Although the majority of us probably are not from Australia, the “Get Up & Grow” brochure with food ideas for busy parents is helpful for any time-crunched parent. This guide for healthy eating was published by the Australian Government Department of Health. It provides on-the-go parents with tip for all meals to get their kids to eat healthy. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, even snack ideas are included in this handy guide to feed your kids. The brochure has tips for planning meals ahead of time! I think most parents would like this brochure because it gets right to the point by giving the ideas for meals.
You can access it here!
The appearance of the brochure is clean and simply laid out. The colors are mostly orange and white with pictures of kids eating unidentified foods. There are a couple areas where it gives tips on planning and food acceptance for the children too. Each section for every meal has a paragraph explaining the very general reason why the foods they are suggesting are good ideas for the kids, then they list about five to eight options for each meal. These options usually include some type of grain and lots of veggies. If I were to make a suggestion on the appearance though, I would say to either use fewer words or give fewer examples so it doesn’t look so busy.
The brochure is effective in that it gives helpful tips like “make twice as much as you need and freeze the extra portions for another meal” which is a great is for busy moms. The recipes seem easy to make as well. I also enjoy most of the meal ideas, especially the dinners! They have lots of vegetables in them which kids do not usually get enough of. However, I do wish that the lunch sandwich options included more whole grains. But they all seem like tasty meals that any kid would want to eat!
I like this brochure because I, personally, enjoy reading recipe ideas. But from a nutritional information standpoint, it is not very informative. And from a visual standpoint, it looked a little too busy to me at first. It is very effective in giving ideas, but not providing reasons why they are good or important.
The main improvement that I would make if I could improve the brochure would be the addition of the health needs for kids. I think it could greatly improve by having a section on the macronutrient ranges needed for growing children. Also, the vitamins and minerals that are necessary for a healthy child should be put in the same section. This could also show examples of what foods these nutrients are in so the parents understand why the company is telling them to feed their children these foods. If this would seem too overwhelming, they could put a link to a site that explained more of the science of the nutrition needs. Or they could use pictures of important foods with a small caption saying why it is helpful in growth and development, so the page would not be too cluttered.
-Megan Stanley mrs5871