The Worksite Wellness Challenge is underway, sponsored by the Worksite Wellness Leadership Team. Get Fit Kauai’s 2016 Worksite Wellness Challenge is a competition islandwide, for nine months (February-October) designed to encourage businesses to implement healthy practices in the workplace and
The Worksite Wellness Challenge is underway, sponsored by the Worksite Wellness Leadership Team. Get Fit Kauai’s 2016 Worksite Wellness Challenge is a competition islandwide, for nine months (February-October) designed to encourage businesses to implement healthy practices in the workplace and to create sustainable wellness policies and environmental changes that focus on nutrition and physical activity improvements.
Grove Farm joined the 2016 Worksite Wellness Challenge to learn ways to improve the overall health of its entire team. Located in Puhi, Grove Farm consists of 14 team members and countless business partners. Supportive of weekly fitness activities and having created a “Grove Farm Fit Club” over seven years ago, the company was interested in a more formal approach to addressing overall team member wellness.
The Worksite Wellness Challenge was the perfect opportunity. So far, Grove Farm updated its employee manual to include expanded sections dedicated to bettering employee health, organized an internal wellness committee, and crafted an official company wellness policy.
Additionally, Grove Farm team members decided to go one step further and created personalized goals to increase commitment to the challenge. Goals varied from reducing soda consumption, exercising 30 minutes five days a week, cooking three meals a week, planting a home garden, and cutting back on caffeine.
Inspired by the Worksite Wellness Challenge, Grove Farm began collecting food items for an ongoing Healthy Food Drive. For years, Grove Farm has supported community and business groups by allowing the use of the conference room for free.
Recently, the company began asking organizations using the meeting room to donate healthy food items to support those worksite wellness goals. Thanks to the countless donors, Grove Farm raised over 500 pounds of food. Grove Farm team members personally delivered the food donation to St. Raphael Church in Koloa to support their Food Pantry outreach efforts and plans to continue an ongoing healthy food drive.
Get Fit Kauai’s “2016 Worksite Wellness Challenge” winner, determined in November, will have made the greatest improvement from the initial survey score. In addition to a healthier workplace, the winning company will receive a certificate, a trophy, and prizes. If you would like more information or would like to participate in Get Fit Kauai’s “2017 Worksite Wellness Challenge,” contact Karen Silver, Get Fit Kauai’s Worksite Wellness leadership chair at karenpsilver@gmail.com.
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Marissa Sandblom is with Grove Farm Company, Inc., headquartered in Lihue. The company owns about 38,000 acres on Kauai.
