Food guide friendly: Create a healthier food environment

Food guide friendly is a set of resources designed to help organizations create healthier food environments. It includes principles and promotional materials to use in settings that offer or sell foods, such as:

• workplaces
• recreational settings
• post-secondary institutions

On this page

• Food guide-friendly principles to improve food environments
• Food guide-friendly promotional materials
• Steps to improve your food environment

Food guide-friendly principles to improve food environments

The principles are designed to guide settings that offer or sell foods to make changes that support healthy eating. These changes aim to create more supportive food environments.

Food guide-friendly promotional materials

Use the food guide-friendly promotional materials to help you promote healthy food and drinks and encourage healthy eating behaviours. These materials are available in a variety of formats and dimensions to fit different spaces and needs.

Steps to improve your food environment  

Before making changes, it’s important to assess your setting. You don’t have to act on all the principles right away. Start with a few changes and add more over time. Here’s how to get started:

1. Look at what food and drinks you offer.
   • Compare them to the food guide-friendly principles to see how well they align.
2. Find areas for improvement.
   • Identify which principles your setting could do better on.
   • Create short-, medium-, and long-term goals. Ask yourself:
     • how close you are to meeting the principle
     • if a change would help make the healthy choice easier to choose
     • if you have the tools, staff, or other resources to implement changes
     • if this is something you can do now
3. Make an action plan.
   • Work with your staff and customers to create a plan that fits your setting and the people you serve.
4. Put your plan into action.
   • Start making changes based on your goals and plan.
5. Make a commitment.
   • Consider making a pledge to your patrons about your commitment to improving the food environment—it's a powerful way to stay accountable and to show you're engaged.
6. Check your progress.
   • Monitor how things are going, see what’s working, and adjust if needed.