G4G Training STAFF TRAINING MODULE 4 INSTRUCTOR GUIDE CLASS TIMELINE Program Title: Module 4: G4G Food Placement Instructor: Certified Go for Green trainer Preferred: Dietitian certified as a Go for Green trainer; experienced in teaching small groups and interfacing with food service personnel Class Length: 20 minutes Audience: Dining facility staff Program Format: Group lecture Program/Learning Objectives: Discuss how the placement of foods and beverages can influence what diners choose to eat and drink Identify best practices for food placement at the hotline, deli bar, salad bar, grill, dessert station, and beverage stations Required materials: Computer with display screen Slide deck presentation: G4G Staff Training Module 4 PPT Script: G4G Staff Training Module 4 Instructor Guide Overview/Purpose/Notes (optional): Developed by: Go for Green Team Developed/Last Revised: February 2016 Handouts: None Event developed for (if applicable): Go for Green Initial Training Note to instructor: Prior to teaching, visit http://hprc-online.org/nutrition/go-for-green and review Frequently Asked Questions
Time Subtitle Script, Activities explained, etc. 1 min Overview Discuss Module 4 outline: Food and Beverage Placement Visual Cues Best Practices by Service Station: Hotline Deli Bar Salad Bar Grill Dessert Bar Beverages Specialty Bars Script for use with G4G Staff Training Module 4 PPT presentation Slide 1: Slide 2: Slide 3: Test Your Knowledge We ll be discussing best practices for food placement at different stations throughout the dining facility/galley. 15 min Slide presentation Teach module using slide deck: G4G Staff Training Module 4 PPT Use script (in combination with slides) for talking points and audience discussion prompts: G4G Staff Training Module 4 Instructor Guide 2 min Instructor-led activities Review the overall presentation in the hotline and use the strategies discussed throughout the module 2 min Wrap-up Answer questions Welcome to Go for Green Staff Training Module 4: G4G Food Placement. In today s training, we ll discuss how food placement can help service members Go for Green! We ll review best practices and suggestions for different service stations, including hotline, deli bar, salad bar, grill, dessert bar, and beverages. There are activities to test your knowledge throughout the training. We ll discuss why food placement is such an important part of the Go for Green program. Since food placement is a new Go for Green feature, it s probably new to you. That s okay! This training will help describe how you can simply change where food items are displayed and nudge service members to increase their intake of Green-coded foods. What you serve matters, but also where you place foods can influence what diners choose to eat. Promotion, marketing, and availability also affect diners choices. Diners generally go for what s easiest and closest. Go for Green can encourage performance-enhancing choices, while making the best fuel (Green-coded items) easy to find. You are 3 times more likely to choose the food item you first see! This can be good if the food is full of nutritious, good for you ingredients, or not good if the food is packed with less-healthy ingredients.
Slide 4: Slide 5: There are two goals with food placement strategies: > > First, place Green-coded foods and drinks in easy-to-reach places. Diners are more likely to choose healthy foods if they are located in highly visible places. > > Next, place Red-coded food and drinks in hard-to-reach places. Since these items require more effort to find, diners are less likely to choose them. NOTE to instructor: This video includes sound and is about 2:34 minutes long. Be prepared to talk about the video content if the Internet connection doesn t work. See the next two slides for video descriptions. Here s a video clip from the experts on food placement: Drs. Brian Wansink and David Just. They re talking about food choices in the school cafeteria and discussing how food placement impacts the students choices. Although their setting is a school cafeteria, it s not much different from a military dining facility or galley. Go for Green is encouraging similar changes in its military dining facilities. Diners were interviewed before any changes were made. They were asked why they selected sodas, cookies, and chips. Most students said that they didn t really know or because it was right there. Then the experimenters made some changes. Let s see what happens. Slide 6 (*If the video doesn t work): First, they moved healthy beverages (such as milk and water) to the front of the coolers, and placed them in easy reach of the diners. Less-healthy, sugary drinks were pushed to the back of the coolers, making them harder to reach. Slide 7 (*If the video doesn t work): Slide 8: Slide 9: Next, they changed the order of food items on the display. They moved pizza to the end of the line, and moved the healthy bean burrito and veggies to the front of the line. The bean burritos and steamed veggies are Green-coded options. Other changes included placing the fruit in a pretty bowl and moving the cookies to a less-accessible location. After the changes were made, sales of healthy beverages increased while sales of sugary drinks decreased. Diners ate more fruit and healthy bean burritos. When asked about their choices, diners said, it was right there so I took it. Overall, the diners made healthier choices. They didn t miss the unhealthy foods and didn t even notice that they were choosing healthier options. This is one of Go for Green s goals for food placement: to nudge people toward making healthier choices. Some people go through the dining facility/galley everyday and just eat what s in front of them. They re not making conscious choices. So when you put the Green-coded food in front of them, they ll take it. We can make similar changes in the dining facility so that diners make easier, healthy choices. > > Now that you ve seen the video, what are your ideas for improving the location of foods and drinks in your facility? What changes could you make?
