A cooler option
Kroeker’s team wanted to create an environment where the healthiest choice is the simplest choice. Eighty percent of the beverages are not sweetened with sugar. Water is positioned at customers’ eye level, and the full-sugar beverage items are at the very bottom of the reach-in cooler. Kroeker insists that if customers want Mountain Dew, they’re going to have to bypass the $1 waters and bend down to get it.
Throughout the renovation process, the overall health mission of the hospital has become very clear for the food and nutrition team. In the past, the team might have been concerned about losing money from promoting water instead of soda. “Knowing that we have the support of the organization allows us to make those kind of choices,” Kroeker says.