Supporting Healthier Eating Habits for Monterey County Employees

The Health Promotion Partnership, known as the Monterey County Employee Wellness Program, is committed to the development of programs, services and policy relating to healthy eating, physical activity, tobacco cessation, stress management, overall health, parenting, pregnancy, and breastfeeding. In Monterey County, over half all adults are overweight or obese. Food deserts coupled with lack of knowledge around health concerns that can develop from unhealthy foods, place residents and its employees at an increased risk to become overweight or obese. Some of the most severe consequences of being overweight or obese is the increased risk of developing chronic diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, hypertension as well as some types of cancer. To tackle the growing concern of obesity and lack of healthy snacks and drinks sold in vending machines on county sites, the policy included healthy vending procedures in the new Healthy Food Policy. The project conducted an inventory of snacks and drinks items sold in vending machines at county sites and hosted a Healthy Snack Day tabling event at various county sites to promote the policy. Compared to the baseline, results from the snacks and drinks assessment of vending machine inventory revealed minimal improvement of healthy items. Findings from the survey conducted at the tabling event confirmed employee’s high desire for healthy snack and drink vending products at work. It is recommended that the Wellness Program continue to offer support and guidance to the department with the authority to implement the Healthy Food Policy, as well as individual departments as they switch to healthy vending. An assessment of the vending inventory should be conducted per the policy’s recommended schedule to document progress as the county works to achieve the purpose of the Healthy Food Policy