Hospitals and health services, schools, early childhood education and care services, and sport and recreation facilities provide vital services and can play a pivotal role in healthy food and drink promotion and provision. HEAS’s work is about helping these organisations to positively contribute to the health and wellbeing of all Victorians through the foods and drinks they provide.

Our goal is to empower organisations through expert, innovative and evidence-informed nutrition and healthy eating support. The prime outcome of which is to enable these settings to create healthy eating environments for the communities that access them.

Free and tailored support

We provide free and tailored support including:

• online menu, vending and catering assessment tool, FoodChecker
• training and resources to support the implementation of relevant guidelines
• free advice via an Infoline and email
• mentorship support for people leading implementation of the relevant guidelines to engage internal and external stakeholders, plan and implement changes
• one-to-one targeted support for organisations in the most disadvantaged areas

We also support the food industry to supply healthier foods and drinks, as well as health promoters seeking to implement long-term change in these settings.

Supporting the implementers

HEAS is committed to providing training and mentoring to professionals supporting and implementing change in organisations. These include long day care cooks and educators, canteen staff, school teachers, staff and parents, chefs and food procurement staff, health promotion officers, dietitians and other key staff.

We help the implementers to:

• secure whole of organisation commitment to change
• create healthy eating policies
• source and supply healthier foods and drinks
• embed healthy eating requirements in commercial arrangements
• engage with staff, customers and the wider community.

Delivering on government priorities

HEAS’s work directly contributes to the following strategic actions, as part of the increasing healthy eating focus area of the Victorian Public Health and Wellbeing Plan 2019-2023:

• accelerating the implementation of healthy food (and drink) supply policies in all key public settings (including health services, schools and early childhood services, sport and recreation settings, events and workplaces)
• implementing initiatives and approaches supporting healthier lifestyles and habits
• investing in collaborative place-based approaches to healthy eating and increasing access to healthy food in communities.

Learn more

Learn more about the Healthy Eating Advisory Service at heas.health.vic.gov.au.