Slide 10: Slide 11: Slide 12: Slide 13: Let s review each station and talk about the best ways to improve food placement. There are simple, cost-effective ways to make Green-coded foods and drinks more prominent. Let s make the healthy choice, the easy choice! > > An easy, first step is to place the Green-coded items first on the hotline regardless of whether they re vegetables, starches, or proteins. Organizing menu items by color code (Green, Yellow, and then Red) encourages service members to choose the Green-coded items. > > Next, offer whole-grain starches such as brown rice, whole-grain pastas and breads/rolls, and quinoa in addition to or instead of traditional white grains. > > Show service members that healthy, high-performance foods can be tasty! Display a featured meal of mostly, if not all, Green-coded foods, like the examples shown here. Make the display look bright, colorful, tasty, and very enticing to diners! > > Look at these 10 menu items for the hotline: Which belong first in the Green-coded section, which belong next in the Yellow-coded section, and which belong last in the Red-coded section? (Click 1-4) Green-coded items: zucchini, green beans, chicken, baked sweet potato (Click 5-7) Yellow-coded items: mashed potatoes, BBQ pork, white rice pilaf (Click 8-10) Red-coded items: fried fish, creamed spinach, mac and cheese At your deli bar, keep Green-coded foods in full display and Red-coded options out of sight! Make whole grains the default option; only use white bread when asked. Move white breads behind the deli counter. Display a Green-coded sandwich, cut in half and face out, so diners can see its delicious, healthy ingredients. Showcase vegetables at the deli. The more color and variety the better! Offer Green-coded spreads, condiments, and dressings. Some examples include hummus, avocado, and oil-based salad dressings. Hummus is very inexpensive; it can be made in batches and a variety of flavors. Additional recipes for Green-coded toppings and spreads are available from the AFRS database. > > Serve Red-coded options, such as nacho cheese sauce and creamy dressing, in smaller containers at the end of the line. Offer meatless options that contain protein such as grilled Portobello mushrooms or tofu. > > Here s an example of a sandwich that will be displayed at the deli bar. What healthier improvements can be made so it becomes Green-coded and more appealing to diners? (Click 1) This is a Red-coded sandwich; the displayed sandwich should be Green! (Click 2) Use whole-grain buns or breads.
Slide 14: (Click 3) Use healthier proteins such as grilled chicken, sliced turkey, or grilled tofu. Or, use less meat and add more vegetables. (Click 4) Use Green-coded dressings or spreads such as hummus, avocado, and guacamole instead of cheese sauce, which is a Red-coded dressing. (Click 5) There s very little color on this sandwich. Add lots of fresh veggies such as lettuce, spinach, tomato, peppers, sprouts, etc., to make the sandwich more nutritious and appealing. The salad bar should be full of healthy, fresh, and colorful toppings that make food placement easy, but less-healthy items are often a part of the salad bar too. These can be included, but remember to place them in smaller containers with smaller serving utensils at the end of the bar. The salad bar is a great place to offer healthy fats such as nuts, seeds, and homemade dressings. Additionally, you can serve fruit (either sliced or diced in the salad bar). Or, serve whole fruit in a clear bowl near the salad bar. Slide 15: Slide 16: > > Can you name 10 healthy salad-bar toppings? Let s start with vegetables, then list starches, and then list proteins? (Click 1) Vegetable ideas (Click 2) Starch ideas (Click 3) Protein ideas Just like the hotline, the grill is a great place to showcase Green-coded options. Make sure to place them first in the line. Similar to the deli setup, offer whole-grain buns and breads as the main option. Keep white buns and breads behind the counter, or out of sight. Increase the number of Green-coded options such as healthy vegetable toppings and sides. Offer grilled, not fried, meats and leaner proteins such as white meats and vegetarian options. Next, place red meats and other less-healthy, Yellow-coded items. Place Red-coded items last. Limit or avoid serving deep-fried foods. Slide 17: > > If you re setting up the grill, what s the best order for the following sides to encourage diners to choose healthier, Green-coded items? Keep in mind these principles can be used for the deli bar as well. (Click 1) Broccoli (Click 2) Grilled veggies (Click 3) Baked sweet potato fries (Click 4) Roasted potatoes Although the first four are all Green-coded, place veggies first before starches such as potatoes.
