LocalSqr Announces Partnership with Saks Fifth Avenue On Employee Healthy Eating Program

LocalSqr is an app that aims to encourage healthy eating by promoting locally grown food. The app locates farmers markets and other organic produce suppliers in your vicinity, and if you end up shopping at one of these locations often, it rewards you with a special discount you can redeem from the vendors there. It’s a little like an app we reviewed today called Mango Health that rewards people who take their prescriptions meds on time with coupons and gift cards to popular retailers like Gap and Target. It’s strange to think that people will refuse to eat healthier foods or take their meds on time unless an app rewards them for doing so. That’s just the gamification of life in full effect, and if MOGL and Badgeville’s recent succeses are any indication, it’s something that appears to work pretty well. LocalSpr is also launching a dedicated effort for companies to adopt the app in?their corporate?wellbeing programs. They’re calling this the Go Local?initiative, a wellness program that is designed to educate employees on how to eat healthier. LocalSpr recently partnered with Saks Fifth Avenue and conducted a eight week pilot program using a test group of 165 employees. Each Saks employee received a weekly email that gave them nutrition advice and healthy recipes. They were given challenges as well, like one that asked employees to eat a different meal everyday for breakfast. Employees were also asked to keep a dedicated food dairy, and of course, encouraged to use the LocalSpr app whenever possible. When the test group was surveyed at the end of the program, 52 percent were found to have cooked at home more and 57 percent purchased food from local markets. Of course, it’s not certain if that was largely an effect of the program or the LocalSpr app, but?Saks is pleased with the result and has plans to expand the Go Local program nationwide this year to its 11,000 employees spread over 115 locations. There’s just a part of me that feels a little sad that we’ve come to the point where the only way some of us will eat healthier, organic foods is if there’s an app for that. In any case, LocalSqr is a free download at the iOS App Store.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/xxtDs1LQXsQ/

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