By George Birdsong

Promoting good health and wellness is the vision of the Obici Healthcare Foundation and the driving force behind the Foundation’s funding of and commitment to the Healthy People Healthy Suffolk initiative.

Delivering apples and celebrating National Eating Healthy Day provided the perfect motivation for Suffolk businesses to promote wellness in their workplaces. At the same time, this gesture familiarized them with Healthy People Healthy Suffolk.

More than 50 baskets of red delicious apples were delivered around Suffolk and included these easy suggestions for businesses to use to encourage healthy employee workplace behaviors:

4Offering whole fruit and sharing locally grown vegetables, instead of sweets, in the breakroom

4Serving healthy foods in small portions (salads vs. sandwiches) as a rule at their businesses

4Encouraging employee walking, use of the stairs and after-lunch team walks

“Out of all the varieties of fruits, few others have the apple’s reputation of promoting a state of wellbeing,” said Gina Pitrone, Obici Healthcare Foundation executive director. “After all, how many other fruits have their own popular slogan (“An apple a day keeps the doctor away”) that conveys a good health message?

Birdsong Peanuts was an early contributor to the Healthy People Healthy Suffolk initiative at the Investor Level and joins those businesses that are leading by example. In the shared kitchen of Birdsong Peanuts, apples, bananas, peanut butter and cans of peanuts are always available.

This allows the snack choice to be an easy and guilt-free option. At staff luncheons, a salad or other healthy choices are offered. The Obici Healthcare Foundation also keeps a basket of apples available in its breakroom.

The Obici Healthcare Foundation applauds our partners for their help in the coordination and delivery of the apples: Farm Fresh, Johnson’s Gardens, Lake Prince Woods, Chuck Roberts and Mary Alice and Lizzie Dorschel.

We hope this delivery of apples will remind Suffolk businesses, and all of us, to have healthy foods and snacks available to promote wellness.

George Birdsong is the chairman of the Obici Healthcare Foundation Board of Directors and CEO of Birdsong Peanuts. For more information, visit the Foundation’s website at http://www.obicihcf.org.