The co-design of support strategies for sustainable, healthy, and affordable food provision in Early Childhood Education settings

Abstract

Objective:

To co-design support strategies to enable sustainable, healthy, affordable food provision, including waste mitigation practices, in Australian Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) settings.

Design:

Based upon the co-design IDEAS framework (Ideate, DEsign, Assess & Share), this co-design process involved iterative interviews and focus groups with ECEC centre staff, and workshops with Nutrition Australia. Interview and workshop themes were coded to the Theoretical Domains Framework (TDF) to develop initial prototypes for support strategies that were further developed and refined in focus groups.

Setting:

ECEC with onsite food provision, in Victoria, Australia.

Participants:

ECEC staff and a Victorian Government funded program delivered through Nutrition Australia that provides nutrition support to ECEC services.

Results:

ECEC staff interviews (n=17) suggested a lack of knowledge on the topic of sustainable healthy food provision and a need for resources and support for all staff and children. Workshops with Nutrition Australia built on interviews and suggested a focus on lower intensity strategies, and a suggestion to embed knowledge-related activities into the children’s curriculum. Focus groups (n=8) further informed co-design of strategies, producing a visual representation of sustainable healthy food provision with supporting tips and a whole-of-centre approach that includes children through a classroom activity.

Conclusions:

The co-designed resources could provide feasible strategies for the adoption of sustainable, healthy and affordable provision practices in the ECEC setting. Involvement of a local government-funded health promotion service provides valuable research-to-practice contribution as well opportunity for scalable dissemination of resources through existing infrastructure.