PDHPE: Assessment Task 1

Thursday 10th March

2011
CORE 1: Health Priorities in Australia

By Dorothy Poon

1. Write an information report on the nature of the initiative discussing: FRESH TASTES @ SCHOOLS (HEALTHY KIDS ASSOCIATION) a) The aim of the initiative (3 marks) The Healthy Kids Association is a non-profit, non government, health organisation based in Sydney with a mission to help influence and promote healthy food choices to children. The Fresh Tastes @ School Strategy came into effect in 2005 that gives students across NSW a taste for healthy foods. The campaign aims to educate children about diet related diseases and to reduce the incidence of overweight and obesity in the earlyages. The goal for Fresh Tastes is to encompass thousands of schools within NSW to promote smart thinking and provide information on healthy food choices that are available for sale in their canteens. It also hopes to increase the sale of foods and beverages from food and catering industries that are consistent with the Australia Dietary Guidelines for Children and Adolescents . b) Target populations (4 marks) Fresh Tastes @ School primarily targets school students through the promotion and selling of foodat school canteen. The school canteen hopes to teach students healthier ways of eating and the frequency of eating certain foods through the colour code of green, amber and red. It is important for the school canteen to realise that there is a shared responsibility to providing nutritious food and effective nutritional education to their students. Teaching students at school at a young age about the importance of healthy eating can lead to set eating patterns that can play a positive role in the rest of their lives. It encourages the parents to act in their role to ensure that their children are establishing healthy eating behaviours at home as well. Teachers at school can work alongside the school canteen to provide learning experiences that will assist students in their understanding of good nutrition which will enable them to make healthy food choices. c) Settings (3 marks) School canteens are the most ideal setting to educate and promote healthy food choice and physical activity. s The canteen is a place where they can provide a substantial proportion of a child s daily nutritional intake if both their lunch and snacks are regularly purchased there. The canteen provides the means for school students to put into practice the nutritional messages they have been taught from classes such as PDHPE or Food Technology. Education programs can also be included in the PDHPE syllabus so that it requires all schools to teach their students about healthy eating, so that they may be well equipped with the right knowledge about eating habits. d) Health promotion strategies (4 marks) The Fresh Tastes @ School is a canteen strategy that initiates all schools in NSW to encourage students to eat healthier food more often. Healthy options of foods are ones that meet the requirements of the Australia Dietary Guidelines for Children and Adolescents are required to be on the canteen menu to encourage more people to buy that type of food. A strategy for this health promotion is classifying food according to the traffic light system to help students identify their choices. Green foods are the most nutritious and healthy and students are strongly encouraged to eat these types of food. Amber foods are usually processed but have some nutritional value which should be selected carefully. Lastly red foods are high in kilojoules and have saturated fat with very little nutritional value and should only be eaten on an occasional basis. Other states are now also following the strategies of the NSW government and developing their own initiatives regarding healthy eating and drinking. This includes the QLD government launching the Eat Well, Be Active Healthy Kids For Life action plan, the Victorian government promoting the Go For Your Life , the Western Australian government introducing the

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Healthy Food and Drink campaign and the South Australian government laughing the Right Bite . All these campaigns are strategies which are promoting healthier food choices in the school canteen. e) Social justice principles which have been addressed (4 marks) Social justice principles are a set of values that recognise the impact of discrimination by breaking down the barriers of inequity in the promotion of inclusiveness in a fair manner. It is concerned about reducing the inequality by supporting the most disadvantaged in society. The social justice principles include participation, equity, access and rights. Fresh Tastes @ School tries to provide equity by promoting participation to all schools in NSW to help encourage healthy eating by all students. The campaign helps the school canteens provide and promote food that will be attractively presentable and is sold at an affordable price. It allows all schools access to information online at the website to gain promotion and marketing tactics among students, menu developments and all necessary information that may be needed to run a healthy and popular school can teen. However, it does an individual the right to choose whether or not they want to follow the health strategies that are proposed by the Healthy Kids Association. Although it is a recommended that people follow the Australia Dietary Guidelines for Children and Adolescents , there is no strict requirement that says to individuals that they must abide to all the guidelines. All these social justice principles: participation, equity, access and rights, have been addressed by the Fresh Tastes @ School campaign to break the barriers of inequity.

