There are countless ways to play any game, and learning from others can improve every approach. What follows are the highlights of four recent initiatives to introduce healthy food and beverage choices, which each resulted in healthier consumer choices and stronger profits.
Promising Practices from Food and Beverage Industry
Four Promising Practices videos highlight successful initiatives within the government and recreation sector implemented by members of the food and beverage industry that serve as an example of good practices to others. “Eat Well, Play Well”, “Vending Products”, “Nutrition for You” and “Oven-Baked Pita Chips” showcase leaders in the food and beverage industry who are helping make healthier food choices the easier choice for customers and the public. With their help, British Columbia is one step closer to achieving its goal to support the voluntary adoption of healthy food and beverage sales in recreation centres, local government buildings and where recreation centres are attached to or located close to schools to ensure consistency with school guidelines. You can view the Promising Practices industry videos here.
A Feasibility Study Into Healthier Drinks Vending In Schools
Twelve UK schools, rural and urban, switched from their existing vending drink products to only selling pure juice, flavoured milk, semi-skimmed milk and mineral water. After wage costs and machine lease charge had been deducted from the profits, and over varying time frames, the results were that two schools made a small loss, two made a small profit, three made profits of about $750-$1,200, and two made profits of about $1,800-$2,800. The main factors influencing the programs’ success were practical issues and how the school dealt with those, and also the types of containers the drinks came (tetrapak, can, plastic container) in since that affected purchase cost, selling price and shelf life. School size, location and socio-economic factor had no bearing on the profitability of the programs.
A Step-by-Step Guide to Incorporating Healthy Foods into Your New or Existing School Vending Machine
Three Utah middle schools with low nutrient-dense vending machine products participated in a study in which they sold only high nutrient-dense snacks. The high nutrient-dense vending machines produced a profit in all three schools, with the highest making a $1,281 profit over three months. Profits made by the high nutrient-dense machines surpassed the profits made by the low nutrient-dense machines in all cases except the soda machines.
Durham Lives! Creating Healthy Environments for Youth Initiative
Based on a study that showed that 90 percent of patrons to the Durham Region of Ontario’s arenas wanted to see healthy food choices available, the region undertook a pilot study. Previously, less than $2.40 was spent on healthy food for every $100.00 spent before the launch of the pilot in 2006. Results show that both arenas experienced at 100% increase in healthy food sales, and the arenas concluded that healthy food does sell. Several more Durham Region arenas now plan to introduce healthy food choices.
Dollars and Sense: The Financial Impact of Selling Healthier School Foods
Responding to the national obesity crisis, the state of California developed, passed and implemented nutritional policies and standards in 2001. A recent study to track the effectiveness of this initiative in some schools found that total revenues increased at the majority of those schools, 65% of the schools experienced increases of greater than 5% in overall revenues, and only 10% of schools experienced a decline of revenue of greater than 5%.
