Mo' Flava Healthy High Schools Initiative
Michelle Hargreaves, Marketing Officer with Manchester City Council Hospitality & Trading Services Department, explains how, as a school meals provider, they encouraged pupils to make healthy choices – including developing the ‘Mo’ Flava’ brand.
Project Start Date: April 2004
Project Aims and Objectives: The aim of the project was to work in partnership with schools, to test knowledge, and introduce concepts and interventions to change mindsets. Through increasing food and nutrition knowledge and attitudes of high school students, we aimed to help them make more balanced food choices in turn leading to a higher quality of life in the short and long term. Our objectives were;
- To change pupil’s food choices by increasing their awareness and knowledge of food and nutrition, based on the importance of a balanced diet.
- To improve catering staff’s knowledge of healthy food to enable them to encourage young people to make healthy choices.
- To develop dishes to reduce amounts of added fat, salt and sugar.
- To increase fruit and vegetable choices and increase content in dishes therefore improving uptake.
- To determine which food promotions appeal to young people and identify if these influence purchasing choices.
- To incorporate views and input from partnership agencies, for example primary care trusts, healthy school, 5-a-day.
- To improve marketing and merchandising techniques through the use of targeted promotions and competitions to highlight healthy products and encourage improved choices.
Background:
Manchester has some of the most challenging health problems in the country. Compared with national averages, Manchester residents have lower life expectancies and approximately 900 deaths in Manchester each year could be attributable to diet related cancer and coronary heart disease (CHD) (Joint Health Unit 2004).
As a school meal provider, we recognise our responsibility in serving, encouraging and promoting healthy food choices to pupils. We recognised a need for targeted work in high schools, drawing on existing partnerships with schools, Manchester healthy schools, and community dieticians, to address current eating habits and knowledge to make positive changes in improving the long term health of Manchester residents, whilst supporting government targets to reduce obesity.
Organisations Involved:
Manchester City Council Hospitality and Trading Services
Manchester Fayre
Community Dieticians
Manchester Healthy Schools Initiative
Target Group:
The project was piloted in four high schools, catering staff from these four schools were also targeted as part of the initiative
Methodology
The initial concept of the project began in early 2004, with funding first granted in April 2004 and the appointment of a Project Manager in July 2004. Meetings were then held with head teachers and senior management teams of schools thought to benefit most from the project. Due to the high free school meal eligibility in the schools chosen for the project, there were large numbers who stayed on site and consumed food from school.
‘Healthy’ options were on offer but rarely chosen for social, cultural and socio-economic reasons. Critical factors for students when choosing food were having ‘value for money’, something that is filling and being able to recognise a food.
A project manager was appointed to facilitate and co-ordinate the initiatives in schools, working with colleagues within Manchester Fayre, catering and teaching staff. She got them on board through enthusiasm towards the project, highlighting the importance and need for change and some modest incentives. The following ‘steps for change’ were identified;
1.Meeting with head teacher / senior management team, to ‘sell’ the project and get them on board. Obtain a key teacher contact.
2.Meet and liaise with the kitchen supervisor. Excellent opportunity to acquire a picture of consumer characteristics.
3.Meet and liaise with the teacher contact, discuss how the project can be launched amongst the students (e.g. assemblies), how we can support their curriculum with lessons, establishing a focus group, etc.
4.Each food group was tackled as a ‘theme’, which ran between 3 and 5 weeks.
5.Continuous marketing and dining area promotions were in line with the themes.
6.Clear communication channels were critical in maintaining good relationships.
In order to be successful, it was recognised that the Mo’ Flava project required a ‘whole school approach’, as described below.
Development of the Mo’ Flava brand
Pupils resisted trying healthier foods as healthy isn’t necessarily associated with being ‘cool’, therefore the brand Mo’ Flava was created to encourage pupils to try healthier foods. The Mo’ Flava name works with the idea that a healthier option not only gives you more wholesome and nutritious food, but also suggests more style and attitude, as typical of the R ‘n’ B generation. The identity features a caricature of a human face with a prominent heart shaped mouth to emphasise the love for real food.
