The Food Dudes programme to increase fresh produce consumption, conceived by the University of Wales Bangor more than 10 years ago, is finally being adopted in the UK to the delight of its supporters.
The programme is being adopted by the Wolverhampton City Primary Care Trust (PCT), with £500,000 invested in the programme over three years, as part of its strategy to improve the health of primary schoolchildren in the city.
A second three-year funding boost comes from the Worshipful Company of Fruiterers, which is stumping up £75,000 to support the appointment of a national Food Dudes project manager to train people in local authorities, schools or other PCTs to deliver the programme at their local level.
Ross Newham of the Horticultural Development Company (HDC), who chairs the Food Dudes in England Collaborative Group, said: “This genuinely has massive potential for the UK. These are exciting times for the UK horticulture sector.”
As well as the HDC, the group also includes University of Wales Bangor, the School Food Trust, the Fresh Produce Consortium, the National Farmers’ Union, the Institute of Grocery Distribution, and the department of health, which has indicated it will evaluate the impact of the project on the diet of those children participating.
Food Dudes was developed by Professor Fergus Lowe, now co-director of the Food Dudes Programme at Bangor, in the 1990s. “This is a major step forward for the nation’s health because eating habits are mostly formed in childhood,” said Lowe. “By getting children to enjoy eating fruit and vegetables early in their lives, the Food Dudes programme can help them to eat healthily throughout their lives. The programme is easy to run in schools, and all primary schoolchildren should have the opportunity to be involved.”
The scheme is already being rolled out nationally in Ireland and has also won a World Health Organisation award for counteracting obesity.
It uses role models, repeated tastings and rewards to enable children to enjoy eating more healthily. Large-scale studies in schools in England and Wales, as well as Ireland, have all shown that it has major and long-lasting effects in increasing the consumption of fruit and vegetables in children, in a way that simply handing out fresh produce to children does not.
John Price, professor of paediatric respiratory medicine at King’s College Hospital London and vice-chairman of the Awards Council of The Worshipful Company of Fruiterers, said: “Studies have shown that children following the Food Dudes programme increased their fruit and vegetable consumption by 100 to 200 per cent on average, and in those children who initially eat the least of these foods, consumption has been documented to increase by up to 1,000 per cent.”
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