Introduction: Launched in Western Australia (WA) in 2012, LiveLighter® (funded by WA Department of Health) is a long-running public health social marketing program which employs an integrated communications strategy across multiple campaigns to motivate people to adopt healthy eating habits. Population data shows that less than 1 in 10 WA adults consume the recommended 5+ serves of vegetables daily,¹ echoing national figures.² The ‘Start Small’ campaign ran from August-September 2025 on catch-up TV, YouTube, Meta, TikTok, Reddit, websites and audio and focussed on increasing legume consumption among WA adults.
Methods: Cross-sectional post-campaign non-probability online survey of 458 WA adults aged 25-64 with weighting to population benchmarks. Chi-square analysis tested differences between those aware (n=65) and unaware (n=393) of the campaign with sensitivity analysis confirming the findings using multivariable models, controlling for potential confounders.
Results: Awareness of ‘Start Small’ was almost 1 in 5 (19%), with highest awareness generated by the video ads (17%), most commonly on social media and YouTube. Those who were aware of the ‘Start Small’ campaign (compared to those unaware), were more likely to endorse the health benefits of, and intend to cook and eat less meat and more legumes (p<0.05) and to feel confidence and urgency to eat less meat and snack on healthy foods (p<0.05). They were also more likely to have included legumes with dinner and consumed healthy snacks over the past week and fortnight respectively (p<0.05).
Conclusions: There was evidence that the ‘Start Small’ campaign was effective in impacting respondents’ knowledge, beliefs, self-efficacy, intentions and behaviours in relation to eating and cooking with less meat and more legumes and eating healthy snacks. This LiveLighter® evaluation provides evidence that a primarily digital campaign communicating simple lifestyle changes can promote short-term healthier eating intentions and actions to improve population diets and address overweight.
¹Epidemiology Directorate, 2025. Health and Wellbeing of Adults in Western Australia 2023. Department of Health, Western Australia.
²Australian Bureau of Statistics. Dietary behaviour. Canberra: ABS; 2022. Available from: https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/health/food-and-nutrition/dietary-behaviour/latest-release.

Achieving a healthy, equitable, and sustainable food system in Victoria requires coherent, strategic, and coordinated action across diverse actors, sectors, and communities. Recent Victorian Government inquiries into food insecurity and food supply resilience have reaffirmed the need for integrated and preventative approaches to address these challenges.

Between 2022-2025, VicHealth invested $4.4 million in seven Future Healthy Food Hubs, supporting community-led organisations in regional Victoria and outer metropolitan growth corridors. These hubs strengthened local food systems by building on existing relationships, infrastructure, and services to create spaces where communities can access affordable, local, and culturally appropriate food. The initiative provided long-term funding and capacity-building support, fostering financial sustainability and embedding innovation at the local level. Each hub hosted two Youth Food Systems Traineeships, offering practical experience and education to build leadership skills and food system literacy.

By the conclusion of the investment, systems-level shifts were identified across the Food Hubs, including the adoption of systems thinking and movement beyond traditional service delivery models, strengthened community networks; for greater impact and reach, and shifts in local mental models. However, challenges remain in establishing viable business models and securing longer-term funding to ensure the ongoing sustainability. These insights highlight both the opportunities and the complexities of embedding prevention and sustainability within local food systems.

The learnings from the Food Hubs have directly shaped VicHealth’s new Local Partnerships for Food First (LPFF) investment, commencing in 2025. Over the next three years LPFF will adopt a systems-level approach that integrates cross-sector collaboration, backbone support, and engagement with decision-makers to align resources and scale preventative change. Together with the vision of the Victorian Public Health and Wellbeing Plan 2023-2027, under the ‘increasing healthy eating priority’ these efforts aim to drive a statewide transition toward a healthier, fairer, and more sustainable food system in Victoria.

Within a complex and commercially driven system, long day care (LDC) services are seeking opportunities to embed healthier food environments in everyday practices. More than 850,000 children attend LDC services where up to 70% of their daily food intake is provided. As LDCs face systemic barriers to prioritising healthier food environments, food provision is frequently overlooked and isolated interventions such as training or resources alone rarely lead to sustained change.