Curriculum Work
The main part of curriculum work is the Food & Nutrition presentation. This went over the Balance of Good Health as it was discovered that very few high schoolchildren knew and understood the difference of the five food groups and the importance of consuming them in appropriate amounts. A teacher commented about the presentation lesson and the exotic fruit tasting lesson; “The presentation was excellent and from speaking to the pupils they found it really interesting and informative…they enjoyed the fruit they tasted and have continued to come and ask me for more!”
The second part of the presentation was a ‘Box of Goodies’, which included foods and drinks that are high in salt, fat and sugar and popular with young people. Each product would have a container with the exact amount of fat/salt/sugar; the visual expression really hitting home with the students and teachers alike. The importance of reading the ingredients labelling was also highlighted and stirred the students’ views, one student commented, “it really made you think about what is in food”, another student thought the Box of Goodies was “unusual and interesting”. Key to the success of the presentation was keeping it interactive.
Other curriculum work included discussing aspects of school meal provision with students, which lead to some students using ‘school meals’ as a basis for coursework. Resources otherwise unaffordable by the school were purchased by the project, including an exotic fruit basket for tasting, some fruits students had never seen before let alone tasted, such as mango, pineapple and strawberries. During the rollout, a Year 10 food technology group were taught the food & nutrition lesson which they in turn recreated as they deem to be more appealing to their peers and cascaded their own presentations to Year 7 groups during PSHE lessons.
Establishment of focus groups
As a result of the nutrition lessons, focus groups were set up in all schools for pupils who had a genuine interest in food & nutrition and wanted to learn more. The focus groups were very successful as they sparked an interest and enthusiasm for food. They were so popular, an increased number of pupils expressed an interest to join the focus group. One focus group even started a petition on discovering that the groups may finish if further funding was not secured. The focus groups were also used as a platform for taste-testing new menu items, for example; smoothies and new items for the vending machines. The students’ feedback on taste and acceptability is fundamental for product success.
Members of the focus groups formed a team from each school to enter the pilot project finale competition, ‘Ready Steady Create!’. This challenged Year 8 students to work with their teachers and the catering staff to research, design and make a meal deal.
During the rollout of the project, the focus groups discussed the proposed new legislation for school food in the Transforming School Food – Turning the Tables Report. This consultation with students provided us with an insight into how the proposals would actually be received by the consumers and some fantastic ideas and perceptions of school food.
Dining Area and Catering Staff
Catering staff have also benefited from the project in terms and using their skills to create new innovative dishes that incorporate more fruits and vegetables, which in turn increased their confidence and motivation.
To help make the new menu items, equipment was purchased through the project budget, for example stick blenders to make fruit smoothies and soups.
Promotion of Mo’ Flava
Several marketing techniques were used to promote Mo’ Flava, for example; key messages posters that ran in line with the themes, a ‘Points Make Prizes’ scheme which were established in schools with a cashless system, and a loyalty card scheme for schools with a cash cafeteria system. Prize draw quizzes were used to increase knowledge uptake from the posters as well as product promotions also in line with the themes.
Funding:
Funding was obtained from Manchester City Council’s service improvement fund.
Evaluation:
The project has challenged schools to review their own practices and policies to ensure they are promoting and encouraging healthy food choices to pupils.
Schools involved in the project have reconsidered their vending machines, some removing it completely or changing it to healthy vending alternatives. Schools have reviewed what is on offer on the school menu, for example, one school removed crisps, another canned drinks. One school has also introduced a free fruit scheme for all pupils, which has resulted in a 60% increase in fruit consumption throughout the school day. This school also overhauled their lunchtime food provision to have no ‘junk’. This has so far seen a reduction in disruptive behaviour and disciplinary action, especially in the afternoons.
We benchmarked the pupils and catering staff before any initiatives had taken place to assess existing knowledge and eating habits using a Food and Nutrition Questionnaire. Food and Activity Diaries were also handed out, however the returned information was inadequate and therefore could not be analysed accurately. In addition to the questionnaires, the sales of key foods and drinks where measured and monitored for changes in line with promotions.
