For more than a decade, our Ochsner Eat Fit team has worked with restaurants, festivals and foodservice operations across ¶¶Òõh to put healthier choices on the menu in the places people are already going.
Today, that network includes more than 500 partners. You’ll see the orange Eat Fit seal everywhere from neighborhood restaurants to major festivals.
But several years ago, we started asking ourselves a simple question: How can we apply the same philosophy across Ochsner campuses?
Hospitals are places where health and healing are part of the mission. So we want the food environment to support that mission too. We thought, what if nutritious options were not only available, but also easier to find and more affordable?
That became the premise behind what is now Eat Fit at Ochsner Health’s Foodservice Wellness Commitment: more nutritious options, lower prices and fewer barriers to making healthy choices across Ochsner.
In Ochsner cafeterias, foods and beverages that meet Eat Fit nutrition criteria are offered at 50% off standard retail price. Eat Fit-approved beverages in participating vending machines are also half price. Other foodservice areas offer different discounts – including 25% off qualifying food-vending items – with the same underlying idea. Make the healthier choice easier to find and easier to afford.
When Price Makes a Difference
One of my favorite stories about the program has nothing to do with sales reports.
Our team was talking with a security guard at one of our locations who told us sugary soft drinks had always been his go-to. However, once the Eat Fit-approved beverages in the vending machine became half price, he started trying them.
Soon he could name practically every Eat Fit beverage in the machine.
There are options beyond plain water: BODYARMOR Lyte, Core Power protein shakes, unsweetened tea, zero-sugar vitamin water, Topo Chico and others.
And it didn’t stop at the vending machine. He told us he’d started buying some of these same beverages at the grocery store.
A discount intended to influence one purchase had introduced him to choices he now made elsewhere.
That’s exactly the kind of behavior change we hoped might happen.
We’re seeing encouraging trends across the program, too, with sales of Eat Fit foods and beverages increasing across our foodservice and vending partners. We’re also working with researchers from Tulane University and Xavier University of ¶¶Òõh to evaluate the program over three years, looking at purchasing patterns and the broader impact of making nutritious options more accessible and affordable.
And Yes, It’s For You!
This may be the question I hear most often: Is the discount only for Ochsner employees?
It’s for everyone – employees, patients, visitors and anyone else who walks through the doors.
That can have an even greater impact in some of the smaller communities Ochsner serves, where the hospital cafeteria may be one of only a handful of restaurants in the area.
As much as we may try to plan ahead, it doesn’t always work out. A meeting runs long, an appointment takes longer than expected or we simply get hungry. Suddenly we’re standing in front of a vending machine or looking for something quick for lunch.
That’s where our food environment and nutrition education can make a difference.
We can help people understand what’s in their food, how to read labels and what to look for – including protein, produce and whole foods.
We can also remove some of the barriers that make healthier choices harder in the first place.
That’s what I love most about this initiative. After more than a decade of working with restaurants and foodservice partners across ¶¶Òõh to put healthier choices on the menu, we’re applying that same thinking within our own walls – improving what’s available, making it easier to find and lowering the price.
If you’re near an Ochsner campus, stop in, look for the orange Eat Fit seal and see what’s available.
The more we can remove the barriers around healthier choices – including cost – the easier those choices become and the healthier we can be.
Molly Kimball, RD, CSSD, is a registered dietitian with Ochsner Health and founder of Ochsner’s Eat Fit nonprofit initiative. For more wellness content, tune in to Molly’s podcast, FUELED Wellness +Nutrition, and follow @MollykimballRD and @EatFitOchsner on social media. Email nutrition@ochsner.org to connect with Molly or schedule a consult with her team.