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Shifting Dietary Behaviours: Expanding School-Based Campaigns

Author: WFP

https://docs.wfp.org/api/documents/WFP-0000175469/download/
The Battle for Healthy Diets is a three-month intervention led by teachers in classrooms. It aims to increase children’s intake of fruit, vegetables and eggs while reducing unhealthy snack and drink consumption. The objectives are for children to: 1) Eat fruit and egg daily; 2) Eat three vegetables daily; and 3) Avoid unhealthy snacks/drinks.

In just three months, the campaign significantly improved the diets of Cambodian schoolchildren. Children increased their vegetable consumption by 11.2 percent compared to non-intervention schools. Similarly, children in intervention schools reduced unhealthy snack and drink intake by 10.7 percent compared to children in control schools. These results were statistically significant, at 5 percent and 1 percent respectively. Although there was a positive trend in egg consumption, this was not statistically significant.

At a cost of only US$226 per school per year to run the intervention, the programme demonstrates that school-based Social and Behaviour Change campaigns can deliver rapid, cost-effective improvements in dietary quality. Further follow-up can better assess both the sustainability and the impacts of the intervention in other areas in Cambodia.