Bag A Bargain
98 Figure 20: Snack Right Five characters Source: ChaMPs
one. Giving them information on a one-to-one basis was essential because of low literacy and numeracy in the target families.
Besides focusing on the encouragement of the intake of fresh fruits and vegetables, the events also promoted the take-up of Healthy Start vouchers. This is a national food voucher scheme worth up to £5.60 a week for low-income families.
In the second phases of the campaign, the age range for the project was change to children aged six months to four. This reflected the advice of health professionals and the recognition food preferences started to form before aged three. Between June and September 2008, forty-nine further events were organized with an emphasis on sustaining Snack Right into the home. This was done through a direct marketing campaign underpinned by the Snack Right 5: a group of fruit and vegetable cartoon characters. Furthermore, legacy materials were developed like folders, books and poster.
The events themselves were similar to phase one but with more interactive games using fruit and vegetables, and two life-size versions of two of the Snack Right characters – Pip the Apple and Narna the Banana – were commissioned to attend the events. The events consisted of tasting sessions and games (e.g. making your own fruit face) to give young children the chance to try healthier options. The key difference was professionally photographing each child who
attended with parental consent. The photograph was later mailed to their home with a letter and snacking sticker calendar.Children who completed the calendar were mailed a wipe-clean tablemat as a reward. Their parents/carers were also entered into two prize draws and they received other communications such as a recipe for a fruit snack.
Support: The project started a boundary-spanning partnership with health (e.g.
public health practitioners), local authority (e.g. children’s centre manager), communications and Third Sector (e.g. Heart of Mersey charity) professionals. It was facilitated by ChaMPs Public Health Network, which works in partnership across Cheshire and Merseyside to promote and protect public health and well- being, and builds capacity and capability across the public sector. By using this diverse partnership, it enabled the campaign to use a mixture of channels to reach its target audience.
The campaign was funded with £263,000 from the Department of Health Communities for Health Fund and commissioned by Cheshire and Merseyside’s directors of public health, who also contributed £50,000.
Trigger: The ChaMPs social marketing group identified that although much was
being done in deprived areas of Cheshire and Merseyside to address health inequalities, there were gaps in services for pre-school children. Children’s centre workers told them during interviews that children generally ate well in day care but were given “junk” snacks as their parents/carers took them home.
Targeted Communities: The campaign focuses on this target group, because:
there is proportionally less health advice available for this group compared to babies and school-age children
this is the age at which food tastes are formed for life
Cheshire and Merseyside has some of the worst health inequalities in England
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Evaluation: The Healthy Start statistical report showed that a significant increase
in the number of applications for the Healthy Start vouchers during the first phase of the campaign.
Reporting period No of applications
14th May – 10th June 2007 241 11th June – 8th July 2007 308 9th July – 5th August 2007 210
An evaluation of phase one was conducted by Liverpool John Moores University. Their findings and observations in the field of how phase one was received, were used to re-scope and develop phase two. The phase one evaluation demonstrated recognition of Snack Right in the target audience and awareness of healthy snacking. Researchers noted the challenge of isolating Snack Right from the “background noise” of other healthy messages.
In phase two, additional insight and customer understanding led the social marketing group to:
Extend the target age range to include children aged six months to four because tastes and preferences, and parental choice, were already apparent
Overhaul and expand marketing materials – paper-based resources (e.g. leaflets) would be improved but augmented with practical, durable products that stay in the home as prompts to healthy eating
A direct marketing intervention would be developed based around each child being professionally photographed at the events. (In phase one, parents had been interested in receiving copies of photographs for the media we commissioned, although we didn’t supply this service.)
Mailing the photograph to the child’s home would sustain Snack Right and the behavioural change it encouraged into the home
A more robust baseline was established for phase two evaluation and will report in early 2009.But quantitative outcomes showed that by autumn 2008:
Participation. 3,788 children, parents and carers attended 64 Snack Right
events from the targeted groups, including black, ethnic and migrant groups
Direct marketing. 1,003 children – made up of 824 families - were signed
up to the direct mail programme. 41% took part in the competition and continued replacing an unhealthy snack with a healthy snack for at least four weeks after attending an event
Healthy Start. Applications for Healthy Start vouchers in the Merseyside
area increased by 25% during phase 1 of Snack Right. In phase 2, 46 families signed up to Healthy Start at events with many more joining afterwards
Families’ views. 84% of families attending phase 2 events felt they had
picked up tips about healthy snacking
Contact Details:
Tony Ellis | Carol Johnson-Eyre ChaMPs Public Health Network +44 151 201 4152
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Cultivating Health is creating partnerships with local agencies, aiming to promote local horticulture. At the moment the project is in its infancy but is hoped to be launched on 1st March 2009.
