Dear parents,
We are excited to inform you all that FOOD DUDES Phase 2 is coming to Mary Mother of Hope Senior School next week.
Food Dudes is Ireland’s National Healthy Eating programme for primary school. It positively changes children’s attitudes towards eating fresh fruit and vegetables.
Food Dudes is based on positive role models (the Food Dudes characters), repeated tasting and rewards. In large scale studies the programme has been shown to be effective and results long lasting across the primary age range regardless of gender, school size, geographic and socio-economic factors.
Food Dudes Mary Mother of Hope Senior School 2022/23
You may recall last year that your child participated in a 8 day/16 day Food Dudes intervention programme under which they received daily deliveries of fruit and vegetables and were rewarded with stickers and small rewards for participation. At the end the intervention, your child/children were encouraged to bring in and eat fruit and vegetables from home as part of their daily diet.
Phase 2
We are delighted to inform you that your child/children will have the opportunity to participate in the next phase of the programme next week. Under this phase, our school will receive 5 days of fruit and vegetables – a “Food Dudes Week” – to help maintain the healthy eating ethos in the school. To support the Food Dudes week in classes, will be championing healthy eating for the duration of the week through specially supplied video episodes and curriculum-based activities
When will it begin?
We will begin this programme on Monday 15th April and continue with it for FIVE days finishing up on 20th April 2024
You may wish to adjust the amount of food in your child’s lunchbox next week, to accommodate these additional foods. The programme takes only a small amount of time in school but will result in health benefits for all who participate. Your child will automatically be included in this programme.
However, if for any reason you do not want your child to take part (e.g. if they are allergic to a certain type of fruit or vegetables), we would be grateful if you could inform your child’s class teacher.
For further information, please see the Food Dudes Website
We look forward to beginning this programme after the next week.