Athlone Community Training Centre was presented with the bronze award for healthy eating at the Irish Heart Foundation’s recent Healthy Eating and Active@Work Awards ceremony.
The ceremony, held in Dublin, celebrated how Irish businesses are fighting back against the World Health Organisation’s prediction that by 2030 Ireland will be the most obese nation in Europe, by promoting healthy workplace practices among their staff.
Employers who encourage and promote a healthy workplace can improve productivity, cut down on absenteeism through sickness, and help combat the growth of obesity in Irish people.
President of the Irish Heart Foundation Dr Kate McGarry said: “Serious health problems face us as a nation and yet both obesity and cardiovascular disease are largely preventable.
“Creating a supportive environment to empower individuals where they work or live is essential and it is extremely heartening to see so many companies across the country receiving our Healthy Eating and Active@Work Awards and contributing greatly to the effort.”
Presenting the awards, Minister for Health Promotion Deputy Marcella Corcoran Kennedy said, “Making our workplaces healthier is one of the important elements of our work in my Department under Healthy Ireland. We are working on developing a National Framework for Healthy Workplaces across both public and private sectors to encourage and support the creation of health and wellbeing programmes.
“We are also developing the Health and Wellbeing (Calorie Posting and Workplace Wellbeing ) Bill. The Bill will require all public sector workplaces to have and to report on a healthy workplace policy.”
In total, 47 companies were certified this year by the Irish Heart Foundation under their Healthy Eating Awards to provide and promote healthy meal options in their restaurants. Since the programme began up to 450 companies have been certified benefiting 400,000 employees nationwide.