Aim: The aim of the Cultivating Health Project is to promote local horticulture
and provide more healthy lifestyles of local people.
Design: Cultivating Health involves partnering local people to grow fruit and
vegetables in domestic gardens which are currently not being maintained, especially where elderly residents no longer have the mobility to carry out the work involved. The project will recruit families and those with mental or physical health needs without gardens and provide them with the skills to grow their own produce and partner them with a local person with a garden suitable for growing vegetables and fruit.
Cultivating Health is creating partnerships with local agencies such as local health centres, job centres, health support groups, Sure start, etc. who will refer people to the project.
Individuals are assessed for their capabilities, needs and training requirements, where necessary with the input of their carers. The Project is a valuable health intervention within an overall model for social health prescribing, involving a range of therapies and practical activities. The benefits are many; improved access to fresh, home grown fruit and vegetables, the establishment of partnerships and social networks which ease isolation, improved physical activity levels for partnerships, training in basic horticultural skills and the resources of trained professionals for guidance and support.
The project is in its infancy but is hoped to be launched on 1st March and has plans for it to be an ongoing project for at least three years.
Support: The financial support for Cultivating Health was secured by the Bacup
Consortium Trust, from the local PCT in the form of a successful bid under Community, Voluntary Faith Sector and Statutory Agencies. The funding so far has been used to employ a part-time project officer and to resource the project initially in the first year.
Other Parties who have expressed a committed interest in becoming involved are: Age Concern. Green Vale Housing, Calico Housing, Rubicon, Sure Start, Burnley Food Links, Local Primary and Secondary Schools, Ewood Day care and the Community Department of Rossendale Council.
Trigger: The original idea was by a member of the Bacup Consortium who was
aware of the amount of gardens not being fully utilized and the increasingly large waiting lists for allotments in the local area. Her dream was to see vegetables being cultivated in and around Bacup by the local community who would most benefit from nutritious, fresh local produce.
Targeted Communities: The main target group is the elderly and those with
mental health issues or those who have faced unemployment for some time. Even though individuals with a higher socio-economic status are not part of the target group, the emphasis of the project is to promote healthy eating and living community wide.
Evaluation: As this project is as yet in its early stages, there is no evaluation
material ready to publish. However, it is included in the project Outline that evaluations and data will be analyzed and published where appropriate.
Contact Details:
Souta Creagh Close to the Hedge +44 75 4469 5803
Cultivating Health
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Germany
This is a project initiated by ‘Gesundheit Berlin e.V.’,a health promoting registered charity. It aims to change eating habits of Turkish children to a healthier option, both through their parents’ home and through their school environment.
Aim: The aim of the project was to convey healthy eating habits to Turkish
children through their parents' home while recognizing cultural habits. The course was carried out in close collaboration with the school so that a second aim was to create a health-promoting school environment.
Design: The general approach was setting orientated, via neighbourhoods and
schools in the local area. Nutritionists, social workers, youth workers and teachers acted as multipliers, and a co-operation with a popular Turkish TV- station was established
The course design differs from conventional teaching (“We show you how to do
it!”) which was reduced to some background information on nutrition and mainly
focused on team teaching elements (“Let’s see what the group knows!”). As the settings were carefully chosen, the targeted groups were indeed reached. In cooperation with the social worker and the school directors, the school where the project took place provided an area where mothers were given the opportunity to share their personal experiences, e.g. cultural perception of food, eating or cooking habits.
Beyond the intervention goal of improving eating habits of the families the setting lead to participants acting jointly. Project leaders describe this aspect as basic for the success of the intervention: the common activities of the women had, in turn, positive effects on the social structures of the school where the project took place. Gradually participants were in contact with school workers, while they had not done this before due to the lack of German language knowledge. For the first time the Turkish mothers took part in a school party celebrating the inauguration of a new playground.
The initial phase started in September 2004 and finished in July 2005.
Nowadays there is such a high demand that the intervention has expanded from a local initiative to a federal wide one, four editions of the cookbook have been produced and in 2009 the BKK re-launches the cookbook and the course material.
Support: Partners of this project are the Federal association of health insurance
companies (BKK), Ministry of consumption (auspices), Turkish ambassador, Turkish TV channel TD.
Gesundheit Berlin e.V. is a health promoting registered charity with a long history of successful and innovative pilot projects in the fields of health promotion and setting orientated approaches especially for socially excluded people.
Trigger: Turkish children have an above average tendency to suffer from obesity;
this is documented by school enrolment medical examinations. In adult age, these persons suffer more often from coronary heart and other diseases. Healthy nutrition during childhood can prevent these. While conventional measures to improve nutrition in the Turkish population haven’t been very successful, especially due to language barriers, this intervention was created that explicitly integrates Turkish culture and tradition.