institutions, from sports arenas and entertainment
venues to elementary schools, colleges, offices,
hospitals, and beyond.
In November 2016, Aramark and AHA announced
their first-year report, revealing major progress in
reaching their goals: They had reached an eight-
percent reduction in calories, sodium, and saturated
fats across key menus, ahead of their three to five
percent annual target. While more precise metrics
for fruits, vegetables, and whole grains are under
development, they reported that already they had
reached 30 percent of main dishes being vegetarian
or vegan, and 10 percent of main dishes containing
whole grains as a leading ingredient.
What are the secrets to their success? How are
they actually making these changes across such
a vast network of operations and large number of
menu items? And what have they learned along the
journey so far?
Menu Strategies
In working toward these six targets, Aramark’s
culinary team tracks calories, saturated fat,
sodium, and other ingredients at the individual
recipe level, even seasonal menu items, through a
propriety menu management system. During the
second year of the partnership, they will be able to
track fruit, vegetable, and whole grain composition
at the levels of individual recipes, menu categories,
and entire menus.
“From a culinary development point of view,
having an impact across the many different types
of locations that Aramark serves was one of the
reasons it was exciting for me to be part of this,” says
Annette Gray, associate vice president of culinary
innovation and development for Aramark. “Our chef
team here has always developed our menu concepts
with wellness in mind—well before it was hip to say
so. That gave us a really good head start.”
For their whole grains program, for instance,
they did a complete sandwich overhaul, offering
whole-grain options without raising sodium levels
or compromising taste. “Whole-grain ciabatta
as a carrier for our sandwiches helped us build
alternatives, and we can build any sandwich on
that whole-grain roll now,” Gray says. Aramark has
introduced yogurt instead of mayo on sandwiches
across many units as well. Gray explains: “I think we
made tremendous progress in making vegetables
and a vegetarian sandwich approachable by using
hummus as a spread and as a main ingredient that
just tastes great.” Her team also doubled down
on seasonally appropriate choices to increase
excitement around cooked vegetables.
One of their best received strategies was a grain
bowl pop-up. Bowls featured 50 percent grains, 50
percent vegetables, often tri-colored quinoa or farro,
with brightly colored vegetables, and an option to top
the bowl with a small chicken breast if desired.
Rolling out healthier menu options hasn’t always
been smooth sailing, though. “With our sodium
reduction targets, we tried in the beginning to go
right down to a low-sodium soup, under 400 mg of
sodium, when people were used to having a soup
on the street that was over 1000 mg of sodium,”
says Dan Wainfan, associate vice president of
health and wellness for Aramark. “We found out we
were actually turning people off.” From that came
an important lesson that 0 to 60 is not an approach
that would work for them. Instead, they shifted to
incremental changes: “We’d go down by 100 mg or
200 mg at a time, or add ginger to a carrot soup, or
pureed sweet potato that hadn’t been there before,
so that over time, we got to a variety of custom
developed, locally prepared soups, that all had
under 700 mg of sodium per serving, and many
of them had even less, but we did it in a stepwise
fashion, and by adding flavor in other innovative
ways. So I think that was a learning by the school of
hard knocks.”
The biggest challenge has been getting people to
try new things, Wainfan says. “Our goal is to get to a
place where food discovery is exciting and rewarding
and fun, as opposed to something you have to do
to have a better doctor’s appointment. Because that
doesn’t last very long.”
Working Hand in Glove
There are many reasons Aramark and American
Heart Association were a fitting match for this
joint initiative.
“AHA’s mission is to build healthier lives, free of
cardiovascular disease and stroke,” says Dorothea
Vafiadis, national director of healthy living for the
American Heart Association. “We recognized that,
as a public health organization, a public-private
partnership is really the way to do it. We can’t just
be public health, criticizing what’s happening—we
have to be out there, engaged with stakeholders
around clear, shared goals.” AHA was particularly
drawn to Aramark’s culinary expertise and broad
reach in the marketplace.
PARTNERSHIP SPOTLIGHT:
ARAMARK AND AMERICAN
HEART ASSOCIATION
A GROUNDBREAKING PUBLIC-
PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP WITH
SHARED AMBITION FOR
CHANGING THE MENU
Approaching the year 2020 can be a powerful rallying
cry for many who work each day to shape a better
future for human and environmental health.
In 2015, Aramark and American Heart Association
(AHA) came together when they realized they shared
not only goals to improve eating habits nationwide, but
a motivation to make measurable change before 2020.
For years, Aramark had been working on health and
wellness, with an army of 750 dietitians and its Healthy
for Life® program in place. AHA, for its part, had set
an impact goal to boost the health of the American
population by 20 percent while reducing deaths from
cardiovascular disease and stroke by 20 percent by
2020. Thus was born Healthy for Life 20 By 20, a
joint initiative to improve the health of all Americans
20 percent by 2020.
Over a five-year period through 2020, the initiative
set out to reduce calories, saturated fat, and sodium
levels 20 percent, and increase fruits, vegetables, and
whole grains 20 percent. In addition to the healthy
menu commitment across Aramark’s businesses,
Healthy for Life 20 By 20 includes community health
engagement programs, consumer health awareness
and education, as well as thought leadership,
research, and health impact reporting.
As Aramark is one of the largest foodservice providers
in the United States, these commitments stood
to impact over two billion meals per year. Those
meals are served across thousands of outlets and
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