2. Critically analyse how the health promotion initiative reflects the action areas of the Ottawa Charter The Healthy Kids Association works and bases promotion strategies according to the principles and values articulated in the Ottawa Charter for Heath Promotion . They initiative provides guiding principles for schools to follow to which will promote healthy eating among school canteens in NSW. The Fresh Tastes @ School reflects all the action areas of the Ottawa Charter developing personal skills, reorienting health services, strengthening community action, building healthy public policy and creating supportive environments in which individuals, communities and the governments can all help to promote to encourage healthy eating. Developing personal skills allows an individual the ability to access information and services which will empower them to defend their own rights. Individuals have the greatest power over their own health but parents, community actions and government policies can also influence the decisions made regarding their own personal skills. Fresh Tastes @ School helps individuals, parents and communities develop personal s kills about healthy eating so that they may be equipped with the right knowledge about eating. Teaching students, through the menus at the canteen, can guide healthy food choices for long term impact. Schools can work alongside the canteen to help students understand and put into practice the nutritional messages that are being taught in class. Classes such as PDHPE will raise a student s awareness about the high incidence of childhood obesity and the impacts it can have into adulthood. This will promote changes in an individual s diet so that related diseases which are caused by unhealthy eating can be prevented. Individuals can be encouraged to look at the website made by Healthy Kids Association which educates people from all levels parents, school canteen and teachers about the nutritious values of various foods. Teenagers can also be individualistic and be role models to their peers about eating healthy which is helping one another develop personal skills. Parents can play a big role in helping their children develop healthy personal skills. Many eating practices can be started at home, when children are at a young age; parents are most often the ones in control of what foods are consumed. Parents are responsible for which foods are to be purchased for the family meals, so they must stay firm in their decisions about buying nutritious foods and not be swayed by their children pestering them to buy less nutritious foods. It Page | 3

encourages the parents to be role models to their children which in turn will send signals to the children that they must set standards on what foods they should eat. This encourages the children to use the skills they have developed at school through the promotions of the school canteen and the lessons from the class to be put into practice for long term benefits. Fresh Tastes @ School helps individuals and communities develop personal skills about eating healthy. Reorienting health services is improving access to health services and promoting equity by supporting the most disadvantaged. Individuals have the most responsibility in developing skills to access health services but communities and governments also have a range of responsibilities in supporting and regulating local needs.In the case of Fresh Tastes @ Schools, students don t have a large responsibility in finding access to the canteen as most schools usually have a really accessible canteen. Governments should also take responsibility for the regulation of school canteens to make sure they abide to the guidelines of hygiene and food quality that is being sold to students. Strengthening community action raises the awareness of people s rights, promotes equity and facilitates participation by community members. Individuals can actively participate in local health promoting events so that the community can ask the government for support and funding needed for certain areas that would suit most people s needs. A Healthy Kids School Canteen Day was held on 18 June 2010 which promoted healthy eating in various ways to the school community. Many schools took part in this day and ways in which students were able to promote healthy eating included inviting local sporting or television celebrities to serve behind the counter, held colouring-in or canteen naming competitions, special breakfast s or offered special meal deals. Many schools also held special thank you morning tea s for volunteer s who have dedicated their time to making thefood on the menu in canteens healthier. Day s such as this encourages the school as a community to promote healthy eating among the students which strengthens the work of the community. This empowers the community to find their own direction in the advertising of healthy food and finding the support they need to continue the promotion. Building healthy public policy acknowledges the diversity within a community and leads to create one that will be the most appropriate for everyone. Individuals can be involved in the development of policies for their community so that together, they can be politically active in engaging in health promotion. The government is responsible for listening to the public to ensure that polices that are developed will meet the public s needs and expectations. The government can help provide healthy public policy to school communities by giving the school canteens information about food and nutrition. This will support the canteen in providing healthier food options by encouraging the students to buy foods that should be eaten more often and not promotng foods that should i be eaten less. The NSW Department of Health helped build healthy public policy for the Healthy Kids Association by sponsoring the forum of Healthy School Canteens for NSW. It determined the role of the school canteen association which over 1700 schools are now members of. The association builds healthy public policy by closely working with food and beverage manufacturers to encourage the registration of foods that will m with the eet nutrient criteria which will be bought by the schools. Creating supportive environments increases the access, encourages participations and improves living conditions for people. Individuals can act to responsibly protect and enhance the quality of homes and workplaces. Local communities, with the support of the governments are the guardians of such health promoting environments. The government can empower schools to create supportive environments by making them take responsibility of Page | 4

providing economically viable, hygienic and nutrition orientated canteen services to the school community. The school community also has the responsibility of buying food from catering industries that will support nutritious foods. Foods that are purchased by the school canteen should comply with the food standards of the Australia Dietary Guidelines for Children and Adolescents . Such ways will help create a supportive environment for the people working in the canteen and the way that food is provided to the students. The Fresh Tastes @ School reflects all the action areas of the Ottawa Charter as they all promote various ways about healthy eating and choices in the school canteen. This allows for an individual, community group and the local government to be all involved in educating students about diet related diseases and reducing the number of incidences in childhood obesity. The Healthy Kids Association has based their criteria for promotion strategies which are in accordance with the Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion .

3. Bibliography o http://www.healthy-kids.com.au/category/13/fresh%20tastes%20@%20school
o

Boyd, Aaron . Eussen, Adrian . Lumley, David . O Halloran, Merril . Sculley, Liz . PDHPE In Focus HSC Course . McGraw-Hill Australia . Australia . 2010

http://www.healthykids.nsw.gov.au/parents-carers/supporting-school-and-community/healthy-kids-fresh-tastesschool-canteen-strategy.aspx

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