The development and implementation of comprehensive nutrition education lunch and learn workshops for community college employees

Abstract

As obesity and overweight rates have skyrocketed, employee health care costs are of growing concern. In order to address strains on health care costs, many employers have implemented worksite wellness programs that encompass health education and health promotion for employees. This project outlines the development and implementation of six Nutrition Education Lunch and Learn-Work:. hops that were created as part of a community college's comprehensive wellness program. The purpose of this project was to raise employee awareness of nutrition-related concepts and issues through the implementation of Nutrition Education Lunch and Learn Workshops, while also providing insight into the creation and refinement of the workshop series. In order to capture successful elements and challenges of the project, surveys were administered to workshop participants and analyzed using descriptive statistics, as well as basic coding for themes. Additionally, employees' self-reported changes in awareness were measured. Through this project several recommendations were made for employers, or other interested professionals, to use in the development and implementation of a worksite nutrition intervention.