New CD Rom appeals to children’s appetites

safefood and West Cork LEADER Introduce Taste Buds to Primary Schools

Earlier today, 21 November 2008, safefood and West Cork LEADER Co-operative launched Taste Buds, a new interactive education resource for eight to ten year olds. This teacher-led CD resource, launched by Minister Batt O’Keeffe, T.D. Minister of Education & Science, will teach children about the origins of their food and the importance of healthy eating and physical activity using five, fun animated characters.

With research revealing that 11% of children aged 5 to 12 years of age are overweight and 11% are obese, the launch of Taste Buds is an  exciting development in providing children with knowledge that will serve them throughout their lives.

Speaking at the launch of Taste Buds, Minister Batt O'Keeffe, TD, Minister
for Education and Science said that “there is increasing public awareness
about obesity among Irish children and adults, and I am conscious of the
value of a programme that will create greater knowledge, understanding and
action with regard to healthy eating habits among our primary school
children. We cannot underestimate the importance of developing healthy
lifestyles among our young people to ensure their physical and
psychological well-being both now and in the future.”

Dr Cliodhna Foley-Nolan, Director, Human Health & Nutrition, safefood,
commented, “With obesity among children at epidemic levels, the long-term
health consequences are significant and the challenges that face us are
great. Many children in our society think that food is something which
comes in a packet and we know that over 60% of parents feel it is a
struggle to encourage their children to eat healthy foods – this fun
resource will help schools and parents address this by giving children
practical examples of what healthy eating and activity can do for them as
well as explaining the origins of our food.”

Speaking at the launch of Taste Buds, Ian Dempsey, Chief Executive Officer,
West Cork LEADER Co-operative commented “Taste Buds was designed to support the Social Personal Health Education (SPHE) curriculum in Primary Schools.

The combination of learning about healthy eating and food production will
enable children to make healthier food choices. Taste Buds also brings fun
into the learning experience through the use of animated, cartoon
characters. Each of the Taste Buds characters has different personalities
that children can identify with and conveys a different message about
healthy eating and the importance of physical activity through cartoons.”

Mr. Aiden O’Brien, Principal of Scoil Náisiunta an Chroí Naofa that piloted
the resource said, “Our children really enjoyed using the Taste Buds
programme. At times, it can be a challenge to teach children about the
importance of healthy eating and physical activity, but this resource
brought the message to life for them in an exciting, interactive and
accessible way.”

The Taste Buds resource consists of 8 different class sections, each one
taking between 30 to 40 minutes to complete, with interactive sections and
activity suggestions. Session topics include ‘Finding Out About Food’,
‘Who Produces Our Food’, ‘Boosting Breakfast’ and ‘The Big Match’.
Teachers’ notes have also been developed to accompany the resource and
include ideas for classroom discussions, along with games and quiz
suggestions.

Teachers can obtain a free copy of the resource for their school by calling
the safefood helpline on 1850 40 45 67. The resource will also be made
available online in due course at www.safefood.eu

Details of the resource will be sent to all primary schools in the Republic
of Ireland in the coming weeks.

References
1) IUNA 2005
2) safefood & HSE in collaboration with HPA, NI; Millward Brown IMS 2008