Wowzer 2015 is coming to an end already. It’s been a huge year for The Root Cause and for our mission to Transform Children’s Health, In Australia, One Lunchbox At A Time. We owe you all a huge thank you for being here supporting us and our mission. Together, with your help, we are making a stand for children’s health, and I am confident, together we are making a difference.
Today, I just ran my last Mad Food Science Program for 2015 as part of a Preschools Break Up Day Festivities, so I thought it was timely to do an Australian Tour 2015 Wrap Up.
The Why
Official Stats
The official stats from the The National Health Study are telling us that Children’s Health in terms of being overweight and obese is worsening. Whilst I don’t mean this whole mission to become a focus on weight, the reality is many of the chronic health conditions facing our children today (eg. type 2 diabetes, heart disease, auto immune disease etc), are as a result of being overweight or obese. To stop our children growing into chronic illness, we need to get to The Root Cause of these illnesses. Lack of education about real food and processed pretend food is a big part of this. This is the why for taking our mission on the road.
- 2011 – 2012 Health Study reported 25.3% children aged 5-17 years were overweight or obese
- 2013 – 2014 Health Study reported 27.4% children aged 5-17 years were overweight or obese
The studies show that 63% of Adults (18+) are overweight or obese and this remained constant across both studies. In comparison in 1995, this figure was 56% and in 1989 it was just 44%.
Further research by The National Health Performance Authority shows the adult data varies significantly by location. For instance, in Western NSW 79% of adults are overweight or obese, yet Eastern Sydney was 49%. There is also significant research to show these figures differ greatly with our indigenous communities where obesity and chronic illness is significantly worse.
Australian Tour Discovery
Please note, this information is just anecdotal based on observations and the conversations we’ve been having when running awareness events and our programs for children and parents. It is our belief, the situation is definitely worse in central and regional NSW, with it being possible the numbers of children being overweight or obese being significantly greater than the Australian average figure reported.
But the best discovery of all is this: there is ALWAYS someone or a group of people, in every town we’ve visited who are prepared to be a stand for children’s health.
And as long as this continues, there is hope. We need to continue to join forces, and we can turn these results around.
Raising Awareness
One of the objectives of our Australian Tour to Transform Children’s Health is to simply raise awareness in each town about what is happening to the state of Children’s Health in Australia. To start conversations in the local media about it, get people talking about the issue and about how eating real food and minimising packaged pretend foods are key to reversing the current trends in children’s health.
We are very excited to report how we’ve been going with raising awareness. Here’s some links to the media we have achieved to raise awareness:
- Sydney – launch article in Southern Courier plus appearance on Channel 7 Sunrise
- Newcastle – interview with Jill Emberson on radio 1233 ABC. Listen to it here.
- Lithgow – article in Lithgow Village Voice
- Bathurst – article in Bathurst City Life
- Dubbo – despite the statistics for western NSW, there’s a real groundswell of people getting into real food in Dubbo, and we were fortunate enough to get 3 newspaper articles and a spot on Prime7 Central West News! Find out more here.
- Tamworth – we were fortunate enough to be in Tamworth the same week their inaugural Grower’s Market was opening. It was a delight to see a small group of community minded people who are determined to make real food, straight from the growers, more readily available to the community. As well as raising awareness at the Growers Markets, we were also on NBN news, had an article in Northern Leader Daily newspaper article and were interviewed by Jodie Crosby on The Pulse on Tamworth Radio 88.9FM.
Tour Stats
Our aim is to run pop up events to give out free green smoothies and talk about real food in each town. Plus where we can, run The Mad Food Science Program™ for children and parent seminars. In most towns, we have been able to set up either pop up events and / or run classes for children and seminars for parents. Where we haven’t achieved this, we will try to revisit the town in early 2016.
Locations Visited So Far
- Rockhampton
- Wagga Wagga
- Newcastle
- Bathurst
- Orange
- Lithgow
- Dubbo
- Parkes
- Merriwa
- Denman
- Tamworth
- Barraba
- Port Macquarie
- Forster
- Return to Wagga Wagga
Number of Contacts
These are broken into direct conversations and estimated impact. Direct conversations are the number of people we directly talk to. Estimated impact are the people we estimate we have touched based on the direct conversations we’ve had. The estimation is based on ABS stats of the average household consisting of 4 people.
- Direct Conversations – 2,584
- Estimated impact – 10,336
The estimated impact is a difficult one to deduce as it does not take into account how these people will go on to talk to other people and become a stand for health in their area. It also doesn’t take into account other people who are already following our mission and making changes in their lives. Nor does it include anyone who hears us on radio, or sees us in the paper or on TV. Here’s a couple of examples to explain what I mean.
This comment was added to our Newcastle Report
“Add 4 more to your impact count: by reading your blog I have definitely changed my shopping and food preparation behaviour, which also has an effect on my husband and 2 young kids.. Thank you!!!” – Katrin
And this email from a Child Care Worker At A Playgroup
“Just wanted to tell you that we had some great conversations happening at our playgroups; with parents talking about the Root cause and what little changes they have made in their own and families diets, this was very exciting … You have helped plant a seed to make a difference!” – Tanya
And this email
“Thankyou so much for attending The Barraba Preschool. Thanks for remembering the small towns and tiny preschools on your tour. Your passion on healthy eating is evident throughout your presentation. We thoroughly enjoyed your visit… So much so I’m sitting reading the underground health revolution!” – Penny
And this email after seeing our bus at Port Macquarie
“I’ve been a big fan of yours since I heard you on ABC Newcastle. We have a 2 year old daughter and we always looking for new healthy ideas. We seem to be in a constant battle with our daughter’s daycare over the food choices they make for these precious little growing bodies. It’s very frustrating, and I admire how passionate you are for health & nutrition. I would love to somehow get involved or come along to a workshop. ” – Jane
Number of Schools
Our original goal was to reach 50 schools and preschools across Australia but this goal is now looking way to low. We have already reached 14 schools and pre-schools, and we haven’t even made it out of NSW yet. I think we should up the ante on this goal and make it more – what do you think we should aim for?
Perhaps 50 primary schools and maybe 100 pre-schools? Leave us a comment to let us know your thoughts.
How you can help
Our big goal is to directly impact 100,000 people on Australian Tour. You can help us achieve our mission by spreading the word about Australian Tour, and if you’d like to see us do something in your region, please fill in the how we can serve you form and we’ll contact you.
A Special Thanks
Of course, all of this could not have been achieved without you, and the support of our National Partners.
- Worldwide Printing Solutions – this incredible design and printing company are instrumental in our mission to Transform Children’s Health, In Australia. They graciously provide support by ensuring every child we educate receives a comprehensive handout to take home to their parents. They also provide me with my aprons, tablecloths and more. You can read more about their contribution here. So when you next need design or printing help, contact a Worldwide Printing Solutions office and mention The Root Cause.
- Scott Sign – what can I say but Scott’s brilliance turned our big green box (what our bus builders called it) into our mobile billboard which is now generating conversations everywhere we go.
- R & R Bus and Leisure Hire – this amazing team took our bus on when we were broken not beaten, and turned the mess into the home we now love and are enjoying.
Down Time
It’s been an exciting but gruelling year. To recoup, we’re going to take 2 weeks off from our Australian Tour from December 23rd to 6th January. Our Tour will kick off again on 7th January in Wagga Wagga, then onto Deniliquin the week after. Have a wonderful holiday season, stay safe and indulge in plenty of real food.