FoodStep - a Sustainable Model for Food Services and Early Childhood Education and Care
Overview
- Phase
- Not Applicable
- Status
- Active, not recruiting
- Sponsor
- Suvi Virtanen
- Enrollment
- 116
- Locations
- 1
- Primary Endpoint
- Change in daycare diet of the children
Overview
Brief Summary
Transformation towards a more climate-friendly and healthy sustainable diet will require major changes in the food system: increase in consumption of plant-based foods and only moderate consumption of animal-based foods. In the FoodStep -project, the investigators will develop a sustainable model for food system that reduces the climate impacts of the food system in early childhood education and care. The impact of the changes on children's nutrition, the climate impact of the diet, and the cost of food services will be assessed in a randomised controlled trial. In addition, the effects of the model on the knowledge and attitudes of decision-makers, experts in food service and early childhood education, and families are studied. Based on the project, the model can be applied nationally as part of Finland's climate change mitigation and adaptation strategy. Study aim to a sustainable food system reform through concrete guidelines, communication, and action initiatives.
Study Design
- Study Type
- Interventional
- Allocation
- Randomized
- Intervention Model
- Parallel
- Primary Purpose
- Other
- Masking
- None
Eligibility Criteria
- Ages
- 3 Years to 5 Years (Child)
- Sex
- All
- Accepts Healthy Volunteers
- Yes
Inclusion Criteria
- •Are attending a full time daycare
Exclusion Criteria
- Not provided
Outcomes
Primary Outcomes
Change in daycare diet of the children
Time Frame: Before the intervention and 1 year after the intervention
The investigators assess the change in vegetable, red meat and milk supply at daycare measured with Food Frequency Questionnaire.
Change in climate impact of Food System model at systemic level
Time Frame: Before the intervention and 1 year after the intervention
The investigators assess the change in carbon footprint of daycare food supply.
Change in food service cost of Food System model at systemic level
Time Frame: Before the intervention and 1 year after the intervention
The investigators assess how the costs change at food services due to the food system intervention and how cost-effective is the food system intervention compared to the food system as usual. Data comes from accounting of food services and book keeping: time spent to different tasks in food services.
Secondary Outcomes
No secondary outcomes reported
Investigators
Suvi Virtanen
Research Professor
Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare