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With more than 25 per cent of Aussie kids suffering obesity, two Melbourne mums have stepped up to the healthy food challenge in creating an innovative and entertaining program called The Frugies, designed to excite Aussie kids in eating more fruit and vegetables and laying a foundation for a lifetime of healthy eating choices.

 

With Australian Government statistics predicting that 65 per cent of young Australians will be overweight or obese by 2020, Melbourne sisters, Francine and Therese, have created an Australian first – a ground-breaking program in assisting parents to entice children to explore, learn and taste a variety of fruits and vegetables and helping disseminate healthy eating messages using, fun, colourful and charismatic ‘Frugie Friends’.

 

From T.J. The Bean, Beeta Beetroot, Treena Broccoli and Vroom Carrot, The Frugies consists of 31 loveable characters that are part of not only an interactive workshop for preschool and primary school children but also a dinner time game which children can use at meal times.

 

The ‘We’re Coming To Dinner’ is a simple interactive , yet effective A-frame resource which is placed at meal times for the children to see and explore. Parents ask their children which Frugies do we have coming to dinner tonight. The child then flips through the A-Frame to find the corresponding vegetable on the plate and read what that vegetable does for their bodies and meet their new Frugie Friend.

 

The Frugies are also part of a one-hour interactive ‘Rainbow Day’ workshop specifically designed for preschools and primary school children. The workshop consists of the children getting to know an assortment of fruits and vegetables through song, colour, infotainment and play, minus the preaching.

 

The workshop also helps to re-inforce the message that healthy food is not boring and that good nutrition is critical for every child’s short and long term health, including their physical and cognitive development.

 

Alarmingly, Australian Government statistics show that overweight children are very likely to become overweight adults, making The Frugies initiative a crucial resource for parents and schools to exercise.

 

Using the rainbow as a colourful comparison, the Frugies urge kids to eat 7 different coloured fruits and vegetables everyday.

 

The Rainbow workshops are specifically tailored to each grade so that the information presented is age relevant. All of the workshops have been developed by teachers and are based on the Australian Guide to Healthy Eating by the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing.

 

According to Frugies founders, Francine Sculli and Therese Caravetta, The Frugies is a fun and information-rich resource where the children as young as three years of age, can understand the health benefits of eating vegetables, be able to name the vegetables and ultimately, are more likely to try vegetables.

 

“With the help of The Frugies, we want to make dinner time for parents a much less demanding experience and avoid the daily vegetable battle with their children,” they said.

 

“As parents, we have first-hand experience the struggle for both parents and children to show any enthusiasm about vegetables.”

 

“In the A-Frame , the magical powers that each of the Frugies characters exudes are the vitamins and minerals that they contain. This powerful message to the children reinforces the importance of having their two fruit and five vegetable everyday.”

 

“Healthy eating habits learned during childhood usually continue throughout life and these healthy behaviours can help reduce the risk of diseases such as obesity, diabetes, iron deficiency anaemia and dental issues. That is the simple fact that we want to drive.”

 

“Our family has been in the fruit and vegetable business for more than five decades, so we eat, live and breathe fresh produce – the best form of experience that any initiative could bring to the dinner table.”