Raising awareness among the most disadvantaged sectors of the population: La Ronde des Légumes (The Vegetable Round)

Context

The problem of obesity continues to gain ground, to such an extent that the World Health Organization has qualified it as an epidemic. And studies show that it is most widespread amongst the poorer sectors of the population: it concerns one person in five in families with a monthly income of less than 900 Euros, compared to one person in twenty amongst families whose monthly income adds up to more than 5301 Euros.
Therefore the Foundation has decided to focus on what low-income families are eating and to encourage them to increase their consumption of vegetables without penalising their budget.
 

Resources

The purpose of the “Ronde des Légumes” is to help those who want to move towards more healthy eating habits. From a practical perspective, it means that volunteer charity workers at the French ‘Secours Populaire’ charity are offered training by the Foundation’s nutritionists so that they can go on to organise fun and informative cooking workshops for the local communities.

Based on establishing contact and encouraging discussion between the voluntary organisers and the participants, this ‘introduction’ to vegetables is organised around four themes:  

• Learning about vegetables to dispel uncertainties about how to use them,
• Discovering their variety and diversity via new ways of integrating vegetables into the diet
• Learning quick and easy methods to prepare vegetables,
• The chance to put the theory into practice during a cooking workshop and to enjoy the results!

To encourage the participants to change their dietary habits, the learning supports are accompanied by clear and colourful reminder memos and recipe sheets that they can take home with them.
 

Results

The operation began in October 2007 in four pilot Secours Populaire associations. From November, it was rolled out to all the associations so that they can offer training to their volunteers.

In 2008, the value of the “Ronde des Légumes” operation was recognised by the PNNS logo, indicating that this action meets the requirements of France’s national plan.
In 2009, the French Ministry of Agriculture expressed its support for this initiative.