ACTI-MENU launched its activities in 1988. Headed up at the time by Dr. Louis Gagnon and Dr. Gilles Pineau, the young company collaborated on Provigo supermarkets’ new focus on health by developing a variety of activities, including information kiosks in stores and columns in the Provigo flyer, distributed to over two million Quebec homes every week.

In 1989, ACTI-MENU launched into the production of print material by developing a series of seven collectable leaflets on the themes of diet and exercise, with a focus on healthy weight and heart disease. From that point on, an ACTI-MENU style took shape: high-quality, practical, accessible health information to help people take action.

ACTI-MENU will never stop innovating in how it talks about health to Quebeckers, becoming part of the daily lives of families (whether at home, at school, at the grocery store, in restaurants, at the doctor’s office or at work), to guide them as they take charge of their health. Over the years, themes have multiplied to cover a wide range of subjects that touch on mental and physical health. We use a wide variety of media: print, television, radio, kiosks and the Internet, basically, any means that will prompt people to take their health in hand and support them in their efforts!

Toward 1995, realizing that employee lifestyles can have a direct impact on the productivity and profitability of organizations, ACTI-MENU developed health and well-being programs for the workplace. These programs, developed to guide both the organization and the individual, quickly made ACTI-MENU a major leader in health intervention and promotion in the workplace in Quebec. The benefits for organizations are many: greater productivity, an improved work environment, a greater feeling of belonging among employees and reduced absenteeism and costs of claims.

In 2006, ACTI-MENU became a company attached to the Prevention Division of the Montreal Heart Institute (MHI), a specialized hospital that is recognized as a model worldwide in care, research, teaching, prevention and rehabilitation. By continuing to offer promotion and prevention tools, activities and services for general physical and mental health, ACTI-MENU has helped expand the MHI’s field of activity and consolidated its leadership in prevention. The decision on the part of the MHI to accentuate its role in prevention through ACTI-MENU is one instance of the new direction the most important cardiology centres in the world are taking. It is also the result of increasingly clear progress in prevention in the Canadian and Quebec health system and increased awareness among the public and in the workplace about the health of individuals and organizations.