The questionnaires were re-administered after 6 months to measure significant improvements in key areas. Here are some of the findings of the 4 pilot schools;
Drinks
- Overall water consumption has risen 3% (at home and school)
- Drinking water at school every day has risen 9
- Students drinking water at least once a week at school increased by 14
- Sales of bottled water has doubled
- Sales of carbonated drinks gone down by nearly 2000 cans per week, which is a 44% decrease.
- Having fruit & veg at school – those eating none is down 16%, having 2 or more portions at school is up 12%
- Fruit sales increased from 75 per week to 650 per week.
- Sales of salads gone from 87/week to 347/wk – that’s nearly 4 times!
- Sales of vegetables have risen nearly four times (399% increase)
- Choosing jacket potatoes has gone up 8%
- Sales of chips down by over 1000 portions a week.
- Sale figures show a move to jacket potatoes, salad boxes, sandwiches and baguettes
Food & Nutrition Knowledge
- Overall, more questions answered in the follow up questionnaire and not left blank, demonstrating an increased confidence in knowledge.
- Knowledge of 5-A-DAY message increased 21%
- Knowing cheese is not a carbohydrate - increased 16%
- Knowing calcium for strong bones - increased 5%
- Knowing carbohydrates give energy - increased 7%
- Knowing it is false that semi-skimmed milk has ½ calcium - increased 13%
Changes in key product sales over all 4 pilot high schools
| Product |
W/c 19/1/04 |
W/c17/1/05 | Difference |
| Chips | 5696 | 4663 | -1033 |
| Burger | 2095 | 1366 |
-729 |
| Canned Drink (large) | 4546 | 2560 | -1986 |
| Jacket Potatoes | 589 |
702 | 113 |
| Salads (all) | 87 | 354 | 267 |
| Water | 713 | 1470 | 757 |
| Pizza | 114 | 340 | 226 |
| Chip Muffin | 650 | 887 | 237 |
| Vegetables | 300 | 1197 | 897 |
| Fruit | 75 | 716 | 641 |
| Yoghurt | 36 |
259 | 223 |
| Milk | 39 | 340 |
301 |
| Biscuits (all) | 1653 | 1898 |
245 |
| Sandwich/ Roll | 1956 |
1883 | -73 |
Lessons Learnt:
A problem of getting the project rolling and maintaining momentum in some high schools was because we struggled getting teaching staff to return messages and arrange meetings/assemblies etc. To avoid this in the future, we plan to have the head teacher agree to a Service Level Agreement, which highlights their responsibilities and roles within the project and requests their cooperation otherwise the project may be withdrawn.
We found that due to the turnover of catering staff, increasing knowledge and therefore changing mindsets did not occur. To counteract this, we want to develop a brief introduction to the project for all new staff; this would be to inform them of the importance of balanced eating and their crucial role of encouraging balanced food choices.
Resistance to change was also an initial barrier, in terms of pupils resisting new foods, and also internal staff resenting changes in service and cooking methods. Enforcing a ‘closed gate’ policy also caused problems for change. If the students didn’t like the change, they simply walked off site. This required a firmness of decision by the head and support from everyone. A lesson learnt from the project would be a gradual change is more effective and adopted with more ease than drastic, overnight changes.
An unexpected challenge came from a lack of support from teaching staff during lessons; some teaching staff members viewed the lessons as time off or did not assist with discipline when pupils became unruly. This hindered the pupils from learning, which was particularly frustrating for those pupils who had a keen interest in food and nutrition, and wanted to learn.
Future Developments:
To rollout Mo’ Flava to other Manchester high schools catered for by Manchester Fayre or catered for in-house, we plan to develop a toolkit giving guidance on developing and coordinating all aspects of the project.
Contact Details:
Contact Laura Cornforth
Job Title: Project Manager
Address:
Hospitality and Trading
Manchester City Council
New Smithfield Market
Ashton Old Road
Openshaw
Manchester
M11 2WJ
Tel: 0161 234 7716