Vic Kids Eat Well Awards

winners Announced

The Vic Kids Eat Well Award winners announced are:

Big Bite awards

These Awards recognise outstanding Vic Kids Eat Well organisations who have demonstrated creativity and impact, while successfully completing the movement’s ‘Big Bite’ changes.

Schools

Joint Winners: Campbellfield Heights Primary School and Heywood & District Secondary College

 

Campbellfield Heights Primary School joined Vic Kids Eat Well because student wellbeing is at the core of what they do. Working with their canteen manager, Jess, they added fresh salads with chicken and tuna to their menus and expanded healthy snacks, including vegetable sticks with hummus, rice crackers, and a range of delicious whole fruit. Kids now enjoy tasty oven-baked options, like chicken burgers served with sliced tomato and lettuce. Based on student feedback, veggie-loaded wraps were also added to the menu. They also replaced their old fryer with new equipment with Jess's help, to keep crunchy and delicious options on the menu.

With health promotion support from DPV Health, delicious and healthy canteen options were embraced by students. The canteen also serves as an educational tool, with older students getting involved in food preparation and serving other students. Campbellfield’s sporty students said the healthy food from the canteen doesn’t just help them feel good – it also helps them play well!

Watch Campbellfield Heights Primary School kids talk about their canteen

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Heywood and District Secondary College is small rural school 30km north of Portland. It has a successful VCAL and Food & Technology program in which students design their canteen’s menu and prepare and serve food to their community fortnightly. Their menu offers a free “pick-a-side" salad meal deal, with crunchy coleslaw and a leafy green option. They have reimagined their traditional sausage sizzle to include veggie burgers, slow-cooked meats and homemade hamburger options. The school’s newsletter also profiles nutrition information with “fun, healthy food facts”, while showing off their veggie-loaded canteen menu. They no longer actively promote the external food provider menu in this newsletter, now only available on request.

With expert support from Jane Killmister, a Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation Healthy Kids Advisor, the school has creatively addressed cost and food supply needs. They use garden produce for their salads and cost-effective meat cuts so they can offer healthy, low-cost meals to students and staff.

The judges were impressed by their holistic approach that combined student involvement in food preparation and healthy food promotion in newsletters.

Outside School Hours Care (OSHC)

Winner: Merinda Park Learning and Community Centre OSHC

Merinda Park Learning and Community Centre OSHC in Cranbourne, located an hour from Melbourne’s centre, is a unique service in a community centre. They welcome up to 35 children from surrounding primary schools for outside school hours care, with a focus on cooking activities and healthy food and drinks.

They reimagined snacks and meals to offer a huge range of tasty, nutritious options to kids attending before and after school care.

They swapped corn chips for soft wholemeal tacos, replaced puff pastry scrolls with pita bread and have removed all processed items from their menu and their activities. They now offer a rotating fruit and vegetable platter for kids to taste new foods, as well as a providing a filling, nutritious second option, including zucchini slices and delicious veggie-packed curries.

Daily cooking activities helped kids make and serve their favourite foods to their friends, while learning lifelong cooking skills. The kids choose how they want to be involved; from pouring and mixing to serving and washing dishes. Educators also bring in different foods for the children to learn about and try, from mangoes to dragon fruit.

With expert support from Laura Ayres at Monash Health, the service also won the Schools and OSHC category in the 2023 Monash Health Promotion Awards. This award commends the OSHC’s impactful changes made through Vic Kids Eat Well.

Community Council-run Facilities

Winner: Peter Krenz Leisure Centre

Greater Bendigo’s Peter Krenz Leisure Centre in Eaglehawk, is a hub for kids to be active and have fun. As part of Vic Kids Eat Well, the centre reworked their cafe menu to increase their range of healthy options and help keep the community active.

Healthy and delicious veggie-packed options now fill their café, including chicken and salad wraps, roast vegetable frittatas, salad rolls and crunchy vegetable sticks. For kids to get a refreshing fruit fix during a pool visit or basketball game, the cafe offers whole fruit, fruit tubs, or frozen fruit-and-yogurt icypoles.

Rebecca Fry, a Healthy Kids Advisor, supported the centre as they progressed in making healthy swaps. Whether children and young people are on the court, learning to swim or being active with friends, the cafe’s nourishing, tasty foods help fuel all-day fun.

