Online Program

Oral

Every day over 100 million Americans eat at cafeterias, snack bars, and vending machines in their workplace, school, or other institutional setting. Foods and beverages provided or sold in these settings impact the health of many Americans. Increasing healthier food and beverage options in these settings represents an important public health opportunity to improve the American diet and help reduce the personal and economic burden of chronic diseases and obesity. Institutional food service guidelines based on nutrition science ensure availability and encourage the choice of healthier options. The purpose of these guidelines is to create an environment where healthy choices that align with the Dietary Guidelines for Americans are popular, easy, and support environmentally sustainable practices, and ethical and equitable production methods. The use of food service guidelines is supported by the World Health Organization, the Institute of Medicine, and the National Prevention Strategy. This session will define the scope of food service guidelines; describe how they have been developed; and highlight examples of their integration into contracts at the federal, state, and local level. Methods to establish food service guidelines as a standard practice for food service operations will be covered including strategic approaches to achieving successful policy change. New research will be presented describing the food service guideline policy landscape at the state level. In addition, speakers will highlight the National Prevention Council’s commitment to the HHS/GSA Health and Sustainability Guidelines for Federal Concessions and Vending. This will include how the Department of Veteran Affairs has utilized food service guidelines to improve the dietary intake and thus health of our nation’s veterans.

Session Objectives: Describe what food service guidelines are, where and how they are operationalized, and their ability to influence dietary choices and the production side of the food system. Identify organizations, programs and partnerships focusing on using food service guidelines to improve the food and beverage environment in the institutional and workplace setting. Identify and describe state and local food service guideline policies and the methods employed to create and implement them.