| The latest news, views and reviews for Australia's child care industry.
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October 22, 2013 |
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| Healthy fundraising |
| Why chocolates are so last year |
 Most early childhood education and care providers conduct regular fundraising activities to plug the financial gap between what is earned through fees and what they spend.
Traditional fundraising promotions involve asking children to sell copious boxes of chocolate and lollies to their friends and families. Although these activities are undeniably popular with children they may send conflicting messages about what your service actually stands for and your internal policies and procedures relating to nutrition and eating habits.
Thankfully there are plenty of healthy options available to early childhood education and care providers wanting to do things are little differently.
Why is healthy fundraising the way forward?
- It sends consistent messages about what your service stands for and reflects the health policies, practices and philosophy of your service.
- It enables your service to send the message that it values the health of the community and acknowledges your service's role as a positive role model for children and families and the wider community.
- It does not put pressure on people to spend money on buying products they don't philosophically agree with.
- It supports a whole of community commitment to well-being and learning about healthy lifestyles and making healthy decisions.
- It ensures health and well-being are not compromised for profit.
- May contribute to the maintenance of healthy weight.
- Demonstrates the reward in raising money and promoting healthy living at the same time
- Can promote local businesses selling healthier options
- Does not advertise or endorse unhealthy products.
Healthy fundraisers incorporate choices that:
- Promote healthy eating guidelines
- Use fresh, seasonal, high quality products
- Link to curriculum learning
- Encourage participants to be physically active
- Require minimal time, financial outlay, organisation and equipment
- Ensure good financial return
- Encourage fun, friendship and community involvement
- Involve staff and parents at all stages (planning, organisation, implementation and evaluation)
- Link to other community organisations
- Meet legal, ethical and liability requirements
- Ensure that safety (including food safety) is a key consideration
There are a loads of healthy ways to raise funds for your service and they can be divided into four main categories:
- Healthy food fundraisers
- Physical activity fundraisers
- Healthy living fundraisers
- Generic fundraisers
Healthy Food Fundraisers
Healthy food fundraisers require you to ditch the sausage sizzle and look at innovative new ways to encourage people to open their wallet in exchange for food. You could consider options such as a:
- Healthy BBQ or Sizzle: Use lean meat, veggie patties, kebabs, chargrilled vegetables like eggplant, zucchini, corn, sweet potato or mushrooms. Serve with wholemeal bread.
- Fruit Smoothie Day or Veggie Soup Day.
- Healthy Pizza Day: Make healthy pizzas on pita bread or halved English muffins and use various vegetables, pineapple and lean meat. Let children add their own toppings. Sell them by the slice rather than whole.
- BBQ Corn on the Cob Day: Choose monounsaturated or polyunsaturated margarines and spread sparingly onto corncobs.
- Pancake Breakfast or Pikelets Day: Use part wholemeal flour or include rolled oats in the batter. Use a non-stick pan to cook them. Serve topped with fruit. Or try savoury pancakes or pikelets for a different flavour.
- Baked Spuds Day: These are a tasty, nutritious and low cost snack. Spuds can be topped with a variety of fillings like baked beans, ham, pineapple, corn and tuna.
- Frozen Summer Treats: Blend fruits with yoghurt or milk and serve as frozen popsicles or serve frozen fruit on skewers (use straws instead of skewers for young children).
- Hot Cross Bun Drive or Healthy Mini Muffin Drive: These are healthier options than chocolate fundraisers when bran, wholemeal flour or fruits are used and serve sizes are small.
- Children's birthdays: Bake your own cake/muffins using less sugar and margarine for children's birthdays and charge parents a small amount of money to cover costs of the ingredients. This way you are in control of what ingredients are used and can modify recipes to make them healthier
Activity fundraisers
- Hula-hoop competition
- One hole or mini golf
- Mini obstacle course
- Back yard cricket
- Family walk-a-thons
- Dance-a-thons
- Active Discount Vouchers: Contact local businesses and clubs to see if they would be happy to donate discount vouchers to the gym or recreation centre that can be used for raffles or quiz prizes
Healthy living fundraisers
- Healthy recipe books: Compile your own healthy recipe book of the more popular dishes at your centre.
- Vegetable seedlings: Organise cheap/donated seedlings from a local nursery to sell to families or community members. Another option is to grow your own vegetable seedlings from seeds and sell them to families and community members.
- Healthy cooking lessons for parents: Use your centre's popular dishes and charge a small amount of money to cover food costs and raise funds per lesson.
- Healthy Food Theme Day: Promote a health event happening in the community by providing a healthy food event linking with the theme e.g. Healthy Bones Week – link with a Fruit Smoothie Day to encourage higher calcium intake.
- Decorate water bottles, plates or jars: Children can buy them to decorate and fill them with water or healthy snacks.
- Quiz nights: Feature questions about healthy eating, physical activity and health. Give prizes promoting healthy eating or physical activity.
Generic fundraisers
- Face painting or Henna tattoos
- Personalised Christmas cards, calendars, T-shirts: Using photos of children at centre or events. Or families can use their own photos.
- Children's decorative name labels: This can be used on wristbands, hats, beanies, socks, cups or plates.
- Discount voucher books: Similar to the Entertainment Book.
- Second hand books: Organise cheap or donated children's books from bookshops and staff to sell to families or community members.
- Raffles: Include prizes like homemaker items, vouchers or fruit hampers.
- Sun protection kit: Include sunscreen, hat, moisturiser or lip balm.
- First aid kits
Remember
Planning fundraising activities according to the season will help you keep costs down and maximise profits. If you sell food or items the children were involved in creating the parents will be more inclined to buy, so try and ensure the children are involved at every stage of the production process. If you opt for physical fundraising ensure the activity you choose is quick, fun, easy to learn, doesn't require much equipment and is low risk. Limit fundraisers to one per term, this will minimise parent fatigue and ensure you deliver a well-organised activity.
References
Fundraising ideas for child care centres by SA Department of Health.
Healthy Fundraising: Ideas to Promote Health While Still Making a Profit by Cancer Council NSW
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