Nutrition Month at the Worksite

Worksite Activities“Here are some of the things I am doing at my work location (a Public Health Department):

• Nutrition Education Display board in the lobby to be viewed by employees and community members seeking services• Nutrition Education bulletin boards made available for all clinic sites to display if they want them• 5 for 5 Challenge-Challenge will encourage employees to eat at least 5 servings of fruits or vegetables everyday and exercise at least 30 minutes each of the 5 days during the week. Employees will have a tracking form to keep up with their progress towards the challenge and if they complete the form their name will be entered into a drawing at the end of the month’s activities. Employees will be asked to forward their form to me for confirmation and we will operate on the honor system for the information stated on the form.• Smoothie and Healthy Snack Taste Testing-Healthy snacks and smoothies will be available for a one hour period at each of the clinic sites (7 different sites). Recipes and supporting materials will be given to participants encouraging healthy snacks. Employees that participate will also enter their names into the drawings to be held at the end of the months activities.• Healthy Cooking Food Demonstration: Session will be a 1 hour nutrition education session including the preparation of multiple recipes to encourage healthy eating and vegetable consumption. RSVP's will be requested for the session. Employees that participate will enter their names into the drawings to be held at the end of the month’s activities.• At the end of the month, drawings will be held for the people that participated in at least one of the months activities. Drawing prizes will include the following: National Nutrition Month(r) products to include: Lunch tote, water bottles, gym bag, pedometer, measuring cup and spoon. Other items will include salad spinner and healthy eating cookbook.”– Kelly Whipker, RD, LDNNashville, TNMr. Potato Head Theme“We will be featuring the Healthy Mr. Potato promo and coordinate that with the Vegetable Group in MyPlate. Every two months  we are featuring a section of MyPlate and the vegetable category happens to fall in March and April. Some ideas that we have so far:• A display case showcasing the Healthy Mr. Potato Head along with the first generation Mr. Potato Head, emphasizing the differences. The "old" Mr. Potato Head has a pipe, appears much larger and does nothing for activity. We will be featuring him like a "couch potato". The new Healthy Mr. Potato Head has inline skates, hand weights and appears much smaller. We will feature him eating healthy and exercising. The message will be that potatoes and vegetables are part of a healthy diet. In addition, we have approximately 10 Healthy Mr. Potato Heads to give away.• We will be organizing noon cafeteria activities such as how fast can you build Mr. Potato Head? And we will hold activities like potato sack races, taste testing, Lunch 'n Learns, etc. Our cafeteria menu will be featuring potato recipes all through the month of March.We are very excited about this promotion and the staff and customers of Community Memorial Hospital are always eager to participate!”– Barb Taggart RD, CD, Clinical Dietetics Supervisor