HOW?
Compass Group North America, has made a commitment to partner with our clients’ nutrition, health and wellness initiatives to foster and promote a more healthful workplace, school or community. Balanced Choices for a healthy lifestyle is our piece of this solution and focuses on moderation and variety and on providing choices and education to help promote wise food choices for all of our customers.

Investing in our customers
Balanced Choices provides options to help all of our customers to “EAT, LEARN and LIVE”.  A third-grader might choose a “Superfood” fruit in a Chartwells school cafeteria; the college student might choose a “Vegan” meal in the dining hall; the investment banker might have a “FIT” salad in the corporate café; and the senior citizen might choose a “Reduced Sodium” soup in her assisted living dining room.

One concept, multiple sector specific options: Partnerships with Action for Healthy Kids, The Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch, and Environmental Defense help us provide meaningful health promotion campaigns and monthly events.

Investing in our employees
Employee education and training is an important component of Balanced Choices. Compass has committed to a comprehensive program that includes general nutrition education, techniques of healthy cooking, and sector specific program training. Investing in our employees through nutrition education has the added benefit of encouraging healthier lifestyle behaviors. Healthier employees who understand the importance of making wise food choices are better prepared to communicate this to our customers and are more productive at work.

Investing in our world
A comprehensive nutrition and wellness program is more than calculating fat and calories; it is caring about the health of the environment and the world we live in.  Following the lead of Bon Appétit Management Co., Balanced Choices encourages Compass sectors to support local farmers with Local Flavor, to support environmentally safe harvesting of fish through the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch program and to support reduced use of hormones and non-therapeutic antibiotics in pork and chicken through our partnership with Environmental Defense.

 What You’ve Told Us
· You know that what you eat can influence your risk for developing chronic diseases like heart disease, diabetes, hypertension and cancer.
·  However, many of you have NOT changed your diet to eat more healthfully because you don’t have enough time or you don’t want to give up your favorite foods.
·  You don’t like counting calories as a way to manage your weight.
· You’re confused by the conflicting nutrition, health and wellness information in the media.

Let Compass Group’s team of nutrition experts and chefs help clear up some of the confusion and show you how making wise food choices as part of a healthy lifestyle can be quick, easy and delicious!

· The health-related economic cost to U.S. business is significant, representing about 5% of total medical care costs. Source: Thompson D, Edelsberg J, Kinsey KL, Oster G. Estimated economic costs of obesity to U.S. business. American Journal of Health Promotion 1998; 13[2]: 120-7.
· As BMI increased, so did the number of sick days, medical claims, and healthcare costs. Source: Burton WN, Chen CY, Schultz AB, Edington DW. The cost of body mass index levels in an employed population. Statistical Bulletin of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Co 1999; 80[3]: 8-14.
· Obesity-associated annual hospital costs for children more than tripled between 1979 and 1999. Source: Wang G, Dietz WH. Economic burden of obesity in youths aged 5 to 17 years: 1979-1999. Pediatrics 2002; 109[5]: E81-E86.