Public Relation Campaign

Eliminate unhealthy food options from the Western Australian Schools

Martin Gutierrez

[Institutional Affiliation(s)]

Introduction

According to the experts, it is an alarming situation that one of the four children is obsessed and it is the school canteens and cafeterias that are keeping the unhealthy food, so there is a need to create awareness among public for which a campaign has been started that is funded by the government. To make a successful public plan, it is important to have metropolitan support so that the campaign could be run smoothly. In this campaign, schools would be convinced to eliminate junk food and sugar drink from their menus so that children could be kept away from unhealthy food. In three months, all the Government schools would be visited for creating awareness about the effects of junk food on children so that school management and café holders could be convinced that they must stop having unhealthy food. First of all, proper planning must be done about the steps that would be taken. Few of the facts must be taken into account while thinking of the steps that would be included in the campaign. It is hard for parents to take out time for making the launch of their children so canteens are the only option children see for having their lunch and snacks. In this campaign, we are trying to convince canteen managers and Government school management by briefing about the effects of unhealthy food on the students. It has been analyzed that the number of students facing obesity is continuously increasing. Keeping the rates of obesity in children, the government is trying to make policy mechanisms that would be used for promoting healthy dietary practices in school settings.

Menus from government schools were collected as part of the campaign for having a look at the things being offered. Nutritionists and dietitians after the analyses of the menus declared that there is a need to replace unhealthy food items with that of health. This fact cannot be denied that there has been seen a change in dietary habits in children. As per the research of Christina A Roberto, over the last forty years, eating patterns have changed significantly. Diets of school students have shifted from towards greater consumption of processed and junk food. Intake of soft drink has also increased and is considered a necessary item to be kept in. From the past few decades, an enormous increase has been witnessed in the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages which includes fruits drinks, sports drinks, soda and energy drinks. Taking into account the facts, research on the issue of elimination of the junk foods from cafes and statistics regarding children, obesity paved the ways for designing a plan for the campaign (Xin et al, 2019). Firstly, members who would be helping for running this campaign will be selected and brief so that they could know what is going to work on and what goals are focused. List of the government schools would be made with the help of communities working in specific areas for educational purposes. Research has been done before making strategic planning by keeping in mind the stats and working

SWOT analysis

According to Deakin University’s Institute of Health Transformation, there is a need to educate people that children are affected by junk food so unhealthy food from school canteens must be eliminated (Wickes et al, 2019). Following is the SWOT analysis of eliminating the unhealthy food option from their menus.

Strengthens

Everyone knows that unhealthy food is causing several issues for children who get food from the school canteens.

Menus could be replaced with healthy food items.

Campaigns are creating awareness in the general public.

Weakness

Junk food appeals a lot to the youngsters as it has become trendy to have snakes etc. rather than healthy meals.

It is tough to convince children to stay away from things that attract them the most.

Sometimes canteen managers do not support the campaigns as they need to raise fund for various causes so they hardly agree to remove their most selling products from their menus.

Opportunities

It would provide an opportunity to café manager to introduce healthy food items in their menus.

It also provides an opportunity for students to try new and healthy dietary items.

It would provide an opportunity for students to make others aware of the consequences of eating excessive junk food.

Threats

Students may start disliking the menus

Financial loss to the café holders

Stakeholders for this campaign

Café manager and staff

Students

School management

Teachers.

Audience

The target audience for this campaign would be café manager and his management. One of the goals of this campaign is to influence attitudes of café management and students as well. The school management also comes in the list of the audience who must check the inclusion of unhealthy food in the menus of their school cafés.

Smart objectives

Focus on healthy food

Decrease in obesity cases

Cost of meals preparation would be lower

Healthy food promotion

Directing students towards a healthy lifestyle.

Key messages

Following would be the key messages for each of the target audience.

Message for a café manager

They must take into consideration the issue of children obesity in mind and eliminate unhealthy food from their menus. They must offer healthy food and drink (fresh juices) to the students so that they could be pushed towards healthy food.

Message for students

They must prefer their health over momentarily taste and must adopt healthy habits of eating. They must avoid junk food for overcoming obesity issue.

Message for school management

They must have a proper check of the items being sold in their cafeterias whether they are appropriate for their students and what effects menu would be having on student health.

Strategies and tactics

Nutritional education must be made a part of the class curriculum during the three months campaign. Training and session must be arranged in which documentaries would be shown regarding junk food and effect on health.

Wellness programs must be arranged for improving the school environment

School management could serve as an important data source regarding the student's health.

Measurements would be taken time to time

Evaluation

After making a strategic plan or tactics and its implementation, there would be a whole process that would be used to evaluate how well the campaign went and the results obtained are positive or not. For the evaluation purpose, first of all, the menu of the cafés would be reviewed for checking what sort of food is being offered there (Simpson et al, 2019). Also, physical tests would be done i.e. checking of weights for knowing whether the number of obese children is decreasing or not.

Implementation plan

School managements would be taken in confidence before the implementation of the plan. All the important phases and points of the campaign would be explained in detail so that they could come to know how the campaign would be working in their school for the next three months. The team would be trained on how they would be carrying this campaign. Students and canteen management would be educated as well as how unhealthy food is affecting them. A nutritionist would be hired who would assist in designing a nutritious and tasty menu for the school students. The main focus would be on café manager would be finalizing the menu, taking him/her in confidence about healthy food and eating habits is important.

References

Simpson, C. C., Griffin, B. J., & Mazzeo, S. E. (2019). Psychological and behavioral effects of obesity prevention campaigns. Journal of health psychology, 24(9), 1268-1281.

Wickes, R., Zahnow, R., Corcoran, J., & Hipp, J. R. (2019). Neighbourhood social conduits and resident social cohesion. Urban Studies, 56(1), 226-248.

Xin, J., Zhao, L., Wu, T., Zhang, L., Li, Y., Xue, H., ... & Ma, X. (2019). Association between access to convenience stores and childhood obesity: A systematic review. Obesity reviews.