Your venue can play an important role in promoting health and supporting
active lifestyles and healthy eating. Providing healthier food and drinks
sends a message to the community about what is healthy as well as
encouraging healthy eating behaviour. While you and your food service have
made a great start to achieving long term change, it is now time to have a
food service policy that everyone can follow for years to come. The policy
will have clear guidelines for the purchase, promotion and sale of food and
drinks.
Your food service policy will demonstrate your commitment to providing
healthy choices and a positive image.
Participants, spectators and the wider community will associate your food
service with good health and recognise this as a wonderful contribution to
encouraging healthy behaviour.
1. Form a committee or group
Get together people you know are committed to a healthier food service.
This may include club committee members, other adults who support the food
service and even a local health worker such as a community dietitian, public
health nutritionist or general practitioner. If your club includes junior
athletes, you can ask one or two to join the food service committee because
young people can often provide ideas and insight that would not be thought
of by an adult. Although we have provided you with a
Policy Template,
we are also very happy to help you develop your policy over the phone or via
email.
2. Decide what to put in your policy
Use the
Policy Template
provided as a template or guide. This template has been used by many
successful schools and sports canteens in the past. Allow members to provide
feedback on your policy. You may want to add extra aspects to the policy,
such as information about allergies and anaphylaxis. Information to assist
you may be found on the Anaphylaxis Australia website. Refer to the
Resources section for contact details.
3. Endorse your policy
To give your policy a bit of extra clout, have it signed by at least
three people. Those people can be:
Food Service Manager/Catering Manager
Club President
Public
Health Nutritionist/Dietitian
Mayor or Shire President
Local Member of Parliament
Venue Manager
With at least three people
signing and endorsing the policy it shows that the food service is ready for long term
change. If you are able to get a local politician or health worker to sign,
then you are also more likely to attract media attention (we discussed
dealing with the media in Step 7).
4. Implement your policy
Put your new policy into practice. Make sure all paid staff and
volunteers in your food services know of the new policy. Give each one a
written copy of the policy and have a laminated copy on the food service
notice board. Also table the policy at your club or association committee
meeting. If you have a club
website, have the policy as a PDF for viewing or download. Not only is this
helpful to club members, other clubs will hopefully follow your lead.
The
community will know that a policy has been developed and that your venue is
dedicated to providing healthy food and drinks at your events.
5. Review your policy
Make sure that your policy is working well in practice. Set a date to
review the policy in case any changes need to be made. We find that the
policy is best reviewed after six months to ensure it suits your club, and
every 1-2 years thereafter.
Click here to download a Policy Template
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