Healthy Vending Machine Options

Are you looking for something to eat that is quick and healthy, and can be found in your Santa Clarita break room or lunchroom vending machine? Whether it’s a quick breakfast, fuel for a lunchtime workout, an afternoon snack, or a sweet treat, a KIND® bar can meet each one of those needs. Each bar is made from nutritionally-dense ingredients and contains no secret ingredients, artificial flavors, preservative or sweeteners. You’ll find nuts, real fruit, chocolate, spicy and savory flavors, and five super grains including oats, buckwheat, millet, amaranth, and quinoa.

And soon, you’ll be able to enjoy your favorite KIND® bar with others when you travel around the globe. In a new partnership with Mars, Incorporated, KIND will be able to expand their product offerings and business into international markets while continuing to make healthy and tasty foods available and create a kinder world through meaningful social impact initiatives.  

Daniel Lubetzky, Founder and CEO of KIND, explained it best when he said, “we’re looking forward to continuing on this journey as we empower more people to make healthy eating decisions across the globe. We remain fully committed to our guiding principles, including our commitment to always use a nutritious food as the first and predominant ingredient in every food product.”

Whether enjoying a vending machine snack in Santa Clarita or around the world, it’s nice to know that KIND will continue to fulfill its KIND Promise. Both employees and students can continue to count on

• snacks made from real food, wholesome ingredients, and sound nutrition;
• nuts, whole grains, or fruit as the first and predominant ingredient;
• everyone and everything being treated with integrity and kindness;
• transparency about everything from ingredients to labeling;
• low amounts of added sugar and no artificial sweeteners or sugar alcohols;
• and tasty and healthy snacks.

An additional way to offer encouragement and support to your Santa Clarita employees or students in their quest to be healthy, is to provide a wide range of healthy snacks and beverages in the office break room or school lunchroom vending machine. Fresh fruit, unsweetened tea, or bottled water are all great accompaniments to a KIND® bar. Help your employees a bit more by offering those snacks and beverages at a reduced cost or for free. That’s a win for everyone.

To learn more about adding healthy vending machine options to your office break room or school lunchroom, call Santa Clarita Concessions at (661) 259-7310. We look forward to hearing from you.

The relationship between the bottled water industry and Santa Clarita consumers has had its ups and downs. But recent news from the International Bottled Water Association (IBWA) is good news for everyone. A recent study found that bottled water now has the lowest water footprint of all packaged drinks, using a total of 1.32 liters of water, including the 1 liter of consumable water, to produce a 1-liter bottle product.

Environmental Impact

To decrease the amount of water used, the amount of energy spent, and the amount of plastic materials needed for the production of bottled water, the bottled water industry has developed new and innovative ways to decrease the number of resources spent. According to the IBWA, some of the changes include:

• “Auditing total water use at bottled water facilities,
• Reducing groundwater extraction through improved water processing and bottling processes,
• Looking for leaks in all of their piping and tanks,
• Planting drought-resistant vegetation at bottling facilities,
• Reminding employees to be good stewards of the environment and encouraging water conservation,
• Implementing water use restrictions at their facilities,
• Implementing ultra-efficient cleaning methods inside plants to reduce water usage when cleaning reusable 3- and 5-gallon bottles for water coolers used in homes and offices,
• Reducing the use of cleaners when sterilizing water pipes, storage tanks, and finished products,
• Managing water withdrawals in a manner that ensures the long-term viability of the watershed, [and]
• Using hydro-geological evaluations on springs to assess any potential impact on local groundwater levels and stream flows.”

The result is an industry that uses fewer natural resources, creates less waste, and produces one of America’s most purchased packaged drinks. As Jill Culora, IBWA’s vice president of communications, said, “consumers who are drinking bottled water instead of other packaged drinks are making a healthy choice—and also reducing the impact on the environment.”

Health Benefits

Water offers multiple health benefits to those in Santa Clarita who drink it. According to the Centers for Disease Control, water helps to regulate body temperature, lubricate and cushion joints, and protect the spinal cord. Kathleen M. Zelman, MPH, RD, LD, the director of nutrition at WebMD, writes that water keeps our body hydrated which helps all of its systems to function properly, decreases muscle fatigue which can contribute to poor performance, and helps skin to stay hydrated and healthy.

Unfortunately, most of us don’t drink nearly enough water to make up for the water that we lose every day, which can lead to dehydration. Side effects of dehydration include lack of energy and fatigue. To combat dehydration, the Mayo Clinic recommends that men drink about 13 cups or 3 liters of beverages per day, and women drink about 9 cups or 2.2 liters per day. Additionally, researchers at the University of Illinois determined that the more water a person drank, the fewer overall calories that person consumed. For most individuals, a decrease in calories, even by a small amount, can positively impact long-term health.  

Do your Santa Clarita employees enjoy water as a pick-me-up during the day? If so, be sure to include bottled water in the office break room vending machine. For the ultimate employee bonus, consider covering part or all of the cost of healthy vending machine snacks and beverages.

For more information about customizing your current vending machine options, or adding new healthy vending machines to your office break room, contact Santa Clarita Concessions at (661) 259-7310.

