creating lifelong nourishing friendships with food
Partner with us and empower your whole school community – from wherever you are to where you'd like to be.
An innovative food literacy partnership for whole school communities...
With fun in-person incursions and workshops, online resources for teachers and parents, and a dedicated Certified Instructor, lovingly mentoring and guiding you for the whole year.
Better food choices
Everyday food choices affect students’ readiness for learning.
Nutrition is at the heart of learning
Research shows a clear relationship between food and mood. Food affects behaviour.
Food is important
Making a difference to children's health and the health of our planet. Minimise packaged foods and waste.
A Tried & Tested whole-school health education program.
SUPPORTING & EMPOWERING EVERY PART OF THE SCHOOL COMMUNITY
Australian Curriculum Aligned
This Program Has Already Reached:
PARTICIPANTS
SCHOOLS
STATES & TERRITORIES
I was expecting The Root Cause to have a positive impact on our school, but underestimated with how much!
– Janet Conibear, Primary School Principal
Here's what it looks like when you Partner with us.
Our WHole School Approach
1. Food Friendship Assessment:
We assess each community stakeholder groups' current status and provide valuable data to help set your goals.
2. Set Goals and Action Plans:
Using assessment data, we help you define your goals and create a tailored action plan, aligning with your schools plans.
3. Action Plan Implementation:
Your Certified Instructor will mentor you to seamlessly integrate your action plans into daily school life.
4. Review and Renew:
After 12 months, your Certified Instructor will review progress, discuss achievements, and plan for the next year's goals.
We know you're busy, so we make things easy for you.
REGULAR MENTORING & GUIDANCE from our team
Our National network of highly trained Certified Instructors is here to support you throughout the partnership.
You'll get friendly mentoring and guidance from your dedicated local Instructor, to help make planning and implementation a breeze.
Plus our Certified Instructors work as a team, sharing ideas and wins, so you get access to best practices from around Australia.
Involvement in this program gives us a platform from which to share important messages around food and waste and helps us to empower children in making more positive choices, both for their health and the environment. It supports parents and carers by providing some really wonderful resources that are easy to access and implement.
– Tania Angus, Principal Newtown State School
Making Friends With Food™ is a whole-school initiative.
YOUR INSTRUCTOR HELPS YOU CHOOSE THE RIGHT PIECES AT THE RIGHT TIME
Food & Waste Research and Data Report
A snap shot of food at the school, and the waste generated by lunchbox food packaging.
Personal Wellbeing Journal
Students and Teachers track key markers of their wellbeing.
Student "Mad Food Science" Incursion
Gives the entire school a new way of viewing their wellbeing.
Teacher and Canteen Manager Professional Development
Online program to boost teacher and canteen manager knowledge about the impacts of food on wellbeing.
Communications Plan and School Aids
Online resources and teaching aids to support rollout and implementation of the program.
Community Engagement Parent Seminars and Events
In person and online education and Q&A events to reach more parents.
Support Tools for Families
A range of online tools and resources to supportongoing change in the home.
Online Subscription for Parents
Families of our Partner Schools receive free access to our Online Subscription for Parents, including access to lunchbox recipes and ideas to save time (valued at $60 per family).
All our students were fully engaged and loved the presentation. They still look for the sugar content on their packaged foods in their lunch boxes, so the retention of learning is amazing. We will certainly run this program again and I recommend it to other schools.
– Toni Daly, Primary School Principal
Success Stories
Making Friends With Food helps schools make sustainable change. Here's a small selection of our success stories. See more here.
Watch as this young student shares how her lunch is so different a day after she participated in the Mad Food Science Incursion component.
Stockinbingal Primary School has a goal to increase the amount of vegetables children eat in their lunchboxes. The school has been providing weekly vegetable platters. This exposure to veggies in a social setting, with reinforcement of the keys teachings from Making friends with food happening in the background, has helped many of these children to try new vegetables and to even discover that they like them.
Gowrie State School has taken the Eat A Rainbow message from Making Friends With Food™ and extended it into their school garden.
Watch as this teacher continues the conversation
about fruits and vegetables by incorporating
it into a literacy lesson.
Our Forward-Thinking Partner Schools
Forward thinking school leaders recognise that nutrition is at the heart of learning –
and improvements in school results can be achieved by focusing on food literacy.
Over the last 3 years, we have partnered with these forward-thinking schools:
Program Recognition
Making Friends With Food™ by The Root Cause (formerly known as The Children’s Health Program) has been recognised for its impacts and health promotion benefits by the following organisations, who provided grant funding to some schools in their regions.
The Root Cause acknowledges the Traditional Owners of Country throughout Australia.
We recognise the continuing connection to lands, waters and communities.
We pay our respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures; and to Elders past, present and future,
for they hold the memories, traditions, the culture and hopes of Indigenous Australia.