(Click 5) French fries (Click 6) Onion rings Remember: All fried foods are Red-coded and should be placed last. Move Red-coded foods closer to the server and farther away from the diner. When you setup a deli bar, consider putting Greencoded items up front. Bonus: Is there a way to limit offerings to just one fried item? What can you substitute to make your grill more Green? Slide 18: The dessert bar is often full of Red-coded items, but that doesn t mean dessert should be eliminated entirely. Look for easy ways to improve the dessert bar and offer more Green- or Yellow-coded choices. Reduce the dessert bar offerings. Consider moving the dessert bar to the back corner of your facility. Diners will have to go out of their way and around the traffic flow to reach it. Limit signs promoting the dessert bar. Try including healthier options in the dessert bar/area. Include more Green-coded items such as whole grains or nuts. Healthier toppings could include a dusting of powdered sugar, fresh fruit, or a dollop of fresh whipped cream in place of frosting. Increase the number of Green-coded dessert offerings. Be creative with fruit! Try offering it sliced, diced, whole, or mixed into yogurt parfaits. Serve more fruit-based desserts. Slide 19: Don t forget about drinks! Drinks can provide a large source of sugar and calories, landing them into the Red-coded category. Make the water station visible and attractive. Add fruit or cucumber slices to naturally flavor the water. Include multiple water sources at the beverage station. For example, include one tap on the fountain drink station and serve water in coolers throughout the facility. Serve unsweetened tea only, or before sweet tea. Store Green-coded bottled drinks such as water, naturally-flavored water, and unsweetened tea at or above eye level in beverage coolers. Move higher-fat and higher-calorie flavored milks behind their healthier counterparts. Diners will have to work harder to find them. Slide 20: > > Name the food placement guidelines that were used for this hydration station. (Click 1) This station encourages Green-coded drinks: sugar-free, naturally-flavored waters. (Click 2) The station is clearly labeled. (Click 3) The station is very visible. (Click 4) The setup looks refreshing, colorful, and tasty! (Click 5) There are two options (flavors) available to diners. Promote healthy beverages such as flavored water or spa water. Adding fruit or herbs to water makes it appear more attractive and flavorful; this is perfect for those who are tired of plain
Slide 21: Slide 22: water. The longer the fruit or herb sits in the water, the more flavorful it becomes. Flavor ideas include: sliced lemons, limes, or oranges mint and lemons/limes/oranges basil and cucumber diced watermelon or pineapple > > If you re setting up a specialty bar such as a baked potato bar, what are some best practices to use? Think about what toppings to include and where to put them. Answers (Appear clockwise from offer sweet potatoes ): (Click 1) Offer sweet potatoes in addition to white potatoes. (Click 2) Serve less-healthy toppings in smaller containers. (Click 3) Offer bean-based chili instead of meat-based chili, which is Red-coded. (Click 4) Move cheese sauce, a Red-coded topping, to the far end of the line. Even better, serve real shredded cheese in a smaller container. (Click 5) Move healthier toppings such as salsa and veggies to first in line. (Click 6) Place broccoli and other vegetables before Red-coded toppings. (Click 7) Offer more veggie and herb toppings. Tomatoes, onions, and chives are great additions. And anything else the staff might offer! You ve been testing your knowledge throughout this training, so let s put it all together! Slide 23: > > Look at this baked potato bar. What do you think about its overall presentation? Think about the things we ve discussed in the earlier training sessions. Talking points: > > It looks sloppy. Would you want to eat here? > > Presentation conveys how well you take care of your dining facility. Will your diners trust you? > > This sloppy look doesn t reflect the standardization of the Go for Green program. Remember that consistency and standardization build diner trust. > > There s no information to provide to diners. There aren t any labels to convey item names or nutritional information. Answer any remaining questions about this module.