FOOD DUDES Scoops Chief Medical Officer’s
Gold Award
The Food Dudes Programme, sponsored by HDC, the Worshipful Company of Fruiterers and FPC, amongst others, has won another prestigious award. Established at Bangor University, the programme was selected from 113 applicants to be awarded the gold medal for the success of its Wolverhampton project, a three-year rollout to every school in the region. The Chief Medical Officer’s Public Health Awards ceremony hosted at the Royal College of Physicians last month acknowledged the efforts of all those working to improve the health of the nation and celebrates innovative and successful public health initiatives.
Professor Fergus Lowe Head of Bangor’s School of Psychology commented ‘The Food Dudes team are delighted to win this top award recognising our achievements in this field, particularly when competition was so strong.”
The Food Dudes programme changes children’s eating habits for life and is designed for children aged 4-11, and involves a simple set of steps revolving around a reward system. The programme works with parents, children teachers and catering staff. He added ‘all projects have to demonstrate three key criteria: evidence of impact, sustainability of the initiative, and how the work is replicable to other settings or areas.’
The Food Dudes programme continues to gather momentum in England, with another major rollout to 30 schools (9,000 children) in Coventry confirmed for Autumn, 2010 and a further rollout in Bedfordshire. The programme is currently being implemented to every school in Ireland, funded by the Government, and pilots have been conducted in Italy and the United States.
Read Pauline Milne’s presentation from our 2nd Spring Conference