The 'Starting Young' pilot project

Initial research took place within Home-Start families looking at what barriers were preventing families from providing healthy food and activities for their children, and what activities were already taking place within local Home-Starts to address this issue.

In total, 17 local Home-Starts took place in the pilot

A pilot resource pack has been developed which includes:
o Results of the research
o Home-Start schemes' current healthy lifestyles activities
o Nutritional information and resources
o Recipe and activity ideas

Home-Start schemes are being encouraged to make links with their local Sainsbury's stores and excellent relationships have started to be formed. Several schemes have entered into an awards programme with innovative pieces of work and demonstrations of real progress having been made with families, and winners will be receiving their awards at a ceremony at the end of March at Sainsbury's' Head Office in London.

We are looking forward to rolling this exciting work out to the whole of the UK over the coming year.

Pilot Case Study

Profile.
Jack aged 4 was due to begin school shortly. He appeared to only eat certain foods; most was mashed for him to eat and he was still drinking from a bottle. His parents had raised concerns that he would not be able to have packed lunched once he got to school. A medical reason for him not eating well had been excluded by the health visitor and the GP as Jack will eat crisps and chocolate without any difficulty.

The Support
A great deal of thought and consideration was put into developing a way of providing good health education to this family surrounding their particular issues.
Time was spent with a reception teacher in the local school to find resources used within the early year's curriculum to encourage children to absorb the healthy eating messages. A Story/Activity box centred on a children's book which involves food was developed which would engage Jack and his parents to begin to think about food and eating in a fun way without conflict. Learning through play, seemed to be way forward for this family. At the same time, the Home-Start volunteer talked with Mum about cooking, meal planning, shopping cheaply and making good choices when cooking. Time was spent thinking about healthy lunch boxes for school, consulting the dietician in regards to Jason's needs.

The Result.
Jack, began through play, to eat fruit, vegetables, sandwiches and some meat. He was able to cope with a healthy lunch box for school, could drink from a glass with a straw and was at times able to have water instead of juice or milk.
Mum and Dad planned their shopping and meals better and tried to cook 'wholesome balanced meals' rather than junk food. The nursery was thrilled with the improvement in what was a short amount of time, and Mum was delighted with what had happened, because Jack seems a happier child and she was not anxious about him going to school anymore'

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