Feed your brain - eat breakfast

Horsham District Council EHP, Claire Ebelewicz, talks about her project which aimed to promote the importance of eating a healthy breakfast to young people of secondary school age and highlight the positive impact this can have on their overall well-being.

The project aimed to reach young people aged 11 – 16 years attending secondary school in Horsham, as this had been identified as a group who tended not to eat breakfast.

A recent West Sussex Lifestyle Survey of 14 and 15 year olds that found that 22% of boys and 36% of girls failed to eat breakfast each morning before school, and it was envisaged that the project would reach at least 4000 young people.

The ‘Feed Your Brain – Eat Breakfast’ campaign was rolled out in Tanbridge House mixed secondary school in summer 2008 and at The Forest School (boys secondary) in May 2009, reaching approximately 1500 young people in each school. The campaign is yet to be rolled out in a third school and am currently liaising with colleagues at the school hoping to deliver the project by the end of this academic year.

Aims and Objectives

The project aimed to promote the importance of eating a healthy breakfast to young people of secondary school age and highlight the positive impact this can have on their overall well-being.

Partners

Hyper
Horsham Environmental Health Department
Food Standards Agency

Methodology

Members of HYPER (Horsham Youth Council) ran assemblies at local secondary schools.

Established for over 7 years now, the Youth Council provides a forum for the District Council and other agencies to consult with young people, thus giving young people a voice on local issues, and also enables the young people involved to undertake their own initiatives.

There are currently 18 HYPER representatives, aged 13 to 17 years of age. They attend fortnightly meetings voluntarily. After looking at results of the recent West Sussex Lifestyle Survey, HYPER developed their ‘Feed your brain - eat breakfast’ campaign and decided to deliver the campaign to young people aged 11-16 through school assemblies.

From the presentation, young people attending the assemblies learnt:

That breakfast was the most important meal of the day,
Why it was so important to eat breakfast – it improves concentration, kick starts metabolism, and improves mood.
Some new ideas for a healthy breakfast.

As the young people left assembly, they were each given a fact sheet, which included top tips for a healthy lifestyle and a ‘how healthy are you?’ quiz. A copy of this presentation and factsheet are available below. The factsheet provided further information for young people to digest in their own time and the quiz gave young people the opportunity to think about their own eating habits.

Resources

Project was funded by a grant from Food Standards Agency and West Sussex Youth Opportunities. Horsham District Council supported the project through officer time and HYPER representatives gave there time voluntarily.

Evaluation

Of the young people that received the ‘Feed Your Brain – Eat Breakfast’ assemblies (approximately 3000 young people), only 563 questionnaires and food diaries were completed. This was partly due to staff changes in the team – the project lead moved on to a new role – and partly due to schools wishing they / their pupils held on to the completed questionnaires to comply with inspection requirements.

Analysis of the completed questionnaires and food diaries found that:

More young people were eating breakfast more regularly. The pre – campaign questionnaire identified that 69% of young people ate breakfast four or more days a week, whilst the post – campaign questionnaire identified that this increased to 91% that ate breakfast four or more days a week.
More young people were thinking more (carefully) about what they ate for breakfast. The before and after seven day food diaries identified that fewer young people were eating crisps and chocolate for breakfast, and that they were substituting this with cereal and fruit.

Lessons Learned

Particular difficulties were:

securing commitment from local secondary schools and agreeing dates for myself and young people from HYPER (Horsham Youth Council) to roll out in assemblies.
evaluating the success of the project and whether the campaign made a difference to young people’s breakfast / eating habits (through completion of the pre and post questionnaires and seven-day food diaries).

With hindsight the project could have been developed further, for example, by producing a lesson plan that could have been rolled out in PSHE lessons or tutor group sessions as a follow up to the ‘Feed Your Brain – Eat Breakfast’ assemblies. Further activities would help reinforce the healthy eating messages conveyed through the assemblies and the importance of eating breakfast.

The lesson plan could have included the completion of the pre and post ‘Feed Your Brain – Eat Breakfast’ campaign questionnaires and seven-day food diaries and class / group analysis of these, which could then be compared against other classes’ / groups’ or schools’ analyses. This may have helped to secure more evaluation of the project. Notwithstanding this, it is important to recognise how full is the school’s curriculum and whether they would be able to accommodate additional work.

Future Developments

The Senior Persons’ Council (SPC) and the Horsham District Community Partnership Team (CPT) worked together to promote the recent Food Safety Week, which this year focused on people over 60 and the need for correct storage and handling of food in the home. The SPC and CPT manned a stand at supermarkets, handing out information about good food hygiene and healthy eating, including the factsheet / quiz developed as part of ‘Feed Your Brain – Eat Breakfast’ campaign.
Currently liaising with local Youth Workers to make the presentation and factsheet / quiz available to them. This will mean the ‘Feed Your Brain – Eat Breakfast’ campaign can be rolled out in local youth clubs and enable more small group work / discussion.
Work with Horsham Youth Centre and local Family Centres to establish:

Mini Munchers for children aged 0 - 5 and their parents. These lunch clubs aim to encourage children and parents to try different healthy foods and to encourage parents to cook own foods for weaning.
Family breakfast clubs. Father and child breakfast clubs from September 09.
Funky Foods for Young People, which aim to support young people with creating a shopping list, budgeting, menu planning and cooking.
Following the roll out of the ‘Feed Your Brain – Eat Breakfast’ campaign at The Forest School, colleagues and I have been working with the Headteacher to establish a week day breakfast club for boys at the school from October 2009.

Contact Details

Contact Name: Clare Ebelewicz

Phone: 01403 215137

Email: clare.ebelewicz@horsham.gov.uk

Website: http://www.horsham.gov.uk/index.asp

Organisation: Horsham District Council

Address: Park North, North Street, Horsham, W. Sussex, RH12 1RL

Other Resources:

This case study was added on 14 August 2009.

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