Tooty Fruity Vegie
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The Tooty Fruity Vegie project was a two-year, health promotion program aimed at increasing fruit and vegetable consumption among primary school children in the North Coast of NSW. The long-term goal of the project was to reduce heart disease and obesity in the community, by working with primary school children to develop healthy eating habits early in life.
The project used a whole-of-school approach in implementing a range of evidence-based school and community strategies promoting fruit and vegetable consumption in ten selected schools in North Coast of New South Wales.
A comprehensive, independent, process and impact evaluation demonstrated that the project improved children's fruit and vegetable related knowledge, attitudes and preparation skills as well as their access to fruits and vegetables at home and school.
The outcome evaluation showed that fruit consumption amongst participating children (intervention group) increased by 18% while control children"s dropped by 14% over the two-year intervention period. Intervention group’s vegetable intakes increased by 14% while control children’s dropped by 4% over two year. All ten schools continued the project beyond the two-year supported intervention.
The success of the Tooty Fruity Vegie project was acknowledged with the presentation of the Working Partnership Excellence Award and the Minister’s Award at the Baxter Better Health Good Health Care Awards in October 2001.
In July 2003, the Tooty Fruity Vegie team organised a workshop titled " How to work with primary schools to increase vegetable and fruit consumption by children”, in order to introduce this ground breaking local health model to other parts of Australia. The workshop received an overwhelming response from across Australia.
The project has now been successfully implemented in approximately 50 schools within the North Coast of New South Wales. This website has been developed so that all schools have access to the strategies and resources to implement the program in their own school settings.