Pru pilots healthy plates

NEWARK—Prudential Financial Services is piloting healthy, waist-line-friendly menu items at one of its facilities here as part of a company-wide wellness initiative launched by its health and wellness team—and at last count, about 10% of lunch customers were choosing the healthy meal.

During the pilot, the dining facility is offering one entree every Tuesday and one salad entree each Thursday, reports Ron Ehrhardt, director of foodservice. Nutritional information and the recipes, which are supplied by Miavita—a company providing a Web-based healthy living program covering meal planning, nutrition and exercise—are posted at the point of service. "The entrees are very easy to make; they include common items that we have in most all of our dining centers," says Ehrhardt.

The entrees include asparagus frittata, pasta with mushrooms and artichokes, Thai green curry chicken and oven-roasted fish. Salads include spinach and grapefruit; corn-off-the-cob; black bean; Waldorf; and tuna and white bean.

Value added: The prices for the entrees fall within the dining center's usual range for meals. "We try to give the customer a value, by offering something with it," says Ehrhardt, adding that the entree may come with a side salad and a bottle of water. As an added incentive, customers who buy four out of the eight meals served during the pilot will receive their fifth one on the house.

The pilot is an offshoot of Prudential's recent partnership with Miavita, whose services are now offered as a benefit to Prudential employees. Gary Giannone, director of employee health services, says that the initiative provided a good opportunity to work with the foodservice team in bringing the program to employees. Ehrhardt concurs. "This was a no-brainer," he says. "This targets the most current trend in foodservice. People want to eat healthy—plus the food tastes good. If it tastes good, is prepared attractively and offered at a value-oriented price with an incentive, the employee wins."

Giannone says the meals were not tagged with the Miavita brand name and were instead named after Prudential's work life program—LifeSolutions Healthy Meals. "We wanted some flexibility so that should the [foodservices] team want to take this on in a more significant way, we're not beholden to another vendor and we can grow this initiative within our own team."

Healthy bottom line: Pruden- tial's broader goal revolves around helping employees embrace a healthy lifestyle. "With rising healthcare costs, anything we can do to contribute to keeping people healthy and productive in the workplace is a win for the company," he says.