In 1992, Nestle began work as an active partner with the French government in a pilot project to educate children and parents in food, nutrition, the role of physical activity in health, and natural body development through childhood and adolescence. This reference study in preventing childhood obesity, called EPODE (Let’s work together to prevent obesity in children) was initiated in two towns in Northern France, Fleurbaix and Laventie.
In 2000, the project was extended to involve other stakeholders in the communities as partners: health professionals, caterers, companies, shops and supermarkets, media and others, in addition to schools. By 2004, results even exceeded expectations, with juvenile obesity in the two towns receiving this education having fallen to only 9% compared to 18% in similar towns in the region not receiving it.
EPODE works by moving away from the vision of obesity at the level of the individual and seeing it as a social challenge, providing family-centric solutions through the coordinated actions of all stakeholders concerned. This is a long-term programme within the frame of real daily life. It provides a concrete “step-by-step” apprenticeship for the whole family, based on experience and repetition of key messages based on scientific recommendations. The aim is to get results by positively influencing lifestyle, with no stigmatisation of obesity nor of any particular food.
Every quarter, a different category of foods is highlighted, vegetables for example, so during the quarter all stakeholders give out health and nutrition messages on vegetables at the same time: health news pamphlets in doctors’ surgeries, “taste of the season” brochures for parents, teaching animations in schools, ads on billboards and in newspapers, adapted meals and “fun” animations in restaurants and school canteens, and information leaflets distributed by shops, supermarkets and local producers.
In view of the success in the two pilot towns, EPODE is being extended to 50 towns and cities in France, as well as to Belgium, Spain, Greece and Poland, and an initiative has been submitted at an EU level for a pan-European rollout. As in the whole project to date, the pan-European initiative will not be financed from public funds, but from private organisations including the food industry, preventive health companies and health insurance companies . Nestlé has been in EPODE from the start and will continue to play its part in this exciting venture that is now bearing fruit for this and future generations in correcting one of the most dangerous epidemics for children the world has ever known – obesity.
Education at all ages on food and lifestyle plays a major role in preventing or controlling obesity and its complications. But it is critical for children to get the right information at the right time.
