Once your team completes its assessment of your local installation or ship, it’s important to share the summary scores with food service venue operators to keep them informed. Next, it’s time to brief your leadership. Whether it’s through a report or presentation, identify the best frequency and format for keeping leadership updated on your team’s progress.
- Recognize your team members, especially the food service venue managers and operators. Celebrate the team’s efforts and highlight your strong relationships with food service venue operators. In addition, share interest from food service venues that want to improve their food environment.
- Provide context to assessment results by sharing the total number of food service venues on your local installation or ship. Describe the number and types of venues your team assessed. For example, there are 10 fast-food restaurants on your installation, and your team assessed 3 of them. This highlights the total number of fast-food venues that are part of your local food landscape.
- Emphasize any positive strategies venues are currently using to enhance their food policy, food availability, and/or behavioral design. Rely on images to tell your story and highlight these strategies in action. Display photos to visualize the scores, and download the mNEAT scoring summary visuals from the app to convey scores.
- Describe opportunities for improvement in lower scoring areas and propose next steps. Commend food service operators for their efforts and remind them that they’re an important part of optimizing your local nutrition landscape. Also, avoid criticism and be mindful of how you present key data or photos showing gaps or limitations that lead to lower scores. Explain the resources needed for interventions, and highlight low- or no-cost strategies. If available, showcase other food service venues that are successful in similar areas. For instance, healthier drink options are at eye level at a local market, and the setup could also be implemented at worksite snack bars.
- Note any improvements from the previous assessment and interest from food service venue operators to collaborate on MNE improvements. Describe interest from food service venues on making improvements to their menu, food placement, promotion of nutrient-dense options, and educational efforts. Put forth your team’s proposed potential courses of action, including the required resources (time, personnel, supplies, etc.).
What are your best practices to communicate and engage with leadership in the MNE improvement process? Send us a message at mNEAT@usuhs.edu.