An innovative pilot intervention to improve nutrition at holiday play centres

Abstract

Background: Although the Government has set mandatory standards for food served across the extended school day(School Food Trust, 2007), there is currently no guidance on what food and drink can be brought to, or served in Holiday Play Centres (HPCs). To ensure children are provided with consistent messages about healthy eating, preliminary work was undertaken with one HPC, aiming to review current food and drink provision. This audit was carried out in conjunction with children and Play Workers to understand their needs and wishes, and to work with them to develop ways of achieving these. Methods: The HPCs underwent audits of breakfast, packed lunches and tea. Two questionnaires were distributed to staff; the first gathered their views on the foods served and problems that they encountered when providing food. The second measured their nutrition knowledge. Small groups of children completed two questionnaires under supervision: an attitude questionnaire exploring what they liked and disliked about HPC food, whether they could choose what went in their packed lunch, and whether they thought healthy eating was important. A validated child knowledge questionnaire(NFER, 2005) was used to measure their experience, preferences and knowledge with regard to healthy eating. Two focus groups were carried out with a group of eight children aged 8–11 years. They discussed the results of the packed lunch audit and discussed which foods should be allowed in packed lunches before putting together a presentation and posters to share with the other children during assembly. A follow-up packed lunch audit was carried out at the pilot centre 3 days after the interventions. Results: Although the club did not meet the term-time standards for foods served at breakfast and tea, only small changes needed to be made (e.g. pancakes were occasionally served at breakfast and fish fingers and hot dogs were an occasional treat at tea). A total of 77 lunch boxes were assessed. After the interventions, a number of positive changes were made, including decreases in meat products (−2%), confectionery items (−10%) and sugary drinks (−15%), and an increase in healthy drinks (+10%). Twenty-five children completed the questionnaires, showing a mixed understanding of healthy eating messages such as ‘5-a-day’ and what makes up a healthy packed lunch. Most children (96%; 22/23) liked HPC food and although 61% (14/23) considered it healthy, only 44% (11/25) considered their packed lunch was healthy. Although staff generally supported the work being carried out to improve nutrition, their healthy eating knowledge was generally quite poor. Discussion: This project has uncovered some key areas in need of further attention to improve nutrition at HPCs. Lack of staff nutrition knowledge and training means they struggle to come up with menu ideas to fit meet time, budget and equipment constraints. Although the provision of packed lunch guidance for parents is crucial to address lunchtime nutrition, the development of a nutrition resource with suitable recipes for HPCs could solve both the nutritional and practical aspects of providing tea. Conclusions: There is huge scope for the improvement of nutrition at HPCs. This innovative work demonstrated that empowering children and staff has great potential for success, and that children have a high level of enthusiasm for being given the responsibility to make decisions for the right reasons. Further work with play centres is likely to be well-received and achieve high-impact results. However, this short-term intervention needs follow-up to investigate whether changes were sustained and how this could be implemented across all HPCs in the future.