Q&A guide for Balanced Choices

What is Balanced Choices?
Balanced Choices is a better-for-you foodservice program that:

• Provides a universal nutrition and wellness vision for all Compass Group locations across North America. It reaches consumers at every stage of life – from preschool, through college, into the workforce and into senior dining centers.
• Was developed by a task force of dietitians, operators, chefs and marketing communications experts.
• Is reinforced by 10 hours of training by a chef and manager at each unit.
• Is directed by a registered dietitian to ensure program integrity.
• Is frequently updated to reflect emerging nutrition and wellness trends.
• May be adapted to complement existing client/company wellness initiatives.
• Supports social responsibility and sustainable foods programs.

How is Balanced Choices different than other better-for-you foodservice programs?

Balanced Choices is the only better for-you program based on extensive education and training for chefs and managers.

• More than 2,800 Compass Group chefs and managers are currently completing 10 hours of nutrition training through a Web-based instructional program supported by Framingham State College, a leader in Web-based nutrition education. More than 6,000 Compass Group chefs and managers will complete this training by the end of the year, and more than 8,000 will be trained within two years.
   
• Training is not optional. At least one manager and one chef at each unit must complete the 10 hours of nutrition training before they may launch Balanced Choices onsite. Everyone taking the Web based nutrition program must answer test questions with 100 percent accuracy.
   
• Balanced Choices includes an advanced training program for chefs with multi-unit responsibilities. Created in coordination with Johnson & Wales University’s College of Culinary Arts (the only school that offers a culinary nutrition degree program in the US), this training course emphasizes hands-on production using grains, vegetarian and vegan alternatives, and reduced carbohydrates, calories, fats, sugars and sodium. More than 80 Compass Group associates have already completed the J&W program. Participants return to their units to share this knowledge onsite and to train chefs and associates in their units.

Consider other strengths of Balanced Choices as well. Balanced Choices is easy for customers to understand.

• We’ve developed a set of colorful graphic symbols that help customers identify foods that meet specific dietary needs. Balanced Choices also includes helpful fitness and wellness guides, including a nutrition newsletter (Nutri-gram), pocket icon guide, Superfoods brochure and brochures from our partners, the American Cancer Society and Action for Healthy Kids. We created options because nutritional needs vary from person to person. A college coed might prefer a “FIT” meal with reduced fats, calories and cholesterol while a senior citizen might prefer a “Reduced Sodium” meal.

Finally, Balanced Choices includes a database of hundreds of recipes for nutritious snacks, meals, sides and desserts.

• These recipes incorporate regional tastes and use local flavors. We are building a database of 1,000 better-for-you recipes.

Why does nutrition training make a difference?

New research and improved technologies let us learn more about nutrition every day. But that also means that nutrition changes every day. Today’s chefs and managers may have learned about nutrition in college or during training, but that knowledge is probably outdated. We’re giving our associates the most current information on nutrition, and we will share new research findings as they come out.

Nutrition is directly linked to obesity. Training is the substance behind any strong nutrition program. Balanced Choices is run by people who live it, eat it and breathe it; not by someone who considers nutrition as an afterthought.

Where do you have Balanced Choices in place?

Balanced Choices is currently in place in several pilot locations, including USAA in San Antonio, where 18,000 customers are served daily. Approximately 2,500 Compass Group accounts will have Balanced Choices in place by the end of this year. More than 4,000 accounts will have Balanced Choices by 2007.

By the end of this year, more than a million customers will have access to Balanced Choices meals every day.

Why are you doing this?

Americans are increasingly concerned about their growing waistlines. The US Department of Agriculture estimates that two-thirds of Americans are overweight or obese. And corporations see the link between obesity and health care costs, and they’re looking for improvements.

Fortunately, public interest in nutrition and wellness doesn’t appear to be a passing fad. However, understanding good nutrition – and determining what is appropriate for each person – can be confusing. That is why Compass Group built Balanced Choices around nutrition education for chefs and managers. We are giving them the foundation to build a strong and sustainable better-for-you menu.

The timing couldn’t be better. Clients, from kindergartens to colleges and corporate cafeterias say they want great-tasting, better-for-you options and the educational materials to encourage consumers to choose them.

Additionally, customers want assurances that nutrition information is accurate. We want our associates to understand the nutrition behind Balanced Choices. When they understand nutrition, they can catch potential errors and make suggestions and improvements that benefit the customers.

What is the cost of Balanced Choices?

Balanced Choices is a $2.2 million investment for Compass Group. Much of that cost went toward training associates, chefs and managers about nutrition and the link between proper eating and good health and wellness.

When thinking about costs, consider the costs of rising health care and insurance rates for corporate America, and how this program will help curb – and possibly lower – many of these costs. The price tag for obesity costs U.S. companies roughly $12 billion annually.

Also consider the cost to quality of life for not eating better. Healthier Americans are happier, more productive and have higher quality of life.

Are you doing this out of fear of potential lawsuits about obesity?

We are doing this because it’s the right thing to do, because clients want additional better-for-you options and consumer education – and because customers want to understand nutrition.

Where/when does this campaign end?

Balanced Choices is not a campaign – it’s changing the way Americans approach health and nutrition. We, as a society, have increased our desire and need to understand healthy eating. As Oliver Wendell Holmes once said, “Man’s mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions.” Balanced Choices is stretching countless minds about healthier eating.

Who else is working with Compass Group on this initiative?

Compass Group is working closely with the American Cancer Society and Action for Healthy Kids (AFHK), a national non-profit organization with grassroots outreach in each state that seeks to address the epidemic of childhood obesity by focusing on healthy changes in the school environment.

Compass Group and Action for Healthy Kids have mutual goals to improve children’s health and readiness to learn, with a special focus on improving children’s eating habits and educating administrators, teachers, students and parents about the importance of sound nutrition and physical activity for health and achievement.

Isn’t this an example of companies forcing employees to eat something they otherwise might not?

Actually, the idea for Balanced Choices came after extensive research and talks with consumers, our client companies and employers about how we can better meet their needs. Across the board, they all said they want great-tasting, better-for-you options and an easy way to understand the choices before them.

Balanced Choices is about knowledge and choices. We know that something considered healthy for one person may not be healthy for another person. A key part of Balanced Choices is making nutritional information available for every item we offer and having educated chefs and managers on site to answer questions consumers may have.

We didn’t remove the saltshakers from our dining centers, for instance. But we did add salt substitutes and flavor enhancers, like Mrs. Dash. We also modified favorite dishes to have lower sodium and cholesterol – but maintain the same great tastes.