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Strategies to Successfully Develop and Implement Food Service Guidelines and Procurement Policies
There is increasing attention on the importance of creating healthier environments by providing healthy foods and beverages in worksite cafeterias, on-site vending machines, meetings and conferences. There is a significant need to better understand how policy content, structure and type lead to policies that are likely to be enacted and effective
Approach
The processes involved in drafting and implementing food service and procurement policies at the state and municipal levels can be complex. It is important to determine based on existing evidence and best practice what constitutes the specific nutrition standards, labeling, product placement, promotion, and pricing and how these requirements should be applied across the food service or work environment.
Results
The American Heart Association recently worked with partners from the Public Health Law Center and the Center for Science in the Public Interest to develop policy objectives for a state or community level healthier food and beverage policy. These objectives serve as minimum criteria for achieving a certain level of implemented standards and will be applied in the development of legislation and regulation.
Discussion
The American Heart Association has prioritized food service guidelines/procurement as a top priority in its state advocacy work and Voices for Healthy Kids initiative and has a goal of increasing the number of state governments who are implementing policies that align with national nutrition standards. Our work in developing model policy and resources provides a framework for states and localities and provides resources for advocates addressing this area of nutrition policy.
Learning Areas:
Public health or related public policyLearning Objectives:
Discuss the need to develop policy objectives for healthier food and beverage policy.
Describe a set of policy objectives that were developed to identify best practices for healthier food and beverage environments and how they are being applied at the state and local level.
Identify states and localities that have applied these policy objectives to support healthier food and beverage environments, key lessons from their applications, and the impact they have had on policies currently being drafted.
Keyword(s): Nutrition, Policy/Policy Development
Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: As the Director of Policy Research for the American Heart Association (AHA), help to translate science into policy at a national level in the areas of cardiovascular disease and stroke prevention and health promotion. Have co-authored a published paper in this area entitled,"Food and beverage environment and procurement policies for healthier work environments" that was published in Nutrition Reviews in 2014.
Any relevant financial relationships? No
I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.
Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: In my current role with the American Heart Association, healthy food service guideline policies are a major focus of my work. Prior to joining AHA, I worked at the Center for Science in the Public Interest and food service guidelines were my primary area of focus.
Any relevant financial relationships? No
I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.