LeanBox: Making Heart-Healthy Food Available in the Workplace

The following blog post was submitted by LeanBox, a company providing a collection of services that improve workplaces through food and beverage culture. LeanBox has been a partner in our advocacy efforts to pass the “healthy vending” bill, which would require healthy options to be added to vending machines on state-owned property.

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We believe everyone should have access to nutrition-dense meals at work. Not as just something that’s nice to have, but as a fundamental part of the workplace. At the minimum, you work to provide for yourself and to care for your wellbeing. Not the other way around.

There’s a direct link between what we feed our bodies and our output. Athletes don’t feed themselves junk food because they need to perform at their best. The workplace isn’t any different. For instance, consuming fruit is directly linked to increased levels of dopamine.  And dopamine directly impacts our levels of productivity--it’s the neurotransmitter responsible for spurts of creativity and motivation. By golly, it should be raining fruit everywhere!

The thing is, junk food (stuff high in refined sugars, Trans fat, saturated fat, and salt) is an easy grab--even at work. And the evidence is out in the open. Just walk through a typical workplace break room and scan the space. No signs of yogurt, fruit, or nutrition-dense meals. So LeanBox set out to change that.

Eating heart-healthy food must costly, right? The goal at LeanBox is to make fresh, heart-healthy, grab and go food accessible within steps of your desk.  Whether it’s yogurt, fruit, a vegetable juice, or kale salad, LeanBox follows the American Heart Association’s guidelines on healthy food in the workplace.

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The American Heart Association is working with many partners on the Statewide Healthy Vending Bill, we are fortunate to have LeanBox and other healthy vending companies providing options in the Commonwealth.