Consecutive Australian Health Survey results show that children around the country are not consuming enough vegetables, and the numbers suggest they are a long way from meeting the recommended daily intake.
It has been estimated that just five per cent of two to six year old children in Australia eat adequate amounts of vegetables, which has led to the $4 million, five-year national VegKIT project which is designed to address this significant underconsumption issue.
This project brings together science and industry with CSIRO, Flinders University and Nutrition Australia working together to deliver an integrated approach to improving children’s vegetable intake by engaging with industry and the places where children learn and eat.
The VegKIT project has been designed to take a community-minded approach to fostering a love of vegetables, with activities that reach early childhood, primary school and even pre-natal level.
VegKIT aims to provide a national framework for promoting vegetable consumption and bring together a number of research and educational resources, with the ultimate aim of increasing vegetable intake by more than half a serving per day for every child.
With that goal in mind, there is potential to increase demand for vegetable produce by 19,000 tonnes per year if every child (aged from two to six ) increased consumption by half a serving or more per day.
The first year of research and development culminated in a VegKIT workshop in June 2019 featuring keynote speakers from CSIRO, Flinders University and Nutrition Australia. The presentations showcased best practice guidelines for promoting children’s vegetable consumption in a range of settings as well as introducing the national VegKIT resource registry.
The resource registry focuses on learning, supporting, and providing tools and initiatives at a community level.
To read more about the VegKIT activities, click on the button below.