Rude Food Calls Attention to Policy

Background: The City of Hamilton, Public Health Services (PHS) strives to support staff and community members in their efforts to choose healthy food and beverages for optimal health. PHS also takes a leadership role in the community in the areas of healthy public policy and supportive workplaces. The Healthy Food & Beverage (HFB) Policy was developed and piloted by PHS to demonstrate these roles.

Program background: Development of the policy considered healthy eating, safe food handling practices, Hamilton’s Solid Waste Management Master Plan, promoting locally grown and produced food products, as well as special dietary and dining concerns. The result was a comprehensive policy that would require both staff awareness of the policy and compliance with the policy.  As role models for the rest of the City of Hamilton departmental staff, PHS undertook a six month pilot phase to promote compliance and provide quantitative data to assist with the transition of this policy to the entire City of Hamilton.

A multi-pronged marketing and communications approach was employed by the project team to encourage adoption and influence the behaviour of PHS staff. To raise awareness:  

• Promotional posters featuring rude food were focus tested and posted in PHS offices;  
• HFB Policy sticky notepads were distributed to PHS staff;  
• In person meetings and emails from the Medical Officer of Health, announced the policy implementation.   

To encourage adoption:  

• The Medical Officer of Health provided leadership by championing the project;  
• Staff training sessions for PHS staff aimed at those who order food (i.e. Administrative Assistants, Public Health Nurses, etc.) provided quantitative data on staff perception and understanding of the policy pre and post training session;  
• An online toolkit was launched on the PHS intranet which includes checklists, sample menus, lists of food inspection compliant caterers, manager cheat sheets for order approval  

Evaluation Methods and Results:   The evaluation of the HFB Policy during the pilot phase will be presented to Senior Management in June 2010. Although, this report will primarily consist of recommendations based on the quantitative data it will also aim to highlight limitations to changing behaviours for staff and the community at large.

Conclusions:   Preliminary evaluation indicates increased staff awareness of policy and use of supporting online toolkit.

Implications for research and/or practice: This initiative supports staff and community members in their efforts to choose healthy food and beverages for optimal health.