Where Social Impact Meets
In 2013, the University of Newcastle, Hunter New England Population Health and Healthy Australia partnered in the design and evaluation of an evidence-based web intervention into ‘business as usual’ Federal CCMS activities to improve the diets of children in Australian childcare.
In Australia,
1 in 4 kids and 2 in 3 adults
are overweight or obese.
What is feedAustralia?
feedAustralia is a world leading nutritional education and preventative health initiative that provides early childhood education and care providers with a free and seamless 'business as usual' online menu planning tool, built and trialled specifically to integrate with the Federal child care subsidy system for operational efficiency.
It has been developed through a partnership with the University of Newcastle, Hunter New England Population Health and Healthy Australia. The program monitors, assesses and helps improve the delivery of food and drinks to children in care, in alignment with Australian Dietary Guidelines.
feedAustralia is a Department of Health initiative in partnership with Healthy Australia. It will be available to all early childhood education and care providers at no cost from 1 March 2018.
Child care settings provide a valuable opportunity to instil long lasting healthy eating habits in every child, every day.
Why feedAustralia?
The feedAustralia program has been designed to address an identified need within the early childhood education and care sector to translate expert nutritional knowledge and provide a cost effective solution that enables providers to deliver menus that are compliant with Australian Dietary Guidelines.
The benefits of instilling healthy eating habits at a young age are far reaching. The highest quality research, evidence, systematic reviews and controlled trials also show that improving the nutritional environment in early childhood education and care settings can have a positive impact on not only a child’s diet but can also improve learning behaviours.
Australian Research
The University of Newcastle and Hunter New England Population Health are currently undertaking a National Health and Medical Research Council funded trial of the feedAustralia program. Contributions have also been made by early childhood professional associations and early childhood education and care staff.
The University of Newcastle includes researchers with expertise in epidemiology, behavioural science, health promotion, nutrition and dietetics, health economics and statistics with experience in conducting large scale nutrition and obesity prevention trials, in early childhood education and care settings.
Our goal is a healthy nation and our first priority is fostering a nation of healthy children. Integration of the feedAustralia online menu planning tool across all early childhood education and care providers in Australia will instil healthy eating habits in every child, every day to build and embed positive nutritional habits for a healthier life as a durable population health intervention.
John Wiggers, Professor, School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Newcastle
feedAustralia translates the nutritional science of National Dietary Guidelines into straight forward real-time feedback giving early childhood education and care providers the information they need to make informed menu choices.
Meghan Finch
Dietitian and Program Manager
Hunter New England Population Health
We have been working to determine the optimal strategy to improve food provision and dietary outcomes of children in child care. feedAustralia is one such strategy.
Luke Wolfenden
Associate Professor
University of Newcastle
feedAustralia can help busy early childhood education and care providers make better choices for the best nutrition care of our kids.
Serene Yoong
Behavioural Scientist and
Accredited Practising Dietitian
The University of Newcastle stands as a global leader distinguished by a commitment to equity and excellence and to creating a better future for its regions through a focus on innovation and impact.
UON staff, students and alumni are a resource for our whole community. They are partners and collaborators in world-class research, teaching and learning, and their skilled graduates contribute to our regions, Australia and the world.
They challenge standard practice and received wisdom. They are world leaders in generating new knowledge and translating innovative ideas into real benefits to society. UON are open, ethical, rigorous and committed to the highest standards in academic enquiry. They are champions of academic freedom and professional responsibility.
Hunter New England Population Health is responsible for the delivery of Population Health services to the people of the Hunter and New England regions.
Hunter New England Population Health delivers services that support the development and maintenance of healthy environments, healthy communities and healthy people. Their mission is to protect and promote the health and well-being of people in the Hunter, New England and wider communities.
Their services include responding to environmental, emergency and communicable disease threats, and promoting policies, services, environments and behaviours that are conducive to good health. Such services incorporate the principles and strategies of epidemiology, surveillance, health protection, health promotion, behaviour and practice change and research.
In Association with
This program has been approved by the Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC). Approval number is H-2016-0111.
feedAustralia’s Online Menu Planning Tool
The feedAustralia online menu planning tool has been developed to sit within existing child care management systems.
It provides early childhood education and care providers with:
- An online nutritional database that includes over 200 healthy recipes and snack suggestions with established energy, macronutrient profiles and food group breakdowns.
- A translation of expert nutritional knowledge into everyday ‘best food selection’ equipping adults with the know-how, resources and confidence to provide healthy and nutritious food to the children in their care.
- Nutrition resources, including suggestions and tips to reach food group recommendations and align with Australian Dietary Guidelines.
- A real time assessment of menus against nutrient, energy and serving size data.
- Analytics to enable menu disaggregation (ingredients) to support food ordering.
- An automated assessment of menu compliance per child based on food combinations.
- A real time alert when a planned menu does not adhere with Australian Dietary Guidelines or child dietary needs (allergies).
- Nutrition resources, including suggestions and tips to meet food group reccomendations.
- Reduced wastage by generating automated shopping lists and greater management of portions.
- Translation of 2,000 foods typically consumed by Australians and frequented by child care services into food groups.
- Nutritional analysis of menus over time.
- Dashboards that demonstrate performance against Government indicators.
Plan a weekly menu
Check nutritional content
Healthy substitutions
Register to receive the feedAustralia program at:
www.feedaustralia.org.auStay informed with our e-news
Contact Us
PO Box 20184
World Square NSW 2002
P. 1300 193 177
E. hello@healthyaustralia.org