During this administration, there has been a special emphasis put on physical fitness and healthy eating. In fact, last month the First Lady celebrated the first anniversary of Let’s Move! Other administration initiatives like the Presidents Council on Fitness, Sports and Nutrition have motivated parents and children alike to “get moving,” and make healthier choices. We believe it’s important that the federal government set an example for the initiatives we are encouraging others to follow. To that end, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has been actively supporting programs across the Department to help Americans get healthy, stay well and thrive. To show further cooperation in this effort, General Services Administration (GSA) and HHS have teamed up to write specific food, nutrition, and sustainability guidelines to complement the GSA procurement guidelines. The main goals of these guidelines are to assist federal food service operators and managers in maximizing a healthier and more sustainable food service. Food service operators are taking steps to meet these goals by offering more choices of healthier and sustainable foods and beverages, eliminating trans fats, decreasing the amount of sodium available in foods, and allowing people to make better choices about what they are eating through clear and efficient menu labeling. These standards are being adopted at the HHS and implementation is also being encouraged by GSA in all federal concessions operations. The standards apply to the following:

• Sponsored or co-sponsored conferences
• All food service concession operations and vending machines
• Various events onsite and offsite

This year HHS made these guidelines a reality by transitioning to Corporate Chefs as their food vendor at the Humphrey Building cafeteria. In addition to offering fresh, high quality food, they also provide a broad array of choices including: organic, vegan, gluten-free and more. These new guidelines are an important step for HHS and GSA to support the Administration’s over-all goal to improve the health and wellness of all Americans and we look forward to making that goal a reality.