Getting started

Your service can make a big difference when it comes to creating a healthy eating environment. When children eat well they learn better, are more alert and are more likely to grow and develop to their full potential.

By providing foods and drinks that support health and wellbeing for children at your service, you can help them establish healthy eating habits from the earliest years in life! Plus, you’ll also be addressing the healthy eating requirements of the National Quality Standard, Quality Area 2- Children’s Health and Safety.

The steps below will help you to get started.

There’s a lot to do and you may face some challenges along the way. So, start wherever will be easiest for you. Many small changes can add up to big differences over time.

As you work through your plan to increase healthy eating, you’ll find lots of helpful resources and information on this website to support the changes you need to make.

Attention Outside School Hours Care (OSHC) services: 

If you're here for the first time or still on your journey to improving your healthy eating environment we encourage you to register for Vic Kids Eat Well - an exciting new state-wide movement that’s focused on transforming the food and drink environments where kids spend their time. Click here to find out more!

 

Seek leadership and commitment from your organisation

Healthy eating is not a job for just one person! In fact, everyone has a role to play.

To bring about long lasting healthy changes, leadership and commitment from management is important. In fact, gaining this support should be one of your first steps.

When managers actively lead change it helps everyone in your organisation to feel supported and motivated to be involved.

To get the ball rolling, try starting with these ideas:

  • coordinate a health and wellbeing team
  • find champions or people that encourage and support everyone at the service
  • create a health promotion charter which outlines your commitment to health and wellbeing. Contact the Achievement Program for assistance and more information.
  • provide time, money, resourcing and support for healthy changes to take place (for example, give cooks extra time to source healthier recipes)
  • find ways to involve the whole service (including staff and families)
  • involve other groups like health professionals and local networks (for example, local food hubs).

 

Develop a healthy eating policy

Having an up-to-date healthy eating policy which is applied across your service will help you make successful, long term changes to the food and drinks you provide.

Make sure your policy is comprehensive and covers different areas of the service, not only the menu. For example, think about how your policy addresses the mealtime environment, curriculum activities and learning opportunities, special occasions and engaging with families and the wider community.

Using this approach will help your policy to be more effective.

An up-to-date healthy eating policy is not only an important step in creating a healthier service but is also a requirement of The National Quality Standard and the Achievement Program.

For more information about developing a policy and to access a policy template which you can adapt, visit Developing a healthy eating policy.

 

OSHC services can register with Vic Kids Eat Well

Vic Kids Eat Well is an exciting new state-wide movement that’s focused on transforming the food and drink environments where kids spend their time. 

Vic Kids Eat Well focuses on four key actions and provides clear, simple and achievable steps to making healthy food and drink options available for kids. By harnessing the power of community and taking simple steps together, we can create change to give all kids across Victoria the healthy start they deserve.

Vic Kids Eat Well is supported by the Victorian Government, and is delivered by Cancer Council Victoria’s Achievement Program, in partnership with us, the Healthy Eating Advisory Service. Click here to read more and to register!

 

Register with the Achievement Program

A great way to show your leadership and commitment to providing a healthy eating service is to join the Victorian Government’s Achievement Program and work through the healthy eating and oral health best-practice benchmarks.

The Achievement Program gives you an evidence-based framework to create a healthy environment that supports the health and wellbeing of everyone in your service. Once you register with the program, you can access their online portal for a range of tools, resources and to receive the support you need along the way.

For more information about the Achievement Program and to register visit http://www.achievementprogram.health.vic.gov.au/index.htm.

Note: Outside school hours care (OSHC) services cannot register with the Achievement Program independently of the school in which they provide a service. Family day care coordination units are encouraged to join the Achievement Program, though individual educators are unable to register.

 

Train your staff

The Healthy Eating Advisory Service offers free online training modules and face to face training workshops to help long day care and OSHC services learn about healthy eating for children in care. The sessions cover:

  • the importance of healthy eating for children
  • healthy eating in the National Quality Standard and the Achievement Program
  • the role of services in promoting healthy eating
  • healthy menu planning
  • case studies
  • overcoming challenges and barriers.

Training is for all staff members who are involved in providing foods and drinks to children in care (e.g. cooks, educators and directors). It is a good idea to include the online training modules in inductions for new staff at your service.

For more information visit Training.

 

Prioritise and make changes

Start making healthy changes to your menu, ideally after completing training. The best way to start is by making simple changes which will have a big impact.

To start, make sure that:

  1. all meals, snacks and drinks are written on the menu (including breakfast and late snack) and recipes are documented
  2. unhealthy ‘discretionary’ foods and drinks are not on the menu*
  3. a variety of fruit and vegetables is provided every day
  4. water is freely available throughout the day, and this is written on the menu
  5. for long day care and family day care services, babies under the age of one year are given a variety of healthy foods including iron rich foods every day and foods of different texture which are appropriate for their age. For more information about providing appropriate foods and drinks for babies visit Menu planning for babies.

 

Assess your menu

Find out if your menu meets Victorian food and drink guidelines, with free menu assessments from the Healthy Eating Advisory Service.

You will receive a detailed menu assessment report that highlights areas where your menu meets the Victorian menu planning guidelines, and tailored advice to help you make healthy changes (if needed).

NOTE: FoodChecker is the only menu planning tool that uses the Victorian Menu planning guidelines for long day care. Victorian long day care services that are registered with the Achievement Program and/or Smiles 4 Miles must provide a HEAS FoodChecker menu assessment which confirms that the menu meets the Victorian guidelines.
 

Find out more about FoodChecker and menu assessments here.

 

* Discretionary foods and drinks includes: chocolate, confectionary, jelly, sweet biscuits, high fat/high salt savoury biscuits, chips, high sugar/high fat cakes and slices, cream, ice cream, deep fried foods (e.g. hot chips) and pastry based foods (e.g. pies, sausage rolls and pasties), most fast food and takeaway foods, some processed meats (e.g. sausages, frankfurts/hot dogs, salami, strasburg, devon, some commercial chicken nuggets and fish fingers), sweet drinks such as soft drinks, fruit juice and fruit drinks, cordial, sports drinks, sports waters, flavoured waters, flavoured mineral waters, iced teas and energy drinks.

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