culture support Healthy Eating.  Examples of what you can do in your workplace include:

Develop a Healthy Eating Policy or include healthy eating in a standard Employee Wellbeing Policy. Consider including:                                                  

  • Provision of healthy food options in vending machines, cafeterias, and for catering at meetings and events
  • Ensuring food safety where food is provided
  • Promotion and marketing of healthy food and drink options
  • Raising awareness of the benefits of healthy eating
  • Ensuring employees have adequate time for meal breaks (e.g. review staff workloads, working hours etc)
Develop a workplace Healthy Beverages Policy

Encourage a healthy eating culture by management leading by example to support healthy eating
Encourage a healthy beverage culture. Gain management support for promoting healthy beverages. This presentation could be used to help gain support.

Provide nutrition training for cafeteria staff

 

Environmental Change

Creating a healthy working environment can encourage healthy eating. Examples of what you can do in your workplace include:

Provide facilities to support storage and preparation of healthy foods (e.g. kitchen facilities such as refrigerator, kettle, microwave, and food preparation utensils, or water bottles and chilly bins for staff working outside)

Provide comfortable spaces for employees to have lunch and coffee breaks

Provide healthy options in the cafeteria, vending machines and when catering for meetings, events and work shouts (including low fat milk for tea and coffee) and consider needs of those with special dietary requirements.

Work with local providers and shops to deliver healthy options to the worksite or negotiate discounts on healthy options at local shops

When offering healthy options in cafeterias, consider providing these at competitive prices, reviewing portion sizes, and promoting and marketing healthy options at the point of sale

Ensure food safety practices are followed in staff kitchens, at events and/or in the cafeteria

Provide safe drinking water throughout the whole workplace

Plant edible gardens, pot plants, and fruit trees within and around the worksite

Host a healthy breakfast club

Become a 'fizz free' workplace and/or make all workplace events 'fizz free'

Individual Change

Individual change focuses on opportunities for knowledge and skill development to support healthy eating.  Examples of what you can do in your workplace include:

Support knowledge and skill development through provision of information sessions and resources on healthy eating and drinking such as:

Encourage and support individual goal setting to increase the consumption of healthy foods

Promote and participate in national healthy eating campaigns

Encourage healthy eating behaviours and team building through activities and challenges (e.g. breakfast club, shared lunches, recipe contests)

Sign up to e-newsletters and promote to employees, such as: Heart Life (Heart Foundation), Hospitality Hub (Heart Foundation), Breakfast Eaters, NZ Nutrition Foundation, Agencies for Nutrition Action

Community Links and Partnerships

To access a variety of useful services and resources relating to Healthy Eating see our Community Links page.

Page updated 15 Feb 2021