Eat Well Do Well
| Description | The project provides free healthy food to improve children’s diets. |
|---|---|
| Setting | Schools |
| Populationting | Children attending primary schools (aged 4-11 years) or special schools (aged 2-19 years) in Hull |
| Intervention summary | Provides free health breakfasts clubs, free school meals and after-school snacks and drinks for all primary and special school children. |
| Outcome Summary | Take-up of breakfasts, lunches and after-school refreshments. |
| Startup Cost | Hard to say as it was rolled out over the first year to all the primary and special schools, but the project in total has cost approximately £9 330 000 over three years. |
| Running Cost | Approximately £9 330 000 over three years An additional £3 110 000 has been put into school meals. This additional money does not just reflect the cost of providing free lunches for all. Some of the additional funding has been used to increase the cost of ingredients and extra labour involved in producing healthier meals. |
| Funding | By Hull City Council and some funding from the Neighbourhood Renewal Fund. |
| Started | April 2004 |
| Ended | March 2007 |
| Location | Hull, England |
| Contact |
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Background
The project provides free healthy breakfasts clubs, free school meals and after-school snacks and drinks for all primary and special school children.
What is the problem you are trying to solve?
Kingston-upon-Hull has a high level of social deprivation, underachievement in education and a high concentration of type 2 diabetes. Eat Well Do Well was introduced to tackle the underachievement and health inequalities that Hull faced.
What local organisations are involved?
We work closely with representatives from health authorities and local authorities.
How many people are running this project and who are they?
There are two people in the project team: Rayma Crawford, pupil and student support manager, and Sue Rae, healthy eating coordinator.
What local population are you targeting?
The project is available to all primary and special school pupils in the city of Hull.
How many people are you targeting?
Over 20 000 primary and special school pupils
Interventions
What interventions are you using to address the problem?
All primary schools can provide free healthy breakfasts clubs and, currently, over 80% of primary schools in City of Hull run free breakfast clubs. The National Fruit and Vegetable Scheme has been extended to include all primary and special school pupils in Hull.
All primary and special school pupils can have a free healthy school meal and any pupil staying for after-school activities receives a snack and a drink.
Is the project design based on evidence? If so, please state reference.
No.
Outcome
What outcomes or planned outcomes are you measuring?
We are measuring take-up of breakfasts, lunches and after-school refreshments. An independent evaluation is also being completed. This evaluation is looking at attendance, punctuality and pupils’ readiness to learn.
Do you have any outcomes or results yet? If so, what are they?
Primary school meal take-up has increased across the city. On the introduction of the healthy meals, take-up originally fell to approximately 37%, but is now running at approximately 62%.
Is your project relevant to a government target or guideline?
Yes it is relevant to the government white paper, Choosing Health: Making healthy choices easier 1 and the Healthy living blueprint for schools 2 .
Feedback
What obstacles did you have to overcome to set up this project?
Many of the pupils were unfamiliar with some of the foods and therefore reluctant to try them.
What have you learned about the project so far?
A whole-school approach to the Eat Well Do Well initiative works best since, if the head and teaching staff are supportive of the healthy eating initiative, they encourage the children to try different foods.
What would you do differently?
The healthy eating initiative was introduced very quickly. Perhaps if it had been introduced gradually the fall in pupil numbers would not have been so marked.
References:
- Department of Health. Choosing Health: Making healthy choices easier. 2004. www.dh.gov.uk (Search for 4135, accessed 12 April 2007).
- Department for Education and Skills. Healthy living blueprint for schools. 2004 http://publications.teachernet.gov.uk/eOrderingDownload/0781-2004.pdf (accessed 12 April 2007).