ALPA Nutrition: End of 2010, Beginning of 2011!
Over the last year as part of the Health and Nutrition Strategy, ALPA has focused on the following areas:
Policy:
ALPA has recently updated its Store Nutrition Policy which is available on the website. In remote communities, where ALPA is often the only store or takeaway available to the community, a nutrition policy can be a powerful and effective tool to help improve poor health.
Increasing availability of Nutritious Foods:
Fruit and vegetables are necessary food groups required for good health. To help improve consumption of these vital groups we have introduced a new Fruit and Vegetable Core Range for our Managers. This core range focuses on increasing range, along with ensuring the range carries out throughout the entire delivery cycle.
New infrastructure has also been put in place to help improve range and quality of fruit and vegetables. For example, the new fridge and freezer in Galiwinku, requiring an investment of just over $800,000 has vastly improved the store's capacity to store fruit and vegetables, along with other nutritious foods in the chiller and freezer departments.
Increasing affordability of Nutritious Foods
Unfortunately, as we've seen in mainstream society, fruit and vegetables prices have increased sharply these past few months due to a series of weather events such as flooding and Cyclone Yasi. We are endeavouring to keep the cost down and pass these savings onto our customers. It has now been just over a year since the new freight subsidies ALPA developed were implemented. Since the late 80's ALPA has independently subsidised 100% of the freight of fresh fruit and vegetables, making these essential food groups more affordable to our customers. Last year in addition we introduced new 100% freight subsidies in the form of frozen, tinned, and dried fruit and vegetables along with fresh milk, yoghurt and cheese to help make nutritious meals more affordable..
As part of our updated fruit and vegetable core range, we have also limited the amount of pre-packs ordered from suppliers to help reduce cost. Stores now package most pre-packs on site, allowing range at a cheaper price.
Community partnerships and education to support community health
ALPA, being an Indigenous owned benevolent corporation is strongly involved in community events and partnerships promoting health and nutrition education. Over the past year we have participated in several events such as:
- Festivals and Healthy Homes, Healthy Skins week.
Festivals and community events are a great time for community members to come together and enjoy themselves while focusing on positive health messages. During these events, ALPA often sets up stands focusing on healthy messages providing fruit or gapu (water) during the concerts and sport competitions. Support of these events may sometimes be through in-kind support, such as donating washing powder for every household as well as a washing machine for the winner at the Milingimbi Healthy Homes Healthy Skins week.
- 'In store' health messages
In the past year, ALPA with the help of others has compiled a store DVD which covers a variety of health messages previously developed for community health. These messages, such as reading growth charts, learning about scabies and learning about healthy eating etc. has been put together to play continuously in the ALPA member stores, reinforcing community health messages. Other health promotional DVDs are also played regularly covering important topics such as germ theory or diabetes in language.
'In store' promotions such as the 'Jimmy Little Thumbs Up Program' and 'No Germs on Me' have also been supported widely in the stores. The Thumbs Up, Good Tucker signage from Jimmy Little Foundation focuses on promoting key areas: fruit and vegetables along with water. The 'No Germs on Me' campaign on the other hand has been excellent at promoting the importance of good personal hygiene, as well as the importance of using soap.
Recently, the Yaka Ngarali (no smoking) community officer visited one of our stores and spoke to staff regarding the harmful effects of smoking and new legislation changes for stores. By helping our staff understand the consequences of smoking, and encouraging quitting, we can also help pass on these messages to our customers.
Current Projects continuing into the next quarter:
- In house Food Safety Posters being developed
- Food Safety Picture Booklet for Staff in Takeaways
- Joint Project with Menzies School of Health on store promotions. This project covers healthy 'in store' promotions such as signage and shelf talkers
- Good Food Systems Project in Galiwinku and Gunbalanya. This project is also with Menzies School of Health and looks at building capacity to improve food systems for better food security.
For more information on this update, or other matters regarding health and nutrition, please contact Clare Brown, our Nutritionist at nutrition@alpa.asn.au.