The Healthy Eating Advisory Service (HEAS), delivered by National Nutrition Foundation with support from the Victorian Government, started with a flexible and adaptive approach, allowing its implementation framework to evolve in response to the sector’s needs while also aligning with the National Quality Framework requirements. HEAS translated the Australian Dietary Guidelines into LDC-specific menu planning guidance, then developed a whole-of-organisation support model. This includes capacity building, tailored advice, and digital tools such as FoodChecker, alongside face-to-face and online training, communities of practice, webinars, and a network model to support cooks. HEAS works across interrelated systems including engaging with decision-makers, such as centre directors and policy partners, and workforce including educators, cooks, and health promoters, enabling tangible changes through practical techniques, tools, and ongoing support.

HEAS has supported over 1,400 Victorian LDCs, with 60% achieving menu alignment to guidelines. This signals a mindset shift towards valuing healthier food provision and achieving what is feasible within constraints. HEAS builds capability and relational infrastructure rather than delivering prescriptive programs. Its adaptive, evidence-informed approach has enabled practitioners, leaders, and policy partners to co-create solutions that work within their real-world constraints.

HEAS demonstrates how government-funded advisory models can catalyse systems change. By investing in infrastructure, workforce capability, and values-driven support, healthier food environments become embedded, not peripheral. HEAS’ adaptive, evidence-informed approach has influenced organisational practices, strengthened relationships, and shift towards prioritising nutrition.

Problem: Poor food environments are consistently linked to poor health outcomes. Internationally, food environment atlases have been used to guide local government decisions, enabling evidence-based planning and policy reform. However, Australia lacks such a system to monitor and improve these environments. To address this, our team developed the Australian Food Atlas—a scalable, interactive platform that maps and monitors food access using validated, nutrition-focused classifications and geospatial dashboards.
What we did: Following a successful pilot in Western Australia, in which we mapped over 15,000 food businesses across 32 metro Perth local government areas, the Atlas has now been expanded throughout Western Australia and Victoria, with the long-term vision of achieving full national coverage to generate the most comprehensive, policy-relevant picture of food access ever created in Australia. Dashboards showing maps and key metrics were co-designed with local governments to ensure they were user-friendly and would effectively support planning and policy decisions. The dashboards draw on official food business registration data, ensuring an accurate and comprehensive data set. A nutrition-focused classification framework was applied to generate meaningful indicators. AI technology was leveraged to allow timely processing of large amounts of data and also make annual updates feasible.
Results: The Australian Food Atlas provides a practical, scalable solution for translating evidence into action. It enables local governments to identify food access inequities, monitor changes over time, and implement targeted interventions aligned with state and national preventive health strategies. The Australian Food Atlas has already been used to strengthen public health planning and start conversations on urban planning policy.
Lessons: By equipping policymakers with robust, user-friendly tools, the Australian Food Atlas has strengthened pathways from research to policy and practice in two states. A nation-wide tool is required to support the delivery of equitable, impactful, and sustainable prevention strategies across systems throughout Australia.

Community concern and mounting evidence of health risks have led several countries to restrict the sale of energy drinks (EDs) to youth. In Australia, however, no age-specific restrictions currently exist and the feasibility, effectiveness and business outcomes of such policies remain untested. This study examined the feasibility, acceptability and economic impact of implementing an ED sales restriction for individuals under 18 years across all retail outlets within an entire regional Western Australian town, simulating a mandated approach.

A pre-post matched prospective controlled study design was used, combining qualitative interviews with retailers (n=19) conducted to assess feasiblity and acceptability and interrupted time series (ITS) analysis of weekly beverage sales revenue to evaluate impact on sales. Qualitative findings demonstrated strong retailer support for the restriction, underpinned by community concerns about youth wellbeing and strong support for the initiative. Implementation proceeded smoothly, with minimal resistance from young customers, strong staff and community endorsement and universal (voluntary) continuation of the initiative beyond the trial period.

