Raising awareness amongst children: 5ive

Context

An individual’s energy balance is the result of a balance between their energy intake and expenditure.

Therefore, part of the energy consumed during a meal must be expended by physical exercise or sport. The two must go together, which is why the Foundation has decided to associate physical activity, sport and healthy eating in the 5ive project. 
 

Resources

The 5ive project is aimed at children aged 6 to 12. It grew out of the observation that the slogan reminding us to "eat 5 portions of fruit and vegetables per day" is well known by children but is not put into practice on a daily basis. So the idea took shape to create 5 characters to take a fun approach to teaching youngsters how to eat more vegetables and be more active during the day.

The programme comprises 2 distinct phases: the first concerns nutritional education and the second focuses on physical exercise and sport.
The means used to get the message across to as many children as possible is television. A partnership with Nickelodeon, an Italian children’s TV channel, has been established. Several fun adverts featuring the 5 heroes of 5ive invite children to eat more vegetables. These same characters can be found on the Foundation’s website which offers more information.

Concerning physical exercise, the Foundation has become a partner of the FIP (Italian Basketball Federation) with which it has set up the ‘Minibasket’ campaign. It involves distributing a kit, containing basketballs, hoops and lots of other equipment to encourage youngsters to take physical exercise in the school playground, to 2500 Italian schools. To increase the popularity of this sport, short ads are also broadcast on TV. During the summer of 2008, a summer camp called “Walk in Basket” was organised thanks to the joint efforts of the FIP and the Foundation. Furthermore, an educational agenda including advice on a balanced diet was distributed as part of the Minibasket campaign.
 

Play Day: the star event

The year 2008 reached its peak with Play Day 2008, organised by the Foundation in partnership with the FIP.
 

 On the 18th of May 2008, the TV channel Nickelodeon interrupted its broadcasting schedule and invited children accompanied by their parents to go and play outside in the open air.

Two major events were organised in Milan and Rome. Children could come together and take part in 5 games on themes that they particularly like: sport, music, stars, play and superheroes. On the same day, the 100 regional finals of the mini basket tournament were organized by the FIP.

Results