COMMUNITY
FRESH FOOD KIDS
$2m pledged to assist community groups develop grassroots initiatives for primary school aged children in 2008.
Visit www.freshfoodkids.com.au an
interactive and educational website for
kids and parents.
We are committed to encouraging the active healthy lifestyles of kids. That’s why we introduced the Fresh Food Kids program in August 2007 to help make the consumption of fresh fruit and vegetables fun and desirable for kids.
In a recent Woolworths national survey, 93% of Australian parents with children aged between two and 16 said they would like to see fresh fruit and vegetables advertised to children in the same way junk food is.
In response to this we launched a Fresh Food Kids advertising campaign featuring three different advertisements to encourage children to make fun, easy and healthy recipes with fresh fruit and vegetables.
With over 14 million individual customer transactions a week, we recognise our capacity to reach and influence the vast majority of families in a direct way. This program is all about using our size and scale to support the efforts of health experts in delivering positive, practical messages to parents and kids.
An interactive and educational website has also been created to be used by kids and parents at www.freshfoodkids.com.au.
The program is a further extension of the work we currently do in support of children’s hospitals in Australia and New Zealand and an extension of the Fresh Food People philosophy that we’ve held for over 20 years.
Fresh Food Kids Community Grants
We recognise we need to do more to get our healthy lifestyle message out to children and parents. That’s why in February 2008 we announced the Fresh Food Kids Community Grants program.
Woolworths has pledged $2 million to assist community groups develop grassroots initiatives for primary school aged children in 2008. Communities that were developing ideas or needed help funding ongoing projects that promote a healthy lifestyle for children were encouraged to apply for the grants.
The purpose of the program was to send a positive and practical message about fresh food to children and their parents. Grants were awarded nationally in June 2008 to support ideas across food and nutrition, exercise and physical activity.
The full list of successful applicants can be seen on www.freshfoodkids.com.au.
Every unsuccessful application has been offered the opportunity to conduct fundraising activities at their local Woolworths/Safeway supermarket to assist in achieving their goals.
Case Study
Auburn Football Club
Auburn Football Club was established in 2008 to take youth off the streets with community programs and events and lead the way in reducing childhood obesity in young kids today.
The Woolworths Fresh Food Kids grant was needed to purchase sporting equipment and to help reduce registration fees, said Bill Kadayifci of the Auburn Football Club.
“The team has benefited from the grant in so many ways. We now have great awareness amongst the community. We wanted to start a local football (soccer) club to get local kids off the streets, away from computer games and to encourage healthy exercise.
“In Auburn we compete against a lot of other sports and for a new club just starting we have appreciated the support from Woolworths in helping us get moving quicker. We have found from talking with other sporting clubs around Auburn which are getting new kids into sport their numbers haven’t suffered so we are seeing more kids get active. It’s a great result.
“One of the barriers was cost of registration and thanks to the grant we can reduce the registration fees and also provide support for new members through bags and balls.
“We teach all our kids that to perform better in sport requires eating fresh food and drinking water, ‘eat well, eat fresh and perform better’ is a bit of a motto at the Club.”