It is heartening to read stories like the one in yesterday’s New York Times about steps some businesses are taking to educate employees about healthy eating as a way of reducing health insurance costs. The article covers a line of healthy food products called Full Yield that Safeway, Stonyfield Farm and others have embraced to take the guesswork out of what constitutes a healthy diet. Sadly, this approach also eliminates the need for cooking, “which so many workers say they have no time for,” according to the article.

The objective of building a healthier workforce should be applauded on many fronts, but I’d like to see cooking education included in this program. It takes no more than 30 minutes to cook a simple, healthy meal. One just has to understand basic cooking techniques and have a rudimentary knowledge about what foods are healthy. I’d like to see Safeway and Stonyfield Farm add this educational component to their employee health programs.

Photo by Cyrus McCrimmon, The Denver Post

It’s heartening to work with companies that are doing things right. We hate to brag about our clients, but Panorama Meats fits snugly in that category. Their latest business initiative with the Northern Arapaho Indian Tribe in Wyoming makes sense on so many levels. It brings a healthy, organic, environmentally sustainable, humanely raised grass-fed beef to Whole Foods Markets customers in the Rocky Mountain region. And, it offers financial rewards for the Northern Arapaho, who have raised cattle on the Wind River Indian Reservation for decades. Read more about it in this major feature story that appeared in the Denver Post on Sept. 30.

Blogger Steve Bennyhoff wrote an account of his recent dinner of Panorama Organic Grass-Fed Beef at Whole Foods Market in Reno. We think Whole Foods’ idea of connecting their customers with the ranchers who raise Panorama beef is brilliant. Whole Foods customers can sign up to attend the dinners, learn about Panorama’s raising practices and ask questions, then enjoy a sit-down dinner with the ranchers that features Panorama’s beef. Whole Foods and Panorama have teamed up to hold seven such dinners in Northern California and Northern Nevada stores.

Boulder, Colo., July 23, 2009 — Naturally Boulder Days 2009 — the nation’s only conference designed specifically for natural and organic product entrepreneurs in partnership with a city economic development initiative — returns to Boulder Sept. 2-3. This year’s conference features several enhancements that include an expanded roster of national speakers, an Opening Night Awards Dinner, a Product Fair and new one-on-one mentoring sessions with leaders and legends of the natural and organic products industry. (more…)

At a recent client event, I was reminded that sometimes “simple” is the best approach for events these days. We used to spend weeks designing and mailing invitations, compiling invite lists, dealing with caterers and collecting RSVPs. Event planning usually required starting at least two months in advance and then slogging through all the details. Then we bit our fingernails about attendance – would anyone come?

Happily, things have changed. The event last week was almost a last-minute idea. Neither we nor the client had high expectations, but we needed to shoot photos for another purpose, so we thought we may as well use that as an excuse to gather some local reporters and stakeholders. We contacted a local restaurant that wanted to increase its profile, promised to feed the invitees some really good food and “voila!” the event was a breeze and a success.

All in all, we spent about 6 hours making everything happen and our client chipped in some time, too. The food costs were minimal, thanks to our restaurant partners. Attendance exceeded our expectations, everyone had fun, we got the photos we needed and we may even end up with some media coverage about the company’s products.