Thanks to their changes with Vic Kids Eat Well, the Peter Krenz Leisure Centre is now well on the way to meeting the Healthy Choices Guidelines.

Sports Clubs

Winner: Mulgrave Football Club

Mulgrave Football Club in southeast Melbourne hosts young athletes for game days and training sessions. Their all-new menu for the 2023 season added a variety of delicious, healthy options, which are promoted to their junior players.

Hummus and carrot sticks, protein balls, salad rolls, homemade air fryer wedges and trail mix are now incredibly popular. They also began to use less oil and swapped to low-salt sauces. The club said the new menu has encouraged kids to try new healthy foods, helping them discover something new they’d love.

With health promotion support provided by LINK Health and Community to “change up the menu”, the club has added a variety of fresh options for kids, giving them the energy to play footy, support their teammates and have fun!

Champion awards

These awards celebrate individuals and networks who have made a significant impact and demonstrated outstanding support for their community through Vic Kids Eat Well.

Community Champion

Winner: Kerrie Smith, Bolwarra Primary School volunteer

Kerrie Smith is a dedicated and highly motivated volunteer at Bolwarra Primary School in western Victoria, who has championed their involvement in Vic Kids Eat Well.

Kerrie’s “Healthy Smoothie Fundraiser” helped the school purchase classroom composters, which she uses to teach students about composting and the benefits to the school garden. Produce grown in this garden is sold in the “Garden Harvest Shop”, where the community can purchase it for a gold coin donation.

Kerrie brings cooking skills to life in the school canteen, mentoring parents and trialling new tasty and nutritious recipes that are popular with the kids! She brings the garden and kitchen together with “garden-to-plate" sessions to help students try new foods while building kids’ cooking confidence and skills; many students now request her recipes to cook for their own families.

Backed by health promotion support from Maddy Cram at Portland District Health and Healthy Kids Advisor Jane Killmister, Kerrie has made a significant positive impact on this regional community.

Health Promoter Champion

Winner: Tameaka Lakey and Alexandra Bell, Ballarat Community Health

Tameaka Lakey and Alexandra Bell from Ballarat Community Health are passionate advocates for Vic Kids Eat Well across the Central Highlands region – supporting 14 community organisations to make healthy changes.

They have supported fellow health promotion practitioners to implement Vic Kids Eat Well by leading a local community of practice. This has fostered collaboration and generated momentum and excitement around boosting healthy food and drink options for kids in the local community.

Tameaka and Alexandra have inspired others with Vic Kids Eat Well case studies that highlight the initiative’s local impact, including some stories that have attracted wider media interest.

Kids Champion

Winner: Students from St Joseph’s Primary School, Coleraine

Year six students at St Joseph’s Primary in Coleraine, Western Victoria, wanted to create something they could pass down to the next year six class. So, the students created a logo, found some simple and healthy menu items and the Kids Kitchen was born.

With the help of two parents, students prepared food on Wednesdays, which they sold to peers on Fridays. With innovative thinking, they created meals that could be frozen or used in multiple ways; a veggie-loaded mince might be used for pasta or piled on a hot baked potato. Homemade sausage rolls and soups with tasty veggies also serve groups easily.

To keep the Kids Kitchen initiative going, the students trained the year five class, who in turn will train the year level below. The students leaned on Monique Sobey, their Healthy Kids Advisor, for expertise in dishing up delicious and healthy options.

The students’ actions were creative and full of initiative, they also helped St Joseph's offer more tasty and nutritious options to the school community.

Network Excellence

Winner: Extend OSHC Vic Kids Eat Well Southeast Network

The Extend Outside School Hours Care (OSHC) Southeast Network has been recognised for their excellent collaboration and impact. In late 2022, Caulfield Community Health engaged with the Eastern Victoria Extend OSHC and Village OSHC services; all 27 OSHC services in southeast Melbourne were registered across 15 local government areas.

Experienced health promotion professionals from nine organisations participate in this network including Caulfield Community Health Service, Monash Health, Better Health Network, EACH, Peninsula Health, Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation, Inspiro, healthAbility, and the West Gippsland Healthcare Group.

For more information:

Contact vickidseatwell@cancervic.org.au or 1300 185 725.