Field Placement: United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) -- Food and Nutrition Services (FNS) Division
Location: Alexandria, VA
Preceptors: Judy Wilson, Director, Nutrition Services Staff and Jane Mandell, Senior Nutritionist, Nutrition Services Staff
Student Name: Carissa Reeder
Year: 2002

Policy - Healthy Eating Options at Food and Nutrition Services (FNS) Headquarters, Alexandria, VA

This project was initiated to demonstrate the dedication of FNS to decreasing the alarming rate of people being diagnosed with obesity in our nation. The federal government is often looked upon as the standard for which other organizations should follow. Therefore, members of the Administration at FNS decided that the employees of this federal organization should not only advocate for the nutritional well-being of the low income population for whom they serve, but should also portray healthy lifestyles on an everyday basis amongst themselves, especially in the workplace. Considering the majority of the staff at FNS spends their daily work time at the headquarters building, the policy looked at the current healthy food options available to FNS employees and the possible changes that could be made throughout the building. To begin the policy development process, there was a policy formulation meeting conducted at the beginning of the internship. This meeting included Judy Wilson, Jane Mandell, and myself. At this meeting, various options were discussed as to the format the policy would take. I was given five specific tasks: to conduct a lit review on current policies on healthy eating in the workplace, to research templates for policy writing and find options conducive to this project, to develop an "issue paper" on the prevalence of obesity and the importance of workplace wellness, to construct a viable policy mandating healthy food options be available at all FNS functions, and to develop a variety of newsletters to be distributed to staff that would promote healthy eating in the workplace. As the policy evolved, it underwent quite a few evaluations and revisions from supervisors, resulting in several different interpretations. Toward the end of the internship, it was decided that it would be more appropriate to develop a "decision memorandum" for the Administrator, rather than the previously written "issue paper", in order to bring attention to the Administrator for the need of the said policy. It was also decided that it would be beneficial to perform an environmental scan of the current food options offered throughout the building and to then formulate a concise summary, along with recommendations of changes that could be made in order to aid in the implementation of this policy. One of the final results of this project was a complete environmental scan addressing what healthy and unhealthy food options were provided by vending machines, the downstairs convenient store, the downstairs cafeteria, and at meetings conducted in the building. A second result was the completion of a decision memorandum to the Administrator, addressing the need for an organizational policy focused on healthy food options being available in the workplace. Finally, a third result of this project was the actual written policy that was drafted in order to address all FNS employees on the importance of healthy eating in the workplace and of the importance of having healthy options available.

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