A new package of resources designed to boost the vegetable intake of children attending long day care centres is now available, as part of the VegKIT project involving Flinders Caring Futures Institute researchers.

The independently reviewed resources have been uploaded to the VegKIT Resource Registry with the highest rating for both evaluation and effectiveness and alignment with the Best Practice Guidelines.

Flinders Caring Futures Institute researcher and Healthy Start to Life Lead Professor Rebecca Golley, a nationally recognised expert in childhood obesity and nutrition promotion, says the new package of resources comes with a range of benefits.

“We know that getting kids to eat vegetables can be challenging for long day care centres. Through a range of online training materials, videos and curriculum resources, the new package will support centre staff including management, cooks and educators to increase children’s vegetable intake.”

Author and children’s food literacy advocate Alice Zaslavsky presents the engaging video series. She provides tips on ways to incorporate long day care best-practice guidelines into day to day operations and inspire staff members.

Additional resources such as an infographic poster and user guide for the Best Practice Guidelines for Increasing Children’s Vegetable Intake, a checklist of simple ideas that work in Long Day Care and a Sample Quality Improvement Plan are also part of the package.

The new resources for long day care centres form part of the VegKIT searchable website, which features projects, programs and research that can be used by health professionals, organisations and agencies in their own settings to support children’s veggie intake.

The overall VegKIT project has been funded by Hort Innovation, using the vegetable research and development levy and contributions from the Australian Government. Hort Innovation is the grower-owned, not-for-profit research and development corporation for Australian horticulture.

The project is underpinned by a consortium of members from CSIRO, Flinders University and Nutrition Australia Victoria Division.

A study found children attending centres using VegKIT resources ate three times more veggies than kids at centres not using the resources.

The new resources can be viewed here.

The original blog content was written by Patrick Major, Flinders University