Which food and beverage choices did you purchase the last time you needed something to eat or drink? Was it a green tea or maybe a breakfast smoothie? If so, you might be one of the many Santa Clarita residents who have recently posted online about your experience.

According to a recently released study by CBD Marketing, Millennials, or those between the ages of 18 and 35, have played a key role in changing “long-standing truths” within food and beverage categories. The research analyzed 10.8 million social media posts and other online content specific to food (8.6 million) and beverage (2.2 million) product groups. Frequently used hashtags for foods included #healthy, #organic, #naturalfood, and #healthyfood), while #greentea, #healthy, #coffee, and #tea were seen most frequently for beverages.

Even though Millennials are tech savvy and share their thoughts and buying habits frequently and openly, it would be a mistake to treat all Millennials as one group. Millennials consist of three overlapping subgroups whose differences can greatly impact their preferences. Some are college students or living at home, others are out of college and just entering the workforce, and others are buying homes and starting families.

And don’t forget to consider other Santa Clarita demographics when monitoring social media insights. For example, women created 62 percent of the content while men created only 38 percent. The study also found that “Millennial men and women use very different descriptors when talking online, so it’s important to use language that reflects your target audience.” The top terms used more frequently and often by women include love, amazing, good, best, favorite, enjoy, and delicious) while men used good, love, great, enjoy. Men also seemed to express negative options more frequently.

CBD Marketing’s Co-CEO Lori Colman said it best when she said that “businesses and brands that mine this treasure trove of online data will be the ones that market their products successfully.” In order to learn about your Santa Clarita employees’ food and beverage preferences for the office break room consider the following criteria.

Food Preferences

• Like healthy, natural foods; support alternative food distribution via meal delivery and meal services
• Buy from environmentally conscious manufacturers and purveyors; want transparency
• Gravitate to cultural flavors and foods like Scandinavian and Indian

Beverage Preferences

• Looking for green tea, kombucha and even traditional hot lemon teas
• Want flavored, sparkling and plain water, “better-for-you” drinks promoting energy, immunity, digestive health
• Enjoy plant-based milks and cold brew

How many of these healthy food and beverage choices are available for your employees in the Santa Clarita office break room? If you’d like to add more options or bring some variety to your current vending machine offerings, Santa Clarita Concessions can help. Contact us at (661) 259-7310 to get started.

Corporate wellness programs including those that offer healthy vending machine options can have a positive impact on both an employee’s health and on the company’s productivity, but only if the wellness program is implemented carefully.

A recent study by researchers at the University of California, Riverside, UCLA, and Washington University in St. Louis found that wellness program participation “improved average worker productivity by over 4 percent” which is roughly equivalent “to adding one additional day of productive work per month for each employee” (Gubler, Larkin, & Pierce,2017, p. 2). Taken one step further, researchers determined that by using diet and exercise, sick and healthy employees increased their productivity by 10 percent.  

There are, however, several important caveats to consider.

• Participation must be voluntary. Researchers found that when participation was required or strongly suggested through social or financial pressure, the participants reacted negatively. Participants perceived the company to be overstepping its bounds and interfering in their health and lifestyle choices.
• Participants must believe in the program’s merits and safety. Highlighting the differences between the reality of the program versus its perceptions will help employees trust that their health data will remain private and will not be used for employment-related purposes.
• Long-term productivity gains are unlikely to be sustainable through single or short-term interventions. Employers must consider multiple or long-term wellness support for employees if increased productivity is to be sustainable.

Wellness programs or interventions in can occur in many different forms from fitness activities to healthy food choices in the office break room vending machine. The best choices for your specific organization will likely vary from the organization next door. Ask your Santa Clarita employees for their opinions and preferences. To start the conversation, consider a few of the following options.

Fitness

• encourage public transportation, walking or biking—arrange for bike racks and provide “bike to work” promotional materials
• encourage stairwell use by strategically placing posters with information about the physical benefits of using stairs
• offer corporate discounts for health club memberships in the Santa Clarita area or offer an on-site fitness facility
• coordinate and market running and walking groups and other monthly and weekly fitness challenges
  

Corporate Culture

• Turn sit-down meetings into walking meetings
• bring in items that will encourage folks to take a break and rejuvenate such as scooters, game rooms, footballs, and hula hoops
• incorporate plants and other greenery around the office
• offer a quiet spot to take a nap

Food Choices

• offer healthy snack, beverage and food choices via vending machines or a micro-market—don’t forget to include non-dairy milk options for those who are vegan or are dairy intolerant
• offer free or reduced cost refreshments for employees—it’s a great morale booster
• throw a monthly healthy potluck
• coordinate with a community supported agriculture (CSA) for local fruit and vegetable deliveries to the office and/or find local farmers markets in Santa Clarita
  

Whether you are looking to offer Free Vend, add a new vending machine or create the ultimate break room, Santa Clarita Concessions can help. We offer a wide variety of products and services that can help boost your employees’ wellness, morale, and productivity. Call us at (661) 259-7310 for more information.   

Reference:

Gubler, T., Larkin, I., and Pierce, L. (2017, June 28). Doing Well by Making Well: The Impact of Corporate Wellness Programs on Employee Productivity. Forthcoming, Management Science. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2811785