With Australian children’s consumption of vegetables sitting far below the daily-recommended servings from the Australian Dietary Guidelines, Horticulture Innovation Australia has commissioned CSIRO to create a vegetable education resource for use in schools that aligns with the Australian curriculum and aims to increase children’s willingness to eat vegetables.

“The vegetable education resource developed by CSIRO has been tailor-made for Australian schools and road-tested in classrooms. This will ensure that it can make a meaningful difference to kids’ willingness to eat their veggies by increasing their knowledge and experience of how to use vegetables in meals,” said Hort Innovation CEO, John Lloyd.

“Industry research has found that even when it comes to getting adults to eat more vegetables, knowing is half the battle. Equipping consumers with knowledge about what they can expect from different vegetables, and teaching them how to use different veggies in different meals, is a key part of increasing consumption.”

“The low rates of vegetable consumption among children continue to be a huge concern – not only for us as an industry, but as an indicator of Australia’s future overall health,” said AUSVEG National Communications Manager, Shaun Lindhe.

“The CSIRO education kit contains a range of different activities and educational techniques to connect with children at each stage of their learning, and ultimately lets kids put that learning into practice by providing them with fresh veggies and letting them create their own sandwiches, salads and juices using the experience that they’ve gained.”

“The industry is really looking forward to further development of the vegetable education resource that will make it even more effective and convenient for teachers and schools to adopt into their teaching plans.” 

Development of a vegetable education resource was funded by Horticulture Innovation Australia using the vegetable industry research and development levy and funds from the Australian Government.