Quantitative findings showed no significant negative economic impact. ED revenue declined less in the intervention town than in the control town (-3.7% vs -11.1%), while total beverage revenue showed only a modest decline (-6.6%), consistent with broader market trends. Substitution effects were evident, with increased sales of sports drinks in the intervention town.

This study demonstrates that ED sales restrictions can be feasibly implemented across a range of retail outlets, are strongly supported by retailers and the community and can be introduced without compromising business viability. These findings provide timely evidence to inform the development of age-specific ED sales regulations in Australia.

Problem:
There are few real-world, long-term nutrition programs in primary school settings for practitioners to learn from. This presentation describes the sustained delivery of Crunch&Sip® in Western Australia (WA) and critically reflects on key ingredients contributing to its successful sustainment.

What you did:
A case study approach was utilised and involved collating and triangulating multiple evidence sources (e.g. document analysis, evaluation reports etc.).

Results:
Crunch&Sip® aims to improve dietary habits of WA primary school students by incorporating a scheduled break for eating vegetables and fruit and drinking water in the classroom. A pilot project demonstrated ease of uptake, immediate impact, and potential for long-term sustainability. Crunch&Sip® was launched statewide in 2005 with delivery managed by Cancer Council WA. Since 2015, Healthway has funded Crunch&Sip®. There are 563 schools currently certified as implementing the program, representing 58% of eligible schools.

Initial evaluation surveys described program delivery from an equity lens, which informed adaptations to prompt equity considerations within school certification processes. Qualitative evaluation identified barriers and facilitators to adoption, which informed fidelity-consistent adaptations and flexible delivery in classrooms. Furthermore, the importance of leadership support, teacher support and entrenchment within school culture for successful sustainment was highlighted, leading to adaptations within the school certification process to seek collective support and ownership. In 2018, the program evolved with the addition of parent nutrition education sessions to support healthy lunchbox preparation. Recent classroom observation and audits identified Crunch&Sip® facilitates an increase of 0.25 serves of vegetables daily.

Lessons:
A number of key ingredients contributing to successful Crunch&Sip® sustainment were identified and found to align with the Integrated Sustainability Framework. In summary, 20 years of Crunch&Sip® demonstrates sustainment is not static but dynamic - achieved through continual adaptation, diversification of engagement strategies, and reinforcement of core goals across multiple levels of the school community.

Problem
Food insecurity and low nutrition literacy hinder health equity in Western Australia, especially for vulnerable groups. Although nutrition education and cooking skills can improve diets, scaling these programs and securing funding for ongoing program delivery remains difficult.

What We Did
After government funding ended in 2022, Foodbank WA developed a new fee-for-service and partnership model to support the ongoing sustainability of its programs.
This strategic shift was provided an opportunity to-reinvent our food literacy programs under a new brand ‘nom!’, which was informed by evidence from peer-reviewed research and previous program evaluations. Drawing on these findings, effective strategies were integrated into the nom! suite of programs, which offer hands-on cooking experiences, culturally relevant nutrition education, and comprehensive nutrition resources designed to engage diverse communities. In collaboration with schools, community organisations, and health agencies, these initiatives have been successfully delivered across both metropolitan and regional Western Australia, resulting in 563 nutrition sessions and a total of 6,546 attendances recorded for nom! programs in 2024.

Results
Learnings from earlier program evaluations, which showed improvements in food literacy and dietary intakes among program participants, informed the development of nom! This flexible program has been adapted and tailored for various audiences and settings. The fee-for-service model now accounts for about a third of program delivery, supporting the ongoing sustainability of nutrition education programs across WA.

Lessons Learned
This case illustrates that scaling evidence-based interventions can be supported by collaborative networks, flexible implementation approaches, and the establishment of new partnerships.
Key factors were the development of cross-sector partnerships, integration of programs into established community groups, and iterative design guided by continuous feedback. Cultural adaptation was addressed through co-design with local stakeholders.
Establishing collaborative partnerships with local government, corporate entities and community organisations has been central in ensuring the long-term sustainability of nutrition education programs.