To co-design support strategies to enable sustainable, healthy, affordable food provision, including waste mitigation practices, in Australian Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) settings.

Based on the co-design IDEAS framework (Ideate, DEsign, Assess & Share), this co-design process involved iterative interviews and focus groups with ECEC centre staff and workshops with Nutrition Australia. Interview and workshop themes were coded to the Theoretical Domains Framework (TDF) to develop initial prototypes for support strategies that were further developed and refined in focus groups.

ECEC with onsite food provision, in Victoria, Australia.

ECEC staff and a Victorian Government-funded programme delivered through Nutrition Australia that provides nutrition support to ECEC services.

ECEC staff interviews (n 17) suggested a lack of knowledge on the topic of sustainable healthy food provision and a need for resources and support for all staff and children. Workshops with Nutrition Australia built on interviews and suggested a focus on lower intensity strategies and a suggestion to embed knowledge-related activities into the children’s curriculum. Focus groups (n 8) further informed co-design of strategies, producing a visual representation of sustainable healthy food provision with supporting tips and a whole-of-centre approach that includes children through a classroom activity.

The co-designed resources could provide feasible strategies for the adoption of sustainable, healthy and affordable provision practices in the ECEC setting. Involvement of a local government-funded health promotion service provides valuable research-to-practice contribution as well opportunity for scalable dissemination of resources through existing infrastructure.

To describe environmentally sustainable (ES) and healthy food provision practices in childcare services in Victoria, Australia.

Cross-sectional study.

Childcare services providing food onsite.

Staff completed an online survey that explored ES food provision practices including purchasing seasonal/local food, food waste awareness/management, and food cost/child/d. A purposively sampled subgroup conducted weighed audits to determine compliance with guidelines and total waste, serving waste (prepared, not served) and plate waste.

Survey results found 8 % of services (n 129) had previously conducted food waste audits. Service audits (n 12) found 27 % total food waste (range: 9 % - 64 %). Statistically significant differences in plate waste were found between services who had previously conducted food waste audits (7 %) and those who had not (17 %) (P = 0·04). The most common ES practice was ‘providing seasonal food’; the least common was ‘maintaining a compost system’ and ‘less packaged foods’. Most services (95 %) purchased foods from supermarkets with 23 % purchasing from farmers’ markets. This was statistically lower for regional/rural services (8 %), compared to metropolitan services (27 %) (P = 0·04). Twenty-seven per cent of services spent AUD2·50 or less per child per day on food. Only one audited service provided a menu compliant with childcare food provision guidelines.

Childcare settings procure and provide large volumes of food; however, food waste awareness appears limited, and environmentally sustainable food procurement practices may be less affordable and difficult to achieve. Understanding the impact of food waste awareness on food waste practices and food costs across time merits further research.