Setting up and sustaining your schools' Healthier Tuck Shop: Introducing a web-based resource.

Why set up a Healthier Tuck Shop?

Most children eat a diet which is high in fat, sugar and salt, and lacking in fruit and vegetables. Children from lower income families often have the poorest diets of all, eating more sweet foods, soft drinks and crisps and less fruit and vegetables than those from higher income households.

Statistics indicate the current issues relating to children's food and health:

• The average child only eats two of the recommended five portions of fruit and vegetables each day; one in five has none at all.
• Rates of childhood overweight and obesity are increasing rapidly: currently 1 in 5 boys and 1 in 4 girls of school age are obese or overweight.
• A poor diet in childhood influences development of dental decay and chronic diseases in adulthood.
• Type 2 diabetes is increasingly common in children.

The government is preparing a Food and Health Action Plan to improve people's health across England. It aims to make it easier for consumers to choose a healthy diet. One approach to influencing the eating habits of the next generation is to make healthy eating part of the curriculum and to improve what children eat at school. (Food Standards Agency, 2004).

Improving nutrition in schools.

“Alongside parents and carers, schools have a role in shaping the habits and eating behaviour of children and young people. they are in a good position to encourage and provide opportunities for healthy eating, as well as to equip children with the skills and information they need for continued healthy eating”. (Department of Health, 2004).

Introducing a new website resource

Purpose:

To support schools in setting up and sustaining Healthier Tuck Shops as part of a whole school approach to nutritional health.

For use by:

All members of the school community, including:

• Pupils, parents
• Teaching and non-teaching staff
• School managers; the governing body
• Caterers
• School food suppliers

Contents:

• The "How to set up and sustain your Healthier Tuck Shop" pack.
• Practical tips on the planning and implementation of a Healthier Tuck Shop.
• Real examples of schools' Healthier Tuck Shops.
• The background to why Healthier Tuck Shops are important in a whole school approach to healthier eating.
• Findings from the South West Schools' Healthier Tuck Shops Project.

Cost:

Absolutely free!

Setting up and sustaining a Healthier Tuck Shop

During 2003-2004, the South West Public Health Observatory has been investigating the potential for schools to set up and sustain Healthier Tuck Shops, (the South West Schools' healthier Tuck Shops Project).

The work comprised two phases: scoping, which included a questionnaire survey to all 2,713 schools in the South West, and in depth Focus Group Interviews. Subsequently, 55 schools have participated in interventions to either set up a Healthier Tuck Shop, or to introduce healthier options into a pre-existing facility.

The school' activity has been closely monitored and evaluated, and the findings are being made available through this website resource.

A resource pack entitled "How to set up and sustain your Healthier Tuck Shop" was developed to support the intervention schools. This pack is accessible from the website resource. In addition, materials developed by schools for their Healthier Tuck Shops are included to illustrate the simple and effective planning and delivery involved in promoting pupils' health.

How to access the website resource.

The resource is initially being made available exclusively for all the schools in the South West region. If you have not received your password and you are a school located in the South West region, please email with your name, the name of the school and your location and we will forward the password to you.

If you are currently not within the South West region, the website will be accessible nationally early in 2005.