Wellness Program Incentives

Often people avoid low fat foods because they think these foods do not taste great. To help inform staff members, purchase a variety of low fat foods and put them out in a conference room for an hour or so for a drop-in tasting session. Or, arrange for low-fat potlucks encouraging staff members to bring and share their favorite low fat or healthy dishes.

Considerations:
• Make sure the selections actually taste good.
• Offer a “fact sheet” with the names and price of the various products to support participants if they want to buy these products from the supermarket.
• Provide other written information on good nutrition for any interested participants to take. Make use of websites and other resources specified in the Resource Section at the end of this guide.
• Offer small tasting spoons or wooden ice cream tasters.
• It doesn’t take much of each item to give participants a taste of the food or dish. It is not necessary to buy enough, or bring enough, food to support a meal.
• Set up the tasting room after lunch so participants can go in on their own and sample.
• Watch for overly sugary items…sometimes low fat means high sugar – so be sure to read the label.
• Typical purchases for a workplace sampling might include: two boxes of low fat crackers, a package of low fat cheese, a box of low fat cookies, two or three low fat spreads such as hummus, low fat cream cheese, a package of honey nut or other flavored rice crackers, and one or two other low fat items.
• Place signs on the table gently reminding participants that the idea is to sample, not have a meal.
• Provide a beverage such as a new kind of fruit juice or herbal tea.