Workforce Nutrition Alliance

Supporting employers to adopt and expand workforce nutrition programmes

"At The Consumer Goods Forum, our member companies understand the value of investing in the wellbeing of their employees, including their nutritional health. Through our partnership with GAIN, we are helping them to build better workforce nutrition programmes that ensure a healthy workforce today, and strong competitiveness into the future."

Dr Wai-Chan Chan, Managing Director, CGF

"These new tools are launching at an important moment in time – when COVID19 is threatening the health of workers worldwide. By bringing healthy nutrition to employees through their workplace, we can reach millions of people and have a powerful impact on fighting malnutrition globally and protecting our economies during these uncertain times."

Lawrence Haddad, Executive Director, GAIN

"As an employer of more than 130,000 Associates we have a responsibility for supporting their health and wellbeing. When Associates are healthy and fully energized they have the resilience and focus they need to achieve their goals – both personal and professional. The framework we deploy is aligned to that of the Workforce Nutrition Alliance, and I am delighted to support and endorse their work. The Workforce Nutrition Alliance is helping businesses shape the future of workplaces and employer and employee goals to improve nutrition. I’d encourage you to join the Alliance and be a part of a healthier future."

Grant F. Reid, CEO/President Mars, Incorporated

"Healthy living is what we promote to our colleagues and customers. Simply, it’s a combination to EAT BETTER, EXERCISE OFTEN, THINK POSITIVE AND FEEL GOOD. We support the Workforce Nutrition Alliance initiative to support nutrition education and also giving breastfeeding support to the working mothers in the company. Let’s join this health movement!"

Malina Ngai, CEO, A.S Watson

"Our investment in nutrition in our workplaces and throughout our supply chains delivers triple impact - it improves people’s wellbeing, unlocks progress across our sustainability priorities, while driving improvements in productivity and operational efficiency. As we approach 2030, we will continue to take bold strides to meet our nutrition and sustainability goals."

Sunny Verghese, Co-Founder & Group CEO, Olam International Limited

"Business leaders have a key role to play in ensuring their employees’ nutritional needs are met. Collaboration is essential to drive workforce nutrition to the top of global business agendas, and in turn, address the Sustainable Development Goal of access to nutrition for all."

Sharon Bligh, Healthier Lives Director, CGF

"As part of our company’s mission to offer healthier and more responsible food for all, it was natural for us to develop a dedicated program, Healthy Smiles, to support our employees achieve a more balanced diet and practice physical activity. Bel’s employees are the first ambassadors of our commitments, and we are convinced that their well-being is both a personal and collective strength. To date, the program is in place in 31 subsidiaries and we will continue to develop new initiatives, such as the improvement of our food offer on all our sites in 2021. We are proud to be a part of The Workforce Nutrition Alliance, a source of positive discussions and inspiration to meet the collective challenge of better nutritional practices."

Cécile Béliot, Executive Vice President, Strategy and Growth Member of the Executive Committee, BEL Group

"At Grupo Éxito we encourage healthy lifestyles with our near to 8 million customers, more than 37,000 employees and near to 6,000 suppliers. Additionally we promote 4,200 natural products with nutritional benefits that encourage these changes. As a member of the Consumer Goods Forum, we partner with retailers and manufacturers in the coalition for healthier lives, developing health & wellness fairs, offline and online activities with our communities. We support the ambition of the workforce nutrition alliance."

Carlos Mario Giraldo, President of Grupo Éxito, Co-chair of the CGF Latam Council

"Now more than ever, a collective effort is needed across the industry as well as with the public sector and civil society, to truly impact global nutrition. As an asian company, we want to contribute our nutrition perspective to ensure a global approach to global problems. There are many opportunities to continue the momentum in 2021, including the Nutrition for Growth Summit here in Tokyo where the CGF is a member of the Business Constituency Group and is working with GAIN to lead on the Workforce Nutrition Alliance. Business has an important role to play in improving global nutrition."

Takaaki NISHII, Ajinomoto PRESIDENT & CEO

"At Grupo Bimbo, we are fully committed to promote the well-being of our more than 133,000 associates and their families. We do so through our Global Wellness Strategy which aims to implement programs at the workplace that encourage our associates to have healthier and more balanced lifestyles, recognizing nutrition and physical activity as the base of these efforts. As a key element of our strategy, we have developed nutritional orientation programs with field specialists which include healthy- diet dining rooms in our facilities. In this sense, is that we decided to become partners with the Workforce Nutrition Alliance, as a way to work with experts and share best practices, reinforcing the relevance of promoting healthy lifestyles to improve the wellbeing of our associates, their families and community. We encourage other companies to join us in this great effort and together nourish a better world"

Daniel Servitje Montullj, CEO- Grupo Bimbo

“At Nestlé, our purpose is to unlock the power of food to enhance quality of life for everyone, today and for generations to come. Now, more than ever the health and well-being of employees is of upmost importance and nutrition is a key component.

We know that interventions in the workplace can make a real impact on improving health and wellbeing of people. For this reason, Nestlé supports the Workforce Nutrition Alliance a collaboration with the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) and The Consumer Goods Forum (CGF). The Alliance aims to support and encourage employers to implement workforce nutrition program and to positively impact three million employees by 2025.

To help employees achieve a healthy and balanced lifestyle, Nestlé introduced the #HealthyLives initiative in 2019. The global educational program that takes a holistic approach to wellness, covering multiple dimensions of personal health, such as nutrition, physical activity and mental health. It incentivizes employees to be active and features a series of 13 short videos and brochures, focusing on key risks and encouraging simple and easy changes to avoid them. We compliment this with the Know Your Numbers initiative which helps employees to understand their health risks. The collated data enables us to identify the areas where need to focus in our health and nutrition related programs.

The Alliance’s work is an important activity in helping to promote healthier lives and build sustainable food systems. In parallel, I also welcome UN Food Systems Summit which aims to launch bold new actions to transform the way the world consumes and produces food. Together, we can achieve more for the betterment of people, planet and business.”

Mark SCHNEIDER, Nestlé, CEO

“The Consumer Goods Forum and the GAIN united their forces through the Workforce Nutrition Alliance to provide healthy and balanced nutrition to employees all over the World. Please join us in the Workforce Nutrition Alliance and its efforts for the sake of our employees, our communities, and the sustainability of our businesses. Our human resources are our most valuable asset and with us all spending almost of half of our lives in offices, stores, and factories, we have it within our grasp to influence the lives of our fellow-workers for the better. If we are all healthy in mind and body so is our business and if we believe in our common cause, we will willingly act as health ambassadors.

As Migros, we view investing in the mental and physical health of our employees as our duty. We all know that malnutrition and undernutrition are the greatest barriers to achieving the best of health. And that’s why, we focus on balanced nutrition, sufficient water consumption and physical activity of our employees by providing three-course hot meals on workdays, food support for household consumption, regular health checks, and training programmes focusing on physical and mental health. And now, I would like to invite the business world to help protect and nurture the health of our human resources and bring about transformative positive change.”

Özgür TORT, Migros Ticaret, CEO, CGF CO-CHAIR

Making the Case for Action, Supporting Implementation & Delivering Impact

With 58% of the world’s population spending one third of their time at work during their adult life, there is a clear opportunity to use the workplace to improve nutritional status and tackle poor diets, now the biggest cause of ill health in every country. In fact, one in three people around the world are malnourished, and it impacts all people across income groups, job types and exists from farm to consumers.

Today’s consumer goods retailers and brands are important employers within communities around the world, so there is a clear case for our industry to play an active role in supporting employees to live healthier. However, there are shortcomings with current workplace programmes. For example, only a small percent of the global workforce who work in corporate offices in high income countries have access to healthy food options at work and most employers in supply chains provide food to meet a regulatory requirement; and is not necessarily nutritious.

Beyond employee health, we also know that workplace nutrition and health programmes can have significant benefits for employees, employers and the society. At an organisational-level, healthy employees can lead to reduced absenteeism, enhanced productivity, lower rates of accidents and mistakes, greater job satisfaction and financial benefits. And, at the macro-level, we see healthy employees having a positive impact on the implementation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, specifically SDG 2 (zero hunger), SDG 3 (good health and wellbeing) and SDG 8 (decent work and economic growth).

However, there are various challenges that employers face in implementing workforce nutrition programmes at scale, including lack of awareness, limited incentive, high resource requirement and complex implementation. Through the Workforce Nutrition Alliance, co-founded by the CGF and the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN), organisations are coming together to support employers to adopt workforce nutrition programmes. It is aligned with the Tokyo Nutrition for Growth Summit, and its goal is to positively impact three million employees in their organisations and supply chains by 2025.

This journey will include a self-assessment of the current situation, setting targets and making commitments, developing a plan to meet the targets, accessing implementation support, monitoring and reporting on impact, and reaping the rewards.