The ALPA Health and Nutrition Strategy is a multifaceted strategy, developed by the ALPA Board of Directors and ALPA Nutritionists to improve the health and well-being of our people. The strategy was first launched in the early 1980s, initiating a 100% freight subsidy on fresh fruit and vegetables - a policy that remains in place today. We still remain Australia's only remote retailer to self-fund this subsidy to ensure our customers are receiving the freshest produce possible.

The strategy’s objectives involve:

• Improving healthy food availability and affordability.
• Supporting customers to make healthy food choices through healthy merchandising and promotions.
• Increasing awareness of health and nutrition.

Our aim is to decrease the risk of chronic disease in our communities and through the employment of two full-time nutritionists, we are able to implement our strategy and advocate for national food policies and projects.

Some of our projects include:

Healthy Stores 2020

In 2018-19, ALPA joined Monash University and Menzies School of Health Research to conduct Healthy Stores 2020; an innovative research project that aimed to find out if making unhealthy products less visible while increasing promotion and visibility of healthy foods, would lead to more healthy food being sold.

 

The success of Healthy Stores 2020 in reducing sugar consumption has been shared with all of our store Boards and adopted across our stores. We look forward to sharing more about this, once the publication has completed the peer-review process.

You can see the Report Booklet here

Healthiest Store of the Year: Celebrating Fruit and Vegetable Sales

All of our stores are expected to sell more fruit and vegetables every year than the year previous. We celebrate the store with the biggest increase in fresh fruit and vegetable sales compared to their previous year’s sales every year, with our Healthiest Store competition.  The prize is supported by Simon George and Sons, our fresh produce suppliers, who work hard to source the best produce around. 

A big congratulations to our Buthan Store team who won the Healthiest Store of the Year 2020. An extra 1000kg of fresh fruit and veg went into the store over the year – a great result for one of our smaller stores.

The team, led by Ben and Stacey, utilised display units to showcase fruit and vegetable at the front of the store. Customers are welcomed with a variety of high-quality fruit and vegetables as they walk in.

Healthy Product of The Month

One way we promote good nutrition and support customers to make healthy food and drink choices, is by featuring healthy products each month across all our ALPA and Island and Cape stores. The products are displayed on our dedicated ‘healthy’ aisle end displays, grabbing customer attention using is one of the most visible locations in each of our stores.

We showcase products that address different areas of health - including good nutrition, physical activity, oral health; and hygiene. On the right is a photo of our Gapuwiyak store team celebrating healthy breakfasts, and an Aurukun store team member excited to promote fishing, encouraging physical activity, spending time with family, and eating healthy, delicious fresh fish!

We also run activities on a regular basis that create customer engagement with the featured healthy products. These activities include colouring-in competitions, giveaways, and free recipe cards. We welcome health services to engage where they can, running health education stands, taste tests, and cooking demonstrations.

Healthy drinks for all stores

One of our Nutrition Key Performance Indicators (KPI's) is focused on increasing water sales and reducing sales of sugar-sweetened beverages. We have multiple strategies in place to support customers to transition to our healthier drinks range.

ALPA promotes water consumption through placing water fridges in prominent locations in all stores and our partnership with Mount Franklin means we can offer bottled water for $1 in all ALPA operated stores. Our preferential pricing means sugar-free drinks are always more affordable than sugary drinks.

ALPA Foodcard

The ALPA Foodcard evolved from community consultations in Gapuwiyak in 2004 and is designed to be a tool to help families to regularly eat healthy meals, throughout the whole pay cycle. It is a family budgeting tool that ALPA customers can choose to use and they decide how much money they wish to allocate to the card.  

Customers may choose to have the money paid into the Foodcard any time, then spend that money on a selected range of food and household essentials, over the remainder of the pay cycle or period. Extensive community consultation means most grocery food items; baby requirements and cooking equipment are included, to support food security.  Excluded items include soft drinks, cigarettes, tobacco, and toys.

To find out more about the ALPA Foodcard please ring a member of our Retail Team on 08 8944 6444