FoodStep - a Sustainable Model for Food Services and Early Childhood Education and Care

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.

Conditions

• Healthy

Interventions

OTHER

FoodStep - a sustainable health-promoting model for food services and early childhood education and care

The investigators create a sustainable food system model that reduces the climate impact of the food system in early childhood education and care. In practice, the investigators i) promote plant-rich recipes, sustainable food purchases and consumption through municipality food services, ii) renew food education, and iii) reduce food waste in early education and care. To ensure the feasibility and long-term commitment, the investigators bring together municipal stakeholders and key actors within the food system and education sectors to co-create the content of a sustainable food system intervention. The randomized controlled intervention will be carried out at 26 daycare centers within four municipalities in Finland. The impact of the changes at a food system level on children's dietary intake and nutritional status, costs of the whole food system, the climate impact of the menus and children's diets as well as food waste in the daycare centers will be examined.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University of Helsinki

  collaborator OTHER

• Natural Resources Institute Finland

  collaborator OTHER_GOV

• Laurea University of Applied Sciences

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• Suvi Virtanen

  lead OTHER_GOV

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

OTHER

Masking

NONE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

3 Years

Max Age

5 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2021-11-29

Primary Completion

2024-11-30

Completion

2024-11-30

Countries

• Finland

Study Locations