Boys from Lismore South Public School learn how to make vegetable pikelets during a Tooty Fruity Vegie cookery lesson.



The Tooty Fruity Vegie project is a two-year, multi-strategic health promotion program designed to increase fruit and vegetable consumption among primary school children in the Northern Rivers region. The project promotes a whole-of-school approach and the strategies include changing school canteens, food gardens, healthy cooking classes, and promoting fruit and vegies in the school curriculum.

The project is a collaborative effort by NCAHS staff in partnership with the Department of Education and Training, industry and local government and uses parent volunteers to deliver many of the strategies. This has allowed a small amount of funding to extend a long way. Over the last seven years, the project has been funded by the NCAHS and the Commonwealth Government, and with a combination of smaller grants from external funding bodies. The project has reached 55 schools so far and this will increase to 70 by next year. Most schools have continued the project beyond the two-year supported intervention.

A comprehensive, independent process and impact evaluation by the Cancer Council has shown that the project was well implemented and overwhelmingly positively received by all target groups. The Tooty Fruity Vegie project improved all children’s fruit and vegetable related knowledge, attitudes and preparation skills and their access to fruits and vegetables at home and at school.

While the project has been successful in increasing fruit and vegetable intakes and this will help protect against future cardiovascular disease and many types of cancers, it is still not clear whether this will help reduce the incidence of overweight amongst our children.

Recent evidence shows that many of the behaviours linked to inappropriate weight gain, such as eating habits, food preferences, motor skills and enjoyment of physical activity are formed in the early period of life before school. Whilst we are not seeing huge numbers of overweight 3-5 year olds yet, national and state health surveys report high consumption levels of sweet drinks and high fat and sugar snacks and high rates of television watching for this age group making these children and their families an important target for the prevention of obesity.

Preschoolers are more likely than school-aged children to modify lifestyle behaviours. One of the most effective ways to reach children between the ages of 3-5 years is through early childhood care facilities. Although early childhood care offers enormous potential for addressing important issues linked to the development of childhood weight problems, only a few programs have published results and even fewer have sought to evaluate outcomes in terms of weight related variables. Because of this, the health promotion team at the North Coast Area Health Service are enhancing the Tooty Fruity Vegie project to include physical activity and to make it appropriate for preschools.

The new Tooty Fruity Vegie will still focus on promoting the positive message of eating more fruit and vegetables but will also include a new fun program from Queensland Sport and Recreation designed to increase fundamental movement skills in small children. North Coast Area Health will team up with Southern Cross University and local preschools to trial the program next year. The team have also applied for NSW Health funding so that the project can be expertly evaluated as a research demonstration project for health promotion.

Jillian Adams is the the obesity prevention coordinator at the North Coast Area Health Service on jilliana@nrahs.nsw.gov.au.