Go for your life Fruit and Veg for Health: Local Action Projects

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• Go for your life Fruit and Veg for Health
  Local Action Projects
• 21 July 2009
• South Coast Health Services Consortium
• PCP
• Central Victorian Health Alliance PCP
• Frankston Mornington Peninsula PCP
• Julie-Anne McWhinnie
• Nutrition Manager
• Heart Foundation (Victoria)

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Go for your life Fruit and Veg for Health
Community Projects

• Goal
• To increase fruit and vegetable consumption in
  the PCP (South Coast, Mt Alexander Shire,
  Frankston Mornington Peninsula)
• Objectives
• To develop partnerships between community
  organisations and local fruit and vegetable
  suppliers
• To enhance environments in community
  organisations to increase fruit and vegetable
  consumption
• To increase consumption through improving the
  knowledge and skills of the population to buy,
  prepare, eat and enjoy a wide variety of fruit
  and vegetables

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Go for your life Fruit and Vegetable
Coordinating Hub Project

• Funded by the Victorian Governments Go for your
  life strategy
• Hub partners Heart Foundation, Melbourne
  Wholesale Fruit, Vegetable and Flower Market
  (Melbourne Market Authority - MMA), Le Page PR,
  Deakin (CPAN)
• Similar aims and objectives to PCPs
• Campaign resources tip cards and posters
• Statewide Just Add Fruit Veg communications
  campaign (coordinated by Le Page PR)
• ???4 stages Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner Snacks

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Go for your life Fruit and Vegetable
Coordinating Hub Project

• FV Retailer Training Program (coordinated by
  MMA)
• Community Guide to working with your local
  greengrocer to increase fruit and vegetable
  consumption (coordinated by MMA)
• Hub support to PCPs via
• workshops for project workers
• FV forums attended by 178 health professionals
• Evaluation strategy
• CATI, targeted and general focus groups,
  retailer interviews

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Some important context!

• FV Project Officers in PCPs were 0.2 FTE for 12
  months, i.e. 48 days of project work
• Also working with sporting clubs and workplaces
  as well as childrens settings
• They achieved alot in a limited amount of time!
  However time constraints were a challenge
• ?more could be achieved with a long term
  commitment to a FV strategy for Victorians by
  DHS and PCP

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Key lessons What worked?

• The local FV focus via campaign launches and
  activities led to some spin-offs
• Castlemaine A school breakfast launch led to the
  school taking on a weekly breakfast program
• Tootgarook/Mornington Peninsula Lunch launch at
  a secondary college led to the creation of a
  network of contacts to establish a Community
  Garden at the school
• ? NB one off activities/single interventions
  should not be relied on for this
• ? literature supports multi-component approaches
  eg school policy, curriculum activities,
  classroom practices, canteen services, media
  activities, parent resources and training

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Key lessons What worked?

• Project workers built on PCP networks with local
  childcare centres, preschools, schools, community
  groups and workplaces e.g
• Castlemaine some 20,000 serves of fruit and veg,
  and over 20,000 tip cards were provided to the
  community over 30 events during the year

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Key lessons What worked?

• Partnerships, networks and linking with other
  programs assisted capacity limitations of Project
  Workers, e.g.
• Smiles for Miles Project Officer continuing the
  FV message and partnership with the local
  retailer
• Youth community development worker continuing FV
  message at a secondary college Health and
  Values day
• Secondary college community garden falls under
  Food Insecurity portfolio and associated HP FTE

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Key lessons What worked?

• Capitalising on Fruit Veg Week (May) and
  Childrens Week (Oct) as a launchpad for FV
  promotion in childcare centres, preschools and
  schools
• Engagement of local media gave increased local
  profile of the FV message and its local
  implementation
• Media support from Hub for project workers worked
  well, given their skills and capacity

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FV local action was a catalyst for Vic Govt
(and other) school initiatives

• FV project officer
• promoted KGFYL Award to all schools one school
  awarded
• Organised the GFYL mobile education van for 3
  schools and 1 child care centre
• Distributed GFYL promotional merchandise
• Supported schools re Free Fruit Friday
  applications
• Promoted the Premiers Active Challenge
• A local family won 3000 sports equipment for
  their primary school

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FV project officer was catalyst or support for

• Fruit Veg week Lunch with Punch workshops for
  parents (Home Ec Vic)
• a primary schools Community Garden grant
• MarketFresh Schools Program, reaching 970
  students in Mt Alexander Shire
• Local retailers noted positive impact of this
  program on sales

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Key lessons What worked?

• Strengthened relationships with FV retailers and
  growers
• Reasonable rates for Free Fruit Friday schools
• One small IGA providing free fruit for the whole
  school
• Generous discounts to schools and community
  groups
• Support of local growers by the Castlemaine
  project

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Key lessons - What didnt work?

• Retailers were reluctant to talk to schools and
  community groups
• One solution is that schools can access the
  Melbourne Markets MarketFresh Schools Program
  instead
• Potential to link this to local retailers by
  arranging special offers or loyalty cards for
  children to take home to their parents

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Key lessons - What didnt work?

• Varying skill levels in project workers
• evaluation skills
• ability to engage with the local media
• Timing of statewide Hub activities with PCP was
  out of sync, therefore limiting success and
  impact

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Key lessons - What didnt work?

• Greater emphasis on planning sustainable
  strategies/activities that will have an ongoing
  impact to improve FV availability in various
  settings
• This will be easier if a long term
  commitment/investment is made to FV strategy in
  PCP Community Health Plans and DHS statewide
  directions

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What are the broad (and specific) implications
for policy and practice?

• Long term commitment to a FV strategy (for at
  least five years) at the local and statewide
  level recommended
• Have Increasing FV access and consumption as a
  priority area in PCP community health plans
• ?Dedicate PCP FTE to FV strategy
• Increasing community health promotion/ nutrition
  workforce

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What are the broad (and specific) implications
for policy and practice?

• DHS could consider dissemination and training for
  relevant PCP staff on use of the Community guide
  to working with your local greengrocer to
  increase fruit and vegetable consumption
• Specific booklets for childrens settings
• Maternal and child health centres
• Preschools and childcare centres
• Schools
• Sporting clubs
• Community groups and clubs
• Also recommend evaluating its use and impact!

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What are the broad (and specific) implications
for policy and practice?

• PCPs could benefit by being supported with a FV
  evidence based toolkit for schools, preschools
  and childcare centres (etc)
• suite of FV multi-strategy evidence based
  options to implement

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What are the broad (and specific) implications
for policy and practice?

• Consider the role of other PCP members in
  championing FV promotion with families
• e.g. Divisions of GP, hospitals, community
  health, local government, churches, charities,
  other govt and non-govt NGOs

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How do the lessons add value to the work of PCPs?

• A consistent statewide message is valuable, and
  promoting it at the PCP level allows the
  statewide message to be localised.
• Well established networks of PCPs increases the
  likelihood of success of FV strategies
• Linking in with PCP members with existing plans
  around healthy eating and PA is advantageous
  (i.e. need many champions for the message and its
  implementation)

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How do the lessons add value to the work of PCPs?

• The FV message needs constant reinforcement and
  repetition
• Time limited projects limit message repetition,
  unless the message is embedded in plans, policy
  and ongoing programs and services
• Need to be in for the long haul to continue the
  message and ?FV consumption

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Do lessons learned add value to moving from
demonstration projects to broader work practice?

• Probably not
• General principles to take forward but not
  rigorously evaluated strategies
• These projects were not set up with rigorous
  evaluation to assist building the evidence

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Top 2 issues for translating lessons into work
practice

• 1) Can increasing FV access and consumption be
  addressed by PCPs?
• included as a priority in PCP Community Health
  Plans?
• dedicated staffing/FTE
• identification of PCP members who have plans
  around healthy eating access and promotion, and
  can hence champion the message and evidence based
  strategies?
• 2) Capitalising on dissemination/uptake of
  existing FV programs and resources
• KGFYL Awards for Primary Schools Early
  Childhood services
• Free Fruit Friday
• Community Guide to working with your local
  greengrocer to increase fruit and vegetable
  consumption
• MarketFresh Schools Program
• Fruit Veg Program (Home Economics Victoria)
• and others..

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Questions?

• Thankyou!
• Julie-Anne McWhinnie
• Nutrition Manager (Heart Foundation)
• Ph [phone]
• JulieAnne.McWhinnie_at_heartfoundation.org.au

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Key learnings for the way forward

• Need paid mass media advertising to make a
  difference in consumer awareness (effectiveness
  of Go for 25? well demonstrated 62 unprompted
  recall in WA following Go for 25?)
• Need 2.5 3 years to increase population FV
  intake by 1 serve per day (QLD and WA
  experience)
• Increase of 1.1 serves of FV per day in QLD
  equates to potential health care savings of 55
  million per annum for their state
• Not a bad ROI (return on investment) for QLDs
  4.76 million! (11.55 saved for every 1 spent
  on Go for 25? social marketing)
• A social marketing strategy is recommended for a
  minimum of 5 years