Creating Healthier Places

University of California, Los Angeles

2017 Progress Report

Visit University of California, Los Angeles

Year Committed: 2014

Length of Commitment: 3 years

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Committed to meet guidelines—developed by PHA in collaboration with some of the nation’s leading nutrition, physical activity and campus wellness experts—around nutrition, physical activity, and programming on campus.

Verified Results

Implementation Date
April 2017
Reporting Date
June 2017

Commitment Element
Offer on the menu a minimum of one (1) wellness meal at each breakfast, lunch and dinner meal (if served).
Progress To Date

UCLA offers at least one wellness meal at every breakfast, lunch and dinner served in all campus dining halls and ASUCLA restaurants. Wellness meals meet all PHA food and nutrition criteria and are promoted daily with signage at the point of presentation.
Implementation Date
April 2017
Reporting Date
June 2017

Commitment Element
Implement a comprehensive, strategic product placement/merchandizing program/policy within dining venues to encourage healthier food consumption which will include a minimum of five (5) strategies, one (1) of which is: Display only healthier food and beverage options within five (5) feet of all cash register stations (if anything at all).
Progress To Date

UCLA has implemented six strategies in all dining venues to encourage healthier food consumption, including offering only healthier food and beverage options that meet PHA food and nutrition criteria within five feet of payment stations, introducing healthy signage at the point of presentation, using smaller plates and trayless dining to encourage smaller portions, reducing the number of desserts offered per meal period and increasing the plain water and unsweetened beverage options.
Implementation Date
April 2017
Reporting Date
June 2017

Commitment Element
Offer a plant-based food option at every platform serving meat.
Progress To Date

UCLA dining venues offer a wide variety plant-based food options, with at least one plant-based entrée or side at every platform serving meat.
Implementation Date
April 2017
Reporting Date
June 2017

Commitment Element
Offer a healthier catering menu that only includes foods and beverages that meet healthier food and nutrition guidelines.
Progress To Date

UCLA offers a healthier catering menu that meets food and nutrition guidelines approved by PHA. The catering menu features a variety of fruit, vegetable, whole grain, lean protein, low-fat dairy and healthier beverage options.
Implementation Date
April 2017
Reporting Date
June 2017

Commitment Element
Provide marked walking routes on campus, one of which must be at least two (2) miles in length and have distance markers at regular intervals. A route map is made available to individuals on campus.
Progress To Date

UCLA provides maps for 21 walking trails throughout campus and an additional 14 running routes that extend beyond campus borders. Walking trail maps provide distance, number of steps and identify campus buildings, landmarks and visible intersections to mark routes. The Veteran Ave 2.0 mile loop map also identifies distance between landmarks and at 0.25 mile intervals.
Implementation Date
April 2017
Reporting Date
June 2017

Commitment Element
Offer, without a user fee, both: a. Fitness/recreation center orientation during the first semester for all incoming students and b. One (1) fitness assessment all students each academic year.
Progress To Date

UCLA offers free fitness assessments including movement screens, muscular endurance and flexibility tests and anthropometric measurements for all students, on a quarterly basis. Students may also participate in a gym tour and orientation, free of charge, at both the John Wooden Center and Bruin Fitness Center recreation facilities.
Implementation Date
April 2017
Reporting Date
June 2017

Commitment Element
Implement an integrated, comprehensive wellness program for individuals on campus that is provided annually.
Progress To Date

In January 2013, UCLA launched the campus-wide Healthy Campus Initiative (HCI) to prioritize the health and wellness of students, staff and faculty. HCI is now recognized as part of life at UCLA, guided by HCI’s core values of: fostering high-level wellbeing, encouraging personal responsibility, respecting diversity, striving to reduce inequities in health and being integrative. Members of the HCI steering committee represent key campus constituencies, including senior administrators, faculty, student leaders, pod leaders, staff leaders, and graduate student researchers. Additionally, HCI expanded student engagement by building a robust team of undergraduate staff, called HCI Ambassadors, as well as a initiating a student grant program, which funded 25 student group projects. HCI supported and/or participated in 55 activities and special events on campus and in the community, defined and implemented food literacy program experiences on campus, and spearheaded the Mind-Body Summit in November 2015 to support the development of graduate and undergraduate curriculum and programs. Beginning in winter 2016, HCI also established the “Healthy Campus Initiative Corner” in the Huffington Post and coordinated regular student, staff, and faculty contributions.
Implementation Date
April 2017
Reporting Date
June 2017

Commitment Element
Offer non-academic cooking skills classes that are available to students.
Progress To Date

During the 2016-2017 school year, UCLA engaged over 828 students in a range of cooking demonstrations, classes and workshops that demonstrated healthy nutrition principles.

Partner Statement

“It has been an exciting and productive year at UCLA collaboratively working across the campus with our student, faculty and staff leadership to complete our PHA commitment. We have expanded our environmental ‘activation’ of the stairwell nudges people to take the stairs over the elevator through several messaging and design improvements. We successfully launched our bike share program. We continue to implement cooking classes and are identifying a permanent site on campus for student, staff and faculty cooking classes. We continue to address the issues of student food insecurity with the expansion of our Food Closet, our undergraduate dining food voucher donation program (swipes for hunger) and the gleaning of 1,000 pounds of produce monthly from local farmer’s markets and distributing it to our undergraduate and graduate students. Additionally, we plan to attend the wonderful 2018 PHA annual meeting in DC. Finally we published an article about UCLA HCI as a case study utilizing the collective impact strategy to meet our goals called Collective Impact for Health and Wellbeing.”