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KAISER PERMANENTE HEALTHY PICKS PROGRAM Kaiser Permanente aspires to improve the health of our members, employees, our communities and the environment by increasing access to fresh, healthy food in and around KP facilities. Kaiser Permanente supports food systems that are ecologically sound, economically viable and socially responsible by the way food is purchased. Nutrition criteria has been established for foods sold in the cafeteria and these foods must meet the guidelines established by the Partnership for Healthier America.
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During my retail foodservice rotation at Kaiser Permanente Sunnyside I was introduced to the Healthy Picks Program. Specific nutrition criteria must be followed in the cafeteria environment regarding fats, protein, dairy and grains. Fats must be a healthy fat such as olive oil, food must have no trans fat and cannot be deep fried. Protein must come from a healthy source such as chicken, fish, tofu, nuts or seeds. Carbohydrates must be in the "whole" form such as brown rice, quinoa, whole oats or oatmeal. Lastly, dairy must be 1% or nonfat sources of dairy such as yogurt. After collaboration with the retail foodservice healthy picks expert my 'Wellness Bowl' project was created. Rice bowls have become a popular choice for many Americans and are often both healthy and filling consisting of grains, vegetables and protein. It became clear that rice bowls are an increasing trend in today’s food market, whether it’s in institutional foodservice or restaurants. My task was to develop wellness bowl combinations for the sauté station in the cafeteria following the healthy picks guidelines. Previously, sauces served at the sauté station were too high in sodium so a extensive part of the project was creating sauces that met the sodium criteria. The initial step of the Wellness Bowl project began with conducting a thorough review of current food trends, popular recipes and various organizations for successful meal strategies. I explored the food options of other hospitals around the country, restaurants in Portland, and a variety of recipe databases. After coming to the conclusion that Wellness Bowls would be a great addition to the Kaiser cafeteria, I analyzed the current recipes Kaiser was using for sauces/glazes at the sauté. I soon realized that almost all of the sauces currently being used would no longer meet the nutritional requirements set through the Healthy Picks Program (sodium). After realizing we were literally going to have to start from scratch with sauce recipes, I conducted a thorough search for low-sodium, low-calorie and low-fat options for each bowl ‘theme’. I utilized the USDA nutrient database as part of analyzing the sauce recipes in addition to Nutribase. I made sure during the process of developing each Wellness Bowl and the sauce options that were going to accompany each of the bowls, that I kept the Kaiser customers as the priority. This meant sticking with the policies Kaiser holds for their cafeteria nutrition standards. I also took into account allergens consumers may have such as peanuts and avoided using any sauce recipes containing peanuts or nuts. My end products for this assignment were Wellness Bowl marketing signs including a sign for the sauté (varied by bowl theme) and also a marketing sign to be used for the entrance of the cafeteria. I also created a user-friendly excel document containing each bowl theme and ingredient/sauce descriptions for each of the bowl layers. I also created a second spreadsheet, which included sauce options for each of the bowls, ranging from one sauce option to four options per bowl.
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