Industry expert: Feeding the forces
Alex Crawford, marketing manager for Sodexo government, outlines how a new approach to military catering is informing and educating diners about healthy options for mind and body...
As a professional involved in developing catering solutions for the UK’s military personnel, I’m acutely aware of the additional challenges – but also the opportunities – it brings. This is an environment where our customers are often under pressure, both physically and mentally, and where good nutrition and education is absolutely crucial to health, wellbeing and the whole force being agile and operationally ready.
At Sodexo, we have a huge role to play and are continuously researching and responding to the needs of our clients and customers, to come up with innovative ideas and services that take a different, more holistic approach to health and wellbeing. The latest, Mindful Active, a holistic health and wellbeing service, is already making a positive impact at Her Majesty’s Naval Base (HMNB) in Portsmouth since it launching in October 2021. It addresses a desire for better signposting for our food, with clear communications around what’s healthy on our menus, providing nutritional information and guidance.
Mindful Active is a bespoke service, designed for our military clients on the back of a number of key research studies. These include Sodexo’s Annual Customer Review, a commissioned independent study by Ipsos Mori focused on understanding the lives and needs of military personnel, and the Armed Forces Continuous Attitudes Survey, to name a few.
The research highlighted a need for targeted messaging around ‘healthy’ options that considered how different roles may have different requirements. The feedback put the spotlight on education and choice – and made it clear that we needed to respond with a tool that would give better information about our food and allow customers to make informed decisions that reflect their own dietary needs, goals and plans.
We called on the expertise of our in-house dietician and nutritionist to define the criteria of Mindful Active and built it around four pillars: Fuel, Focus, Perform and Restore. Each is designed for both body and mind, use distinct icons to show the benefits at a glance and help customers to make those autonomous, educated choices.
Clear, inspirational communications on site give our customers lots of opportunities to interact with the Mindful Active ethos every day. There are messages, tips, advice and guidance, not just on the food they choose, but also clear signposting to a host of physical and mental health and wellbeing topics. These include managing stress, fitness and sleep; smoking and alcohol advice; and relaxation techniques. We use a clearly mapped on-site journey that spans welcome packs, counter displays, strut cards and digital screens, and posters in dining rooms, messes and retail stores.
The journey doesn’t begin and end on site and we actively encourage personnel to take Mindful Active beyond the base gates. All the information is available via a smartphone app, and there are recipe cards to take away and promote trying healthy cooking with family and friends, plus wellbeing articles that can be read anytime, anywhere.
As we introduce the concept at more military locations in the coming months, we will be encouraging teams to offer a calendar of events that can further drive engagement. The aim is to support the physical and mental health needs of personnel, whether that is via meditation, yoga or money management sessions.
What we’ve developed with Mindful Active goes way beyond a branded counter in a dining room or a mess menu. This is a tool that ultimately looks to improve morale and operational readiness, and make a positive contribution to the overall lived experience. And while it is primarily designed for physically active personnel, we have made it relevant for the whole force. This means that it not only serves military personnel, but also the partners and civilians who live in, work at and visit the base.
Mindful Active has allowed us to harness our understanding of health and wellbeing in the military space, and to use that expertise in an educational tool that benefits individual customers and the Ministry of Defence (MOD) as a whole. With the challenges faced by the MOD around recruitment and retention, we are standing firm alongside our military partners to show that we care about supporting the physical and mental health of our serving personnel.
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