How do you get a child to eat and, perhaps more importantly, like fruit and vegetables? It’s a question most parents around the country grapple with on a daily basis, but one which hitherto few have found a solution to. Despite the myriad schemes tried out by both government and private bodies, the childhood obesity figures continue to rise and our national fruit and veg consumption falls.

One man is on a mission to change all that. Professor Fergus Lowe is the founder of the Food Dudes initiative, a scheme which has been held up by supporters as a potential solution to change the long-term eating habits of children through a combination of role models and a rewards system. Already rolled out nationally in Ireland and in a number of trials in England, Lowe now has major plans for the redevelopment of the scheme and has the world in his sights.

Starting life as a university project in the 1990s, it has now evolved to being a full-time business with 15 staff. Established as Food Dudes Health Ltd in March last year, the social enterprise company is still being run in collaboration with and part-funded by Bangor University, but organisers decided to set up as a standalone company to help take it to the next level. “Our ambitions are very big,” Lowe explains. “We want to take it all across the UK and Europe. They need us. Just giving kids an apple once a week is not going to change eating habits.”

Lowe says the European Commission – which operates its own School Fruit Scheme – recognises this and is receptive to Food Dudes. He is on the scientific expert panel for the EU’s school fruit scheme and has the ear of influential figures across the continent and beyond. That has led to trials currently being run in Milan, as well as two in the US, in California and Utah.

Unlike other schemes, which often deliver a short spike in consumption, Food Dudes has been shown to make a lasting difference to children’s eating habits, and the initiative is now looking to build on this by adding a second stage, known as Food Dudes Forever, to help reinforce the message to older primary school children.

A lower-cost programme, Food Dudes Forever sees schools running a number of events over the course of the year, with tasting sessions encouraging the children to try new fruits and competitions to write a script that could be made into a future Food Dudes episode. Lowe hopes a Food Dudes Forever pilot will soon be rolled out in Ireland, the biggest supporter of the project so far.

As part of the latest phase in the initiative, the Food Dudes themselves are getting a makeover, with snazzy new designs and even the addition of superpowers to reinforce the message that fresh produce can give you strength (see box). What’s more, the initiative is very much taking a holistic approach, and a key strand to the continued development will be making the link with exercise, as well as engaging with school canteens to ensure the right food is being served at lunchtimes.

“We have developed our programme to make kids want to eat fruit and veg,” Lowe explains. “But if you look at the way food is served in canteens it doesn’t help them to eat well. They mean well, but if you label it as ‘healthy’ people eat less of it. Instead if you label the healthy option as ‘[Food Dudes character] Rocco’s dish of the day’ it’s a thousand times more effective.”

And as digital and online evolves, the opportunity to speak directly to parents and kids in the home also increases, giving a whole raft of possibilities for the further development of the programme.

So far in England the Department of Health has given supportive words but has stopped short of backing a large-scale rollout of Food Dudes, but Lowe is confident the long-term trial data is convincing enough to swing them around, despite government budget cuts and organisational changes not making life easy. Lowe also says he is keen to engage more closely with the fruit and vegetable industry and get it involved with the snowballing initiative.

It all shapes up for an exciting time for the Food Dudes, and with no shortage of ambition from the organisers the four heroes of fruit and veg are set to become a much more recognisable part of the next generation’s education. —

COMING TO A SCHOOL NEAR YOU

Ireland has been the flagship location for Food Dudes, with the government funding the project in all the country’s primary schools, reaching some 450,000 children.

In the UK, so far the scheme is in place in various primary schools in the Midlands, London, Scotland and elsewhere, with a total reach of over 100,000 kids.

Elsewhere Food Dudes has featured in Sicily and Milan in Italy, and California and Utah in the US.

FOOD DUDES 2.0

This year the Food Dudes are being given extra powers in their fight against General Junk. One character’s love of broccoli makes him a super-talented footballer, while others get enhanced skills such as dancing and acrobatics – all thanks to their healthy diet. New episodes of the Food Dudes show are a mixture of animation and real-life actors, with the development of modern 3D bringing extra possibilities for producers.