NEWS! The US Department of Health and Human Services has recognized the Red Apple Project in one of eight Healthy Living Innovation Awards!

About the Red Apple Project:

NC Prevention Partners, funded by The Duke Endowment and in partnership with the NC Hospital Association, is assisting hospitals in promoting healthy environments through tobacco-free campuses and healthy food environment policies in North and South Carolina.

Beginning in January, 2008, the Red Apple team began a three year effort to increase the number of hospitals that meet the standard for a healthy food environment and to develop essential and sustainable technical assistance tools. In order to be considered an NCPP-approved Red Apple Hospital, the hospital environment must reflect the following core principles: 

Core Principles of a Healthy Food Environment

1. Provide access to healthy foods at all times using standard Nutrition Criteria,
2. Promote healthy items with pricing incentives,
3. Use marketing techniques, including nutrition labeling, to educate and encourage healthy items,
4. Provide preventive benefits and wellness incentives to encourage long-term behavior change, and,
5. Implement education campaign to promote healthy foods to staff and visitors.

Providing a healthy food environment for staff and visitors requires applying these principles to all places on campus where food and beverages are sold or provided, including the cafeteria, vending machines, catering, food carts, shops and other eateries.

 We recorded this video in 2010 to explain the success of the Red Apple Project:

Impact of our Work:

• Active engagement: All NC hospitals are actively engaged in providing a healthy food environment, and 95 have received Red Apple recognition for meeting all five principles.
   
• Improved access: 200,000 hospital employees and millions of visitors now have access to delicious and affordable healthy food.
   
• Sustainable business model:  In many hospitals, overall food sales have gone up, making the pricing and marketing strategies that much easier to sustain. The Centers for Disease Prevention and Control recommends the Healthy Food in Hospitals Project as evidence-based and practice tested. 

• Food is inspired: On Oct 29th, 2010, NC Prevention Partners hosted 7 Hospital Chef Teams, judges from the American Culinary Federation, sponsors, and healthcare leaders from across the country at the first ever Cut to the Core Culinary Competition at Johnson&Wales University in Charlotte, NC.
   
• Innovation is spreading: Other states, including South Carolina, are working alongside NC Prevention Partners to bring our resources and lessons learned to their hospitals.