Improving Cafeteria Offerings to Plant Employees

¶ … food offered at the BMW plant in Spartanburg, South Carolina is unhealthy and caters to workers' wants instead of focusing on nutritional needs.

Overview of Alternatives: BMW's Spartanburg cafeteria could (1) offer only health foods including organic, low-fat, and vegetarian options or (2) could continue to offer its current choices but increase the number of healthy options available and increase employee education about healthy food choices.

Criteria: The criteria used to judge the feasibility and likelihood of success of the program include: affordability and the likelihood that employees will choose healthier options.

Evaluating the costs and benefits of implementing a healthy food program will be multi-dimensional and include an examination of the benefits of healthy eating, the likelihood that healthy habits will transition from the workplace to the home, and the financial costs of these changes.

Evaluation of Alternatives: Alternative A is offering only healthy options. Alternative B is offering healthy choices in addition to current choices and increasing employee education about healthy food choices.

Cost: On the surface, Alternative an appears that it is going to be less expensive than Alternative B, because it involves a smaller number of choices, which reduces costs, and does not require the addition of an employee education program. However, that could be inaccurate, depending on how those healthy options were defined and chosen. For example, on average, organic food costs 47% more than non-organic options (Consumer Reports, 2015). These costs can be dramatically mitigated, however, by buying local, seasonal organic produce options, which can actually be less expensive than their conventionally-grown counterparts (Consumer Reports, 2015). Furthermore, it is important to keep in mind that in any healthcare scenario, actual costs may vary greatly from the initial costs of the program. Employees could choose to bring their lunches instead of opting for the healthy choices offered in the program, which would increase waste, raise costs, and not result in the positive health changes that are a desired result of the program. Alternative B would be more expensive to implement because it would require a more varied menu and would also require the implementation of an employee wellness education program. The Wellness Council of America recommends that $100-$150 per year be spent on employee wellness programs, greatly increasing the initial costs of this program (Hall, 2011).