Vegie chest is a self-contained vegetable
planting system which promotes healthy eating habits.
It is aimed at primary school children in
suburbs with lower socio economic status. “Socio-economic status is strongly
related to high risks for overweight and obesity in industrialised countries.”^
It is a holistic approach to stopping
unhealthy eating habits. Professional dietitians chefs and local gardeners are
employed to educate primary school children.
Primary school children have been targeted
because “of the powerful influence children’s early feeding/eating environments
have on their future health behaviors and eating patterns, early stage
prevention is warranted.”* The services of Vegie Chest help the children in the
short term by correcting current unhealthy eating habits. It also teaches the
children how to grow, prepare and cook healthy foods, which is a vital life
skill that many children in suburbs with lower socio economic status often
lack.
The services of Vegie Chest are hired for a
term at a time. During this time teams of dietitians chefs and local gardeners
regularly hold classes, teaching the children on healthy eating habits, food
preparation and growing fruit and vegetables. When the Vegie chests are
returned to the HQ they are serviced, they are fertilised and have their soils
mulched.
At the end of the term(s) a school fete is
held to cap all of the learning outcomes of the children. The community members
who have helped in the program are all awarded.
Vegie patch is innovative as it
incorporates an easy to read gypsum block moisture detector, which displays
emotions based on the moisture content of the soil. If the plants have been
watered correctly a face is shown on the lcd screen.
During weekends or other times when the
chests, cannot be watered by the students, a timed watering system can be used.
The chests are daisy chained and can be easily arranged in rows.
^Nicole Darmon, E. F., Andre Briend
(1/7/2003). "Do economic constraints encourge the selection of energy
dense diets?"
*Carolyn M, Meredith Beck-Joslyn
(26/5/2012). "An overview of the problematic eating and food-related
behavior among foster children"
I like that you are focusing the system around children and schools who will benefit greatly from something like this. The design itself suggests a standard tub that you can get from any hardware store. It would be good to see the design incorporate involvement more and therefore increasing the success of the design and the system. Maybe a tiered system with different groups would be more interactive for children.
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of teaching children at a primary school level, it would be good to start good habits in the kids at a young age that can carry though to adulthood. One of the things i was wondering about it who will fund this, is it the schools who employ the people?
ReplyDeletealso is there a way to make the pot itself slightly more fun for the kids?
other than that great posters and quite a good PSS proposal
I think is a great concept and it can make the city more green and beautiful , I like it , easy to use and convient.
ReplyDeleteI like how our design is based around educating young children on healthy eating. I think this issue is very important to target as healthy eating stems from the young and is adopted in their older years. I think with your design you could have explored it further in terms of making the relationship between the actions of planting the produce by children a more interactive system.
ReplyDeletePromising idea, and I think it's a nice idea to focus on the young ones and change their behaviour as soon as possible. The criticism I have is around the product itself - it looks too much like a generic pot, and if you want to target kids I think it's going to have to be a lot more playful than that.
ReplyDeletehealthy eating has always been an issue for not just young kids but people in general. if this habit is not developed at a young age it will become extremely hard for them to change when they get older. i think everyone house with kids needs one of these. it can also encourage them to spend less time on computer games and more time outdoors
ReplyDelete