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Business Offices Bring in Fruit
Posted: 7/27/2010
Posted July 27, 2010
Like many employees toiling in offices, Ann Barnum gets hungry about 2 p.m. The only choice is often the building's vending machine. Barnum's usual snack is a bag of chips.
That was until she got her cube fruited.
Through a new program called Fruit My Cube, Barnum gets a box of 15 to 18 pieces of fresh fruit for her desk each week. Whenever the manager for the St. Clair County Assessor's office gets hungry, she has a low-fat snack full of seasonal nutrients and fiber at her fingertips.
"I'm trying to be healthy and eat five fruits or vegetables a day," she said. "With this, you have a variety and it's very fresh."
The Belleville Farmers Market started the program six weeks ago after knocking on the doors of a few nearby businesses asking if they'd like to sign up. Now many of the St. Louis area's largest employers are interested in getting cubes for their office cubicals. The market's general manager, Rick Delashmit, has been spending his days explaining logistics and dropping off samples to places like Savvis, Energizer, Nestle Purina, Boeing Co. and St. Louis County government offices. St. Louis City Hall will get its first cubes soon.
Last week, the Fruit My Cube website had 2,100 new visitors from 38 states, Delashmit said.
"The orders are growing exponentially each week," he said. "There's something special about it that we can't explain, that we didn't expect."
Delashmit spent a recent morning meeting with interested administrators at the Stifel Financial Corp. brokerage and Bryan Cave law firm.
"I think it will be a huge hit," said Ann Payne, the office coordinator at Bryan Cave, who wants to introduce the program to its 585 employees at the firm's health fair on Wednesday.
"I think it's a great idea, personally," Payne said. "For me, it would be about the convenience of having it because I need that snack each day, a couple of times."
What businesses like, Delashmit said, is that the program requires little effort. Delashmit sends each corporate member a link, which can be forwarded to its employees or posted on the company's inner-office website.
Starting each Wednesday, employees click on the site and view the selections for next week's cube. If they like what they see, they order it for $9.99. The hand-packed cubes get delivered Monday or Tuesday to a lobby or office floor with a list of who gets a cube.
In order for Fruit My Cube to make a stop, Belleville-area businesses must have a minimum of five orders while other St. Louis metro areas must have at least 25. But, Delashmit said, he's willing to wave the minimum if it's en route or nearby another business with deliveries.
The Belleville Farmers Market has a school program called Taste Buds that helps fight childhood obesity by getting children to try new fruits and vegetables, but the 35-year-old produce and garden store wanted to reach out to adults as well, Delashmit said. "We've built our business on this, providing fresh fruits and vegetables." Fruit My Cube, in turn, helps fund the Taste Buds program.
More and more corporations are developing wellness initiatives for their employees as a way to fight the cost of rapidly increasing insurance premiums. Participation, however, is often a challenge. Delashmit said Fruit My Cube is an easy way for both employees and managers to reach their goals.
While managers like the low cost, employees receiving the cubes say they appreciate the variety and convenience. Remembering or taking the time to pack snacks from home can get lost in the day's hectic preparations.
"Some of us are running around like chickens with our heads cut off in the morning," said Jackie Krummrich, supervisor of the St. Clair County Auditor's office. "For some of us, it's even breakfast."
And the selections are not the usual items people tend to quickly grab at the store. Many say they are discovering kiwi, nectarines and different types of pears.
"People in the office are trying new things," said Sherida Whynot, an accountant with Dickerson Petroleum in Belleville. "They are asking 'What is this?' The apricots are probably the biggest thing. People hadn't had much of them or hadn't seen them before."
Fruit, Delashmit said, seems like a treat.
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To see more of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.stltoday.com.
Copyright